Chair Yoga

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. This is Ishwarya, bringing you yoga practices all the way from its roots in India. Today we are going to do some gentle movements being seated on a chair. You can either do this at home or at your office, anywhere that feels good. We will gently start with some grounding. Come comfortably seated on your chair. I would prefer that you use a chair without handles, but if that is not the case it's completely okay. You can do some more variations which I'll be guiding you through. So come to the center of the seat. Try not to lean too much on the back or come to the edge, just at the center. I want you to lift the shoulders up, roll the shoulders back, relax them down. Keep your eyes closed, palms on top of your thighs. Take a deep inhale and again raise the shoulders up. Exhale, roll the shoulders back and relax. You can even exhale through the mouth. Inhale, roll the shoulders up. Exhale through the mouth. Relax the shoulders down. One more time, inhale. Exhale, roll the shoulders back and relax them down.

Take a few moments to connect with your breath here. As you inhale, feel your body expanding; as you exhale, your body relaxing. Inhale, the body and the belly expands. Exhale, the body relaxes. Inhale, the body expands. Exhale, relax the shoulders, the hips, the thighs, and relax the entire body. Very gently, open your eyes.

We'll start with a little leg movement. So you're going to lift the heels up, toes on the floor, and gently bring them down. Very comfortably. Now lift the toes up as much as possible and slowly relax it down. Lift the heels up. Bring it down. Let your knees not flare out like this. Keep the knees together. Toes up and down. Heels up, down, toes up and down. Heels up, down, toes up and down.

Now you're going to lift the right leg. Maybe hug your right knee into your chest. If you need to you can place the feet on the chair but hug it into your chest. Feel that stretch there. Take long deep breaths and relax the right leg. Let's do the same thing on the left side. Hug the left knee into your chest. If you need to you can place the heel on the chair. Hug the knees in. Take long deep breaths and relax.

Next, I want you to take the right ankle, place it on the left knee and try to bring this knee down back. You're in a figure four. Here, maybe you're comfortable being seated like this. I'm giving some gentle pressure from my right forearm on the right thigh. Remember, you should not feel any pain on the joint, on the knee or the hip joint. Instead, you should feel a stretch in your thighs and your outer right hips. Stay here. If you require a little more challenge, maybe you're folding more forward, more forward, more forward, and just look over your legs. That's it. Just look over your legs and stay. Try to relax here completely. The more you relax, the more stretch you're going to feel in the outer right hip, and release all the tension in the low back. Inhale and slowly come back up. Release the right leg down.

Let's begin on the left side. I think the left ankle, place it on the right knee. Gently bring the forearms down and stay here for a few counts. I'm giving a gentle push with my left forearm on this thigh to push it down and feeling the stretch on the outer left hip. Long deep breaths, stay connected with your breath. Now if you're very comfortable, fold over your leg, drop and relax completely. You're going to feel a deep stretch in the outer left hip. Long deep inhale and long, heavy exhale. With each exhale, feel yourself going a little deeper into the pose. Inhale and gently come up.

We'll go for a simple twist. I want you to come and sit at the edge of the seat. Hands a little forward. Left hand on the outer edge of your right thigh, right hand behind on the chair, and twist towards the right side. Use your shoulders to turn the body. One, keep your spine nice and uplifted, not rounded. Use your hand to lift your spine up, exhale and twist a little deeper. Feel tension releasing from the back. Long deep breaths, and gently come back to center. Other side: take the left hand behind, right hand outside the left thigh, and twist. Stay here, with each inhale lifting the spine up, and with each exhale, going a little deeper in the twist. Inhale and come back to center, exhale and release.

Now, going to do warrior one, supported on the chair. This is great if you have had any recent knee surgery and you want to do some kind of powerful standing asanas. So, I want you to come to the edge of the seat and gently come to the right edge. So, I'm going to take my left leg out and keep the left thigh supported on the seat. From here, take the right leg, slide it out gently, little more, little more, until you're able to come to a position like this. I'm sliding myself a little more to the right, so I can adjust myself. My left thigh is supported by the chair, right leg is entirely out. So, from here, if you're very comfortable and you don't feel much challenge, you can come and stretch your hands out. Stay here for a few counts. Look at your left middle fingers. Keep breathing. Keep the spine nice and uplifted. Shoulders relaxed, palms at shoulder level.

Now, we're going to tilt. I want to tilt to the right side, bringing the right hand towards the right knee, left hand towards the ceiling. Simple twist. Look up at your left hand if you're comfortable. Gently come back to center. Now, take the left forearm, place it on the left thigh. Make sure to not put pressure on the knee, on the left thigh, and take the right hand up. You can see that I'm on a straight line all the way from my toes to my fingers, taking my right hand and reaching for the ceiling with my right fingertips. Just stay here. No pressure on the left knee. Do not put too much weight, just enough to support you.

Slowly bring the hands in the front and relax. Come back, wiggle your right leg back to the center and stay. We'll do the same thing on the other side. Take the right leg to the side, wiggle yourself to the left edge of the seat and slowly start to take the left leg out. Out, out, all the way until you can come to the edge and be supported on the right thigh. From here, first, we'll slowly take the hands out to the side. Turn and look at your right middle fingers. Long deep breaths, shoulders relaxed.

Now, let's stay towards the left side. I'm bringing the left hand towards the left knee, right hand towards the ceiling. Stay here. Try not to put too much pressure, just a gentle support. Slowly bring the hands back, right hand, right forearm on the right thigh, left hand towards the ceiling. Keep your kneecap tight if you're comfortable and reach for the ceiling with your left fingertips. Keep breathing, keep breathing, and gently come back to the center. Wiggle your left leg back and release back to the center of the chair.

Let's hug our knees in again just to help with all the stretching that we did with the hips. Hug the right knee in. You can keep the heel on the seat this time. Want to hug it in like this. Take the head, place it on the knee. Relax completely. Imagine you're rolling yourself into a ball. Long deep breaths. Gently release the right leg. Left side, place the left heel on the chair, hug it in, and place the forehead on the knee or the chin on the knee, and relax the legs completely. Curl into a ball. Rounding the spine, creating more space. Closing your eyes.

Gently release. Again, become aware of your body. Place your palms in an open position, eyes closed. Become aware of your breath now, how it was in the start of the session and how it is now. Feel a deep sense of gratitude towards your body. Bring your palms together, rub them, let them become nice and warm. Place them over your eyes. Massage your face and maybe your neck and shoulders. Blinking into your palms with a big smile, slowly open your eyes. Thank you all for joining me for this beautiful, slow, gentle session. I'll see you again on the next one.