Generally speaking, yoga is an excellent way to maintain physical and mental health for everyone, including aging adults, as it’s a low-impact activity that combines stretching with breathing exercises. Of course, staying seated while carrying out yoga poses allows frail seniors who lack the flexibility and strength to exercise safely.
As an older adult, you’ll find chair yoga offers plenty of benefits. Physically, it allows you to stretch painful muscles, gain and maintain strength, improve circulation, build balance, improve circulation, and reduce chronic pain and blood pressure levels. Mentally, it helps to reduce anxiety and stress, bringing a sense of peace and fulfillment into your lives.
Below are some of the best chair yoga poses for seniors:
The Chair Cat-Cow
If you’re familiar with basic yoga poses, you know the cat-cow pose is a great way you can use to relieve back, shoulder, and spine tension while also activating the core. For the chair cat-cow, here’s the modification:
- Sit facing forward with your feet flat on the floor and your spine straight. Place your hands on your thighs, just above the knees, for stability.
- Now, inhale and arch your spine, drawing your belly forward and chest up while rolling your shoulders back.
- Gently tilt your head back, following your shoulders, and look directly up at the ceiling.
- Now exhale, and reverse the pose by rounding your spine and rolling your shoulders forward to bring your chin down towards your chest.
Repeat this alternating pose for at least six rounds to start, remembering to inhale and exhale slowly and pay attention to how your body feels to see if you need to adjust your movement.
The Chair Spinal Twist
The spinal twist is another great way to relieve the tension in your back while engaging in a total-body stretch perfect for stiffness. For this pose:
- Sit with your spine erect, facing forward, with your feet flat on the floor. Keep your hands at your sides.
- Now, put your left hand on the outside of your right thigh, right above the knee.
- Exhale and carefully rotate your torso — not your legs or hips — to the right, allowing only your chest, shoulders, and head to turn.
- Hold this position for two to three slow breaths to twist deeper into the pose.
- Return to the center and then repeat the twist on the other side.
The Chair Forward Fold
The forward fold aims to lengthen the spine and increase flexibility in both the back and hamstrings by essentially folding forward in a controlled movement that allows you to roll your torso over your hips. To do the chair forward fold:
- Sit up straight and tall with your feet flat on the ground.
- Inhale deeply, stretching your arms up overhead in alignment with your ears.
- Exhale and slowly fold forward, keeping your spine straight and bending at your hips so you don’t end up rounding your back.
- Reach down as far as you can without feeling any lower back pain or strain, resting your fingers wherever they stop and allowing your head and neck to relax as you breathe into the pose.
- Hold this pose for several breaths – as many as you feel comfortable with — and then slowly bring your spine back up, vertebrae by vertebrae, to your starting position.
The Chair Eagle
The eagle pose opens up your shoulders, chest, and upper back while simultaneously stretching your legs. You can think of it as a total-body opener, but it does take a bit more multitasking abilities compared to the prior poses. If you feel that it’s too much, you can do the pose in pieces, until you get used to it or gain mobility.
- Start by sitting up straight with your feet flat on the floor.
- Open your arms out to the sides, and then cross them in front of you, bringing your right arm over the left.
- Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle and wrap your forearms so that your palms press together. (To modify this pose, you can grab onto the opposite shoulders).
- Now, cross your right leg over your left and wrap your right foot around the back of your left calf. (to modify this pose, simply cross your right leg over the left and hold it steady).
- Squeeze your thighs together and lengthen your fingers toward the ceiling, taking several slow and intentional breaths as you deepen the pose.
- Release and return back to the starting position, and then repeat on the opposite side.
The Chair Warrior
The warrior pose strengthens your core and thighs while opening up the hips. Here’s how it’s done, chair yoga style:
- Sit straight up while facing the right side of your chair.
- Keep your left foot flat on the floor, making sure your knee aligns over it, and then open your right leg out to the side.
- Draw in a deep breath and extend your arms out to the sides so they’re parallel to the floor. Focus on lengthening your spine while inhaling and exhaling for several rounds.
- If you feel comfortable, you can deepen the stretch by grasping the chair seat between your legs and extending your right leg out further so your inner thigh rests on the seat.
- Keeping your back foot flat and aligned perpendicularly with your left foot, keep both legs engaged and your spine straight. Raise your arms again so they’re parallel to the floor and breathe in and out for as many rounds as you can.
- Now, slowly return to your center and repeat on the opposite side.
As stated previously, chair yoga can provide a safe way for seniors to stay active. As always, talk to your physician before starting this or any other exercise program.