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Chair Yoga Exercises For Older People

The older you grow, the harder it becomes to stay mobile. Fortunately, Chair Yoga exercises help you to retain your shape, even though seated. Chair Yoga exercises are specially designed to be done sitting in a chair and, even though more practiced and popular in the West today, it actually has its roots in India, the abode of all Yoga. This practice is equally spiritual as compared to the other forms of Yoga that gives just a much importance to personal achievement and empowerment through exercises and synchronized breathing. Some classes may include meditation, but more emphasis is laid on stretching and right breathing in ways that help open up your body and improve your health.

Chair Yoga includes roughly 20 easy to practice exercises and asanas (poses), all of which will help stretch your wrists, hands, arms, hips, upper back, lower back and feet; some may be added or subtracted. These exercises also help to deepen your breath, strengthen your abdomen and bring down the chances of clot formations in your blood vessels. Best part is, you can do them at home, sitting in an airplane, in your office or anywhere, for that matter. They are marvelous exercises for those with limited mobility and include the following movements

1. Prayer by Heart
2. Ankle Rotations
3. Elbow Rotations
4. Shoulder Rotations
5. Neck Twists, Bends and Rotations
6. Reversed Shoulder Rotations
7. Double Arm Raises
8. Knee Raises
9. Cat Stretches
10. Elbow Twists
11. Heart Knots
12. Twisted Forward Arm Bending
13. Chair Cat  poses
14. Greeting the Heavens pose
15. Heart Opening poses
16. Leg Extension poses
17. Leg Side Extension poses
18. Sandwich poses
19. Spine Twisting poses
20. Wrist Mobility poses

Chair Yoga, as the above exercises and poses will show is a very gentle form of Yoga. With so many Yoga styles around, this is one that almost anyone can practice. Complicated asanas (poses) and inversions are not part of a Chair Yoga class. All you need is a little motivation to get going. The main prop in most Chair Yoga classes is a chair, they don’t even don’t use Yoga mats. You may not get a very dynamic workout or learn to tackle many of the challenging Yogasanas (poses). However, the benefits are almost the same, considering the emphasis on balance, breathing and practicing at your own pace makes. All this makes it a perfect practice for the physically challenged or for older people. However, it is better to enroll into a Yoga center, institute or center and learn to do the exercises and asanas (poses) the right way before practicing on your own.

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