Chair Yoga Sequence for Seniors

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. I am the Yoga & You Teaching Faculty, and today we are going to be looking at a simple chair yoga sequence that can be practiced by anyone, and especially for senior citizens. I really hope this is helpful, let's get into the practice.

So the first step is you are going to find a stable and comfortable chair, preferably without arm rests, so that it gives you room for you to move, okay. Place it on your mat so that it gives it a little bit more stability, it doesn't slide, it doesn't move. Sitting down on the chair, make sure your feet are firmly planted on the floor or on the mat and your feet are parallel to each other. You are not leaning back into the backrest yet, so you are going to sit nice and tall, place your palms on the knees, roll your shoulders back and take a moment here to observe the length in your spine. Start to connect with your breathing, watching your natural breath.

On your following inhalation, lift your arms up from the sides, interlock the fingers and give yourself a big, nice stretch. Take a few breaths here, three, two, one, as you exhale, slowly bring your arms back down.

You are going to go into a lateral bend, so you are going to open out your feet slightly. From here, take your right forearm, place it on the right thigh, inhale, lift your left arm up and start bending to the right. We will do this dynamically, inhale, bring your arms to shoulder level, exhale and switch to the other side. If dynamic is too much for you, you can just stay on both sides. Inhale, arms up, exhale to the right, inhale, arms up, exhale to the left, inhale, arms up, exhale to the right and let's stay here for three, bring awareness to the left side of the body, lengthen, two and one, inhale, arms up, exhale, go to the other side. This forearm is just here for support, you are not going to collapse into your shoulder. Make sure there is space around the neck, reach over, use the length through the right side of the body, three, two and one, inhale and slowly come back to center, exhale, bring your palms down and bring your knees back, feet are hip width apart again.

Now we are going to go into a spinal twist, and for this you are going to use the support of the backrest of the chair. So as you inhale, lift arms up to shoulder level, as you exhale, take your left arm outside of the right knee. That's supporting you, don't let the knee collapse, you are keeping the feet very strong, take the right arm to the backrest, you can hold onto it and use this as an anchor to twist and look over the right shoulder. Inhale, lift your arms up, same thing to the other side, exhale to the left. Inhale, arms up, exhale, twist to the right, inhale, lift your arms up, exhale and twist to the left, inhale, arms up, last one, exhale, twist to the right, stay there and breathe, one, two, three, inhale, lift your arms up, exhale and twist to the left, stay there and breathe, one, two, three, inhale, lift your arms up, exhale and relax.

We are going to move into a seated cat-camel. So your palms are going to rest on the knees, there is still space between the back and the backrest. As you inhale, start to bend your elbows and push your chest forward, lifting your chin up, look up at the ceiling, you are arching your back here. As you exhale, your elbows start to straighten, pushing the sternum in, belly in, and rounding the back, chin towards the collarbone. Inhale and lift your chest up, arch back, exhale, draw the belly in, round your back. Inhale, lift the chest up, arch back, exhale and round your back. Two more, inhale, lift the chest up, arch back, exhale and round your back, last time. Inhale, lift the chest up, arch back, exhale and round your back.

Now you are going to come into a neutral position and we are going to practice one round of a chair Surya Namaskara here. So a lot of the postures that you practice in your Surya Namaskara, we have modified it to suit a chair practice, let's give it a go. So palms are on the knees. As you inhale, lift your arms up from the sides, palms are facing each other, you can take a slight backbend here. Now as you exhale, lengthen forward, carefully get your fingertips down on the floor or by the sides of the feet. Now inhale, you are going to lift your right knee, hug the knee into the chest. If you are comfortable, get the forehead down to the knee, release the leg, exhale, left knee comes in, inhale, relax. Take an exhalation here, inhale and arch your back, exhale and round the back, come to a neutral position, inhale, lift your arms up, exhale and bend forward, go down. Let's repeat to the other side, inhale, exhale and hug the left knee, inhale, relax. Exhale, hug the right knee, inhale and relax. Take one exhalation here, center yourself, inhale and arch back, exhale and round your back, following inhale, take your arms up, arch back, exhale and come back to neutral.

We'll try one more round of the same, inhale, lift your arms up, arch back, exhale and you're going to go all the way down. This is your forward fold here, allow your neck to be free, hang loose. As you inhale, come up, exhale and hug the right knee into the chest, forehead down, inhale, let it go, exhale, left knee in, inhale, let it go, take an exhale here, inhale, arch back, exhale and round your back, inhale, arms up, arch back, exhale, continue forward to the other side, inhale and come up, exhale, hug the left knee, inhale, down, exhale, hug the right knee, inhale and down, take an exhale here, inhale, arch back, exhale and round your back, following inhale, lift your arms up, arch back, exhale, palms back to heart center. Fantastic, close your eyes and let's take a few seconds here, slow down, very gently you're going to open your eyes.

Now from here you're going to extend your right leg forward, right heel is going to be on the floor in front of you, toes are pointing towards your face, as you inhale, lift both your arms up, as you exhale, lengthen forward, go down, see if you can hold down to the toes. If this is too challenging for you, you can also keep a slight height, like a block or chair, so it's easy for you to place the leg and reach forward, keep lengthening forward, breathe for one, two, three, four, five, inhale, lengthen and come up, exhale and slowly bring your hands down. The same leg you're going to open out to the side now, you have two options here, either keep the heel on the mat or you can place the entire toe down, lift your arms up to shoulder level, inhale, as you exhale reach to the right side, place your right palm on the leg, left arm goes all the way up, one, two, left leg is very firm and hips are firm on the chair, three, four, and five, inhale and slowly come back to center, using the same leg, bring it back in, right ankle on the left thigh, you're nicely opening out the outer hip now, inhale, lift up, exhale, option one, you stay here just halfway, if very comfortable, lengthen forward, go all the way down, reaching slightly away from the leg, breathe, one, two, three, four, five, inhale and slowly come up, exhale and bring your palms down.

Let's switch to the other side, right foot down, left heel forward, inhale, arms up, exhale, reach forward and bring your awareness to the back of this leg, you're opening up through your hamstring and calf, stay here for five deep breaths, inhale and come up, exhale, bring your palms down. Now we go for the lateral bend, opening out your foot to the side, right foot is very firm on the mat, you're opening through the inner hip and the hamstring now, lift your arms up to shoulder level, inhale, exhale and reach to the left side, go down, stay there and breathe, one, two, three, four, five, inhale, coming up, bring the palms to the waist as you exhale, bring your left ankle on the right thigh, you don't have to force yourself to go down, you can just even lean forward and stay here, here itself there is a lot of opening in the outer hip, if very comfortable you can reach forward, five, four, keep lengthening forward, three, two and one, inhale and slowly come up, exhale and bring your hands down, bring the left foot down.

To counter all these forward folds, we're just going to hold the back of the chair, roll the shoulders back and you're going to just move your chest forward, bringing your shoulder blades together, engaging the upper back, now you have a lot of space in your chest, think about really deepening your breath, three, two and one, release, interlock the fingers in front of you and as you exhale draw the belly in and round your back, one, two, three, four and five, inhale and come back to a neutral position.

With your eyes closed, take a moment here to become aware of all the different sensations in the body, how you feel now compared to how you felt when you started your practice, slowly allow your body and mind to completely relax. This was a simple chair yoga sequence, a chair is a great prop to use for you to support your practice and also deepen your practice, there is a lot more that you can do, experiment and explore using a chair, but I really hope you enjoyed this video, thank you.