The word yoga is sometimes associated with very exotic-sounding names such as Iyengar yoga or Vinyasa yoga. In chair yoga, there is no exoticism. But if we understand that we need a chair for this practice, what is the point? If it is suitable for seniors, is it only for them? Couldn't younger people also practice chair yoga? This article gives you all the information you need to fully understand what this practice consists of and who it is intended for.
Since Westerners have appropriated yoga, the practice has been guided by the idea that it must adapt to the capacities of the practitioners. There is not a yoga for all, but a yoga for everyone. Yoga in general goes beyond simple physical practice and is intended to be a philosophy of life that should benefit the management of daily life. As life is adaptation, yoga should not be a fixed and rigid practice, but on the contrary a practice which takes into account the person in his singularity. Chair yoga is part of this approach and is inspired by the postures practiced in hatha yoga:these are simply adapted to be placed differently.
The creation of this practice is not associated with the name of a teacher or a master. However, chair yoga can indirectly be linked to B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the most famous yoga masters in France. He created a yoga, certainly very widespread, but demanding and far from being accessible to all. However, he encourages the use of a chair in order to improve the execution of postures, in particular the most difficult ones. He uses a chair with a particular design:it has two crosspieces that ensure its stability and rubber feet to prevent it from slipping on the floor. In the Iyengar method, the chair helps achieve and maintain correct alignment. It also allows the practitioner to keep the posture longer and to relax in the most demanding.
But chair yoga and Iyengar yoga are not the same practice at all. Chair yoga isaccessible to everyone , including seniors and the disabled, which Iyengar yoga is not. Chair yoga is also recommended for people recovering from injury or illness and, in general, for all people who cannot practice any physical activity.
For chair yoga, a chair without armrests is required. Some teachers may also use accessories such as a brick or a strap, always with the aim of making it easier for a body in difficulty to perform a movement.
Chair yoga can therefore be practiced anywhere, as long as you have a chair at hand and a space where you feel good and calm. If some say that this practice is possible without sportswear, it is obvious that flexible clothes will interfere less with the practice.
Like the different forms of yoga that are practiced on mats, chair yoga works on mobility, allows you to stretch and relieve tension. The benefits to be gained are the same, both physically and mentally, as all other forms of hatha yoga.
Given the general philosophy that governs yoga, whether or not it is on a chair, there is no reason to stop practicing yoga because you have passed a certain age, or on the contrary to prevent from initiating the practice because of an estimated advanced age or identified deficiencies. On the contrary, the precepts of contemporary hygiene agree on the idea that movement contributes to good physical and mental health.
Yoga is a reputedly gentle practice. Chair yoga avoids confrontation with difficulties a practice like mat yoga. Some people no longer have the muscle strength to get up from a lying position on the ground, or even fear it, others have lost their sense of balance, or still others are unable to sit up. cross-legged or on the knees. Chair yoga eliminates the problems associated with these placements. Thus, chair yoga is a reassuring practice in which everyone will simply draw the joy of movement. A body mobilized in this way will gradually progress, to the delight of the practitioner.
Chair yoga is not only reserved for seniors and people with disabilities or physically impaired. This same yoga is spreading in companies to be offered to employees too exposed to the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle. Chair yoga is a practice that allows you to make life-saving micro-cuts in your work, but also to get bodies moving that can be monopolized by computer work.
Chair yoga is a yoga suitable for the greatest number.
A chair yoga class is part of a framework shared with hatha yoga.
It invites to this particular work of the body which is done slowly and consciously. One of the major areas of work is to straighten the spine to limit vertebral compression. It is a question of going beyond the excuse of osteoarthritis to enroll in a substantive work aimed at the mobility and the bodybuilding of the body. The movements and sequences bear fruit by dint of repetition over the sessions, and by their realization in coordination with conscious breathing. Such a practice has astonishing dimensions:some people who have given up certain movements rediscover themselves capable of doing them. Chair yoga is indeed capable of freeing up spaces that we thought were forever closed.
Like mat yoga, chair yoga gives fundamental importance to the breath. To breathe is to live. However, for some people, the first step will be to relearn how to breathe correctly. Because with age, experience, health issues, the body can generate tensions that limit the efficiency and quality of breathing.
Then comes the work of the consciousness of the breath which leads to a quality movement. The opening of the arms promotes a deep inspiration. Strengthening and softening the abdomen is also a key to quality breathing, able to properly oxygenate the body and therefore provide enough energy for daily tasks.
This is why yoga on a chair has the same effects as yoga on a mat, because (re)finding awareness of the breath promotes concentration, calming of the mind, distance from oneself and from life in general, and thereby the let go. Through consciousness, it is indeed possible to recirculate energy in immobilized or injured parts of the body.
