Exercise without having to move from your chair sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?
However, Wellbeing Practitioner and Yoga Instructor Cath Slomka says that chair based yoga is a perfect way to gently move and mobilise the body.
We speak to Cath about what chair based yoga can do to help you.
Chair based yoga sounds intriguing! Is this a relatively new thing?
No not at all, it been around for years and makes a great alternative for those people who find it difficult to get up and down from the floor for whatever reason. There’s still so much you can do to keep your body and mind healthy with the support of a chair!
So how do you do yoga on a chair? I just can’t picture it in my head!
So we start by warming and mobilising all the joints of the body from head to toe through gentle repetitive movements e.g. rolling our wrists, ankles, neck. Then we do some larger stretching type limbering up e.g. side-bending through the spine, hamstring stretches, seated cat cow movements. We do come up and out of the chair for some gentle standing postures (if appropriate) but with the chair close by so that people can use it for balance if need be e.g. downward dog against the chair to open and lengthen the spine.
I guess it’s for people who are super good at yoga right? It won’t be any good for me, I have no sense of balance!
You don’t have to be ‘good’ at yoga nor ‘flexible’, as long as you can breathe you can do yoga! If you would like to move with more ease and find more harmony in your body and mind then yoga is for you. You learn the poses/movements over the weeks and build up your strength and balance gradually. We take it easy.
But I have a bit of a problem with my joints, it won’t irritate them more will it?
Gentle movement is better than no movement. Our joints are nourished and fed through movement so as long as you listen to your body as you practice and avoid working into pain then this is a healthy approach to joint health.
Ah OK, so how do I get involved? And what kind of thing should I wear when doing chair based yoga?
Wear warm comfy clothes e.g. jogging bottoms or leggings and bring a water bottle with you.
If you would like to give it a go simply ask one of our Wellbeing Practitioners to add your name down on the waiting list or call the main Wellbeing Centres phone number 0151 708 0415. A Wellbeing Practitioner will be in touch when there is space for you join.