Whenever I tell someone that I teach Chair Yoga, besides the regular Mat Yoga, the common reaction is: " Is there such a thing as chair yoga? " I have to admit that this was also my reaction during my early days of learning yoga, way before I become a yoga teacher. However, after I began teaching chair yoga, its benefits became more and more apparent to me.
Chair Yoga is a modified form of Yoga that is adapted to the needs of different practisioner. There are 3 types of Chair Yoga.
For Seniors
Chair Yoga is designed to help seniors who have limited mobility to stretch gently. Poses will be modified to suit their range of stretch. More resting time is given in between different poses. The breathing exercises delivered are also cater to their lung capacity. In short, everything goes slower in Senior Chair Yoga.
For Office Workers
For office workers, Chair Yoga is very much practised like normal yoga except the poses are modified to be seated on a chair. A common question is: "Why don't we just practise mat yoga as the stretch will be fuller in mat yoga? Why bother with chair yoga?" Yes, you are right. The range of stretch is indeed a lot more in mat yoga. If you have more time to spare, please practise mat yoga. Chair yoga serves the function of making stretches more readily available for busy officer workers. All the stretches or poses taught in a chair yoga class can be used during office hours whenever you need a 5-10 minutes break or stretch from sitting for long hours. The stretches are very useful to loosen stiff muscles and joints. We will practise both sitting and standing poses in Office Chair Yoga with the support of a chair
I have posted some of the office chair yoga classes guide online for my students to refer so that they can practise in the office or at home in their own free time.
For The Injured
Chair yoga is very suitable for those who are recovering from knees or back injuries as they will find going down and getting up from the floor a huge obstacle. It will be the last thing anyone wants to injured themselves again in any exercise while healing. Regular movements are crucial for anyone who is injured as we want the body to remain supple and blood well circulated in the body . Chair Yoga provide a safe way to heal the body with patience. Poses can be design to target at areas to gain more strength, at the same time prevent over stretching the back or putting extra weight on the knees.
General Benefits
In general, Chair Yoga is an excellent tool to help us gain awareness on the using of core muscles that is the foundation of good balance in standing and walking. Core awareness is especially beneficial for seniors and the injured as these 2 groups tends to hurt themselves without proper balancing technique. Chair Yoga also help to gently open up stiff joints and strengthen muscles just like the mat yoga. Sometimes, the chair act as a prop to assist us in lengthening our muscles even further.
Sivananda Yoga
I'm a Sivananda Yoga teacher, therefore all my chair yoga classes are conducted with the same Sivananda Yoga system. We will always practise Pranayama (breathing exercise) at the beginning of the class, followed by Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation (yes, the series of movements can be modified for chair too) then we practise various poses or stretches starting from head and neck, slowly moving down towards the spine and torso, finally hips and legs. The class will end with final relaxation.
I will also offer to deliver the 5 points of yoga theory to the students. The idea to learn to see wellbeing as an integrated system. We also need to place awareness in other parts of our lives to gain a more optimal health.
Below is a video montage of chair yoga classes I have conducted.
Feel free to contact yogamekhala@gmail.com for more details.
NOTICE
I will be conducting 2 free trial Chair Yoga Class at Brahm Centre @ Macpherson on Oct 4 2018 and Oct 18 2018. You can sign up at eventbrite.
https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/macpherson-chair-yoga-free-trial-oct-4-thu-tickets-49640357646
https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/macpherson-chair-yoga-free-trial-oct-18-thu-tickets-50050098191