Social media feeds stuffed with pictures of health fashions contorted into poses that require excessive energy, flexibility, and stability could make you assume, “Yoga isn't for me.”

Nadine Kelly, MD, founding father of Yogi MD, needs to alter your thoughts.

“We have a tendency to think about yoga as an athletic endeavor that have to be executed on a mat,” says Kelly. “Yoga follow is about rather more than simply the bodily [poses]; the follow consists of expertise akin to respiration, regulating your feelings, and practising self-care.

Chair yoga, a delicate type of yoga executed whereas seated or utilizing a chair for stability, makes the follow extra accessible. In chair yoga it’s potential to do poses akin to cat/cow, warrior, solar salutation and ahead folds, all whereas sitting.

Kelly believes that Arthur Ashe's quote, “Begin the place you might be, use what you may have, do what you possibly can,” is ideal for chair yoga.

“You're there to work and problem your self, however it's about… realizing what's good for you,” she says. “I view yoga postures as adaptable to the coed's physique, not the opposite manner round.”

Whether or not yoga is finished in a chair or on the mat, the follow nonetheless focuses on the identical core rules: focusing in your respiration, listening to your ideas, and staying within the second.

Analysis exhibits that yoga is linked to lowered ranges of stress, nervousness and melancholy, lowered ldl cholesterol and blood strain, improved power, higher sleep high quality, much less ache and a decrease physique mass index. Matt Minard PT, DPT, bodily therapist at Atrium Well being in Charlotte, NC, believes these advantages prolong to chair yoga.

Chair yoga can also be a very good, secure exercise for inexperienced persons.

“It's a good way to coach your core, discover the joints' vary of movement, and prioritize actions,” says Minard. “In the event you sit down or use a chair to maintain your stability, the protection issue goes up lots.”

Though chair yoga is usually promoted as an train for individuals who have issue with mat workout routines, anybody can profit from any such light train.

Kelly says chair yoga is especially appropriate for individuals who use wheelchairs and for folks recovering from surgical procedure, residing with persistent diseases or combating stability points that make it troublesome to take a seat on a yoga mat. Additionally very best for a fast exercise in the course of the workday or on the go.

You could find chair yoga courses at group facilities, health services, and yoga studios. There are additionally many choices on-line. On this video, Kelly gives detailed directions for a brief chair yoga follow appropriate for all ranges.

To follow at residence, use a sturdy chair (an workplace chair on wheels or an overstuffed armchair are usually not appropriate for chair yoga). Minard suggests a chair that naturally locations your hips barely larger than your knees and permits you to place each toes flat on the ground.

“In case your toes aren't flat on the bottom, your weight is all in your backbone, and if the chair is just too low and your knees are above your hips, there's extra impression in your hips,” says Minard. “You need to have the ability to make gradual, managed actions with out placing additional strain in your again or hips.”

Make sure that the chair is on a steady floor, akin to a carpet or yoga mat, to stop it from slipping. It’s also possible to place the again of the chair towards a wall for additional stability, Minard provides.

Yoga props akin to blocks, straps and resistance bands widespread to mat workout routines are usually not required for chair yoga – except you need an additional problem.

“Chair yoga is an effective place to begin to make use of muscle groups you haven't used shortly, with out the potential dangers of overload [your muscles and joints] or fall,” says Minard. “If body weight resistance isn't sufficient of a problem, you possibly can add mild hand weights, ankle weights, or resistance bands to your chair yoga.”