Chair Yoga Sequence for Beginners
Yoga doesn’t have to be complicated. You can spare some five minutes of your time, get a chair, and start doing chair yoga. Not familiar with it? In this article, I will discuss what chair yoga is all about and show you how easy it can be.
I will also be explaining the important benefits of chair yoga and give a full chair yoga sequence for beginners.
Table of Contents
What Is Chair Yoga?
Chair is a gentle form of yoga that you can do sitting on a chair or using the chair as your main support. Essentially, you’re sitting down but still doing chair yoga stretches, and executing poses with the help of a chair. This means you can easily squeeze them into your day: from a quick chair yoga break at work or even a discrete stretch in Zoom call, the possibilities are endless!
It is one of the best ways to move your body without really getting up. Because of the simplicity of this form of yoga, you can easily make a chair yoga routine part of your workouts. I personally love practicing it when I need a quick break in my day.
Chair Yoga Benefits
Whatever form of yoga you’re practicing, you can expect plenty of health benefits. And when it comes to health benefits, chair yoga is no different.
Improvements in flexibility, relief of stiffness and cramps, and overall better mental health state are just some benefits of chair yoga. And you get to experience that in the comfort of a chair in your home.
Because it is so easy to do (we are spending most of our time sitting anyways!), chair yoga is great for you if:
You need to de-stress during your day
You want to improve your posture
You are working with a physical limitation or injury (it is hands-free and wrist-free!)
You don’t want to sweat but still move your body
Teaching Chair Yoga
If you’re a yoga teacher looking into offering classes, chair yoga can be one of the best routines to teach to beginners.
Teaching chair yoga adds variety to your classes and reaches more people as you only need a chair. Also, you can practice it in your regular clothes. I personally offer regular corporate chair yoga classes.
You don’t even have to go through specific chair yoga teacher training to teach this kind of yoga, but you can get a chair yoga certification through your 300-hour training as I did.
A Complete Chair Yoga Sequence For Beginners
This easy sequence works for beginners since chair yoga is basically a complete practice but with chair support. This chair yoga sequence includes a warm-up, which is ideal to balance the effects of sitting too much.
Here are the poses in this sequence:
Arm circles
Cat cows
Sun Salutations
Seated spinal twist
Chest opening
Complete yoga flow including - Warrior 2 , Reverse Warrior, Extended side angle
Check out my chair yoga instructions on YouTube video. The best part is: It only takes 5 minutes!
Why this sequence works? Chair yoga sequencing
This practice starts with a gentle warm-up that lengthens the sides of the body before moving the spine into flexion and extension. The Sun Salutations are a great way to warm up and feel like you’re actually doing yoga even though you’re on a chair.
If you’re sitting too much, you’re probably in need of twists. They are energizing and great for spine mobility. The chest opening balances the usual rounded shoulder posture we too often have when we are working on a computer.
The yoga flow takes you through classic yoga postures that strengthen your legs and keep extending your side body.
👈👈👈 Save this infographic and practice with it!
Best Chair For Chair Yoga
Since a chair is the main support for this type of yoga, you would want to use the right one. Any home chair would do as long as it doesn’t have wheels.
If you want to invest in a sturdier chair made for yoga practice, I would recommend an Iyengar chair. It’s foldable, and is designed to allow you to move freely as you do various poses.
What Else Do You Need For Chair Yoga?
You don’t really need much when you do chair yoga. But if you want to, you can add accessories to make yourself as comfortable as possible when doing chair yoga moves.
You might need:
Some Blocks - put this under your feet when doing chair yoga, especially if you’re short.
a Pillow - put this on the chair to sit on for added comfort. Elevating your hips helps you find a long back.
a Yoga mat - if you are afraid your chair might move around, it’s a good idea to put a non-slip mat, like Jade Yoga Mat, under it.
There you have it! I hope you find these tips helpful, so you can start your chair yoga practice at home or even do chair yoga at work.
