Chair yoga poses: Most relaxing and beneficial poses for entire body

Yoga has many health benefits; from decreasing stress to enhancing strength and flexibility. Chair yoga poses adapts traditional yoga so that they can be completed with the support of a chair, building yoga more accessible for the people who cannot stand for longer time period. This series of chair yoga poses can be utilized for home practice.

Chair cat-cow stretch

• Come and sit on a chair with the straight spine and both legs placed flat on the ground.
• Inhale and bend your back with falling shoulders. It’s a cow pose.
• Now exhale and round your spine, allowing the shoulder and head come ahead. It’s a cat pose.
• Keep on moving between cow on breathing in and cat on the breathing out for five breaths.

Benefits:

• This is one of the best chair yoga poses to release tension from the neck that is mainly significant if you spend your lots of time in sitting activity.

Precautions:

• Avoid this posture if you have any injuries or issues to the cervical spine or neck.

Chair raised hands pose or Urdhva Hastasana

• Sit straight on the chair.
• Inhale and lift your arms in the direction of the ceiling.
• Let your shoulder blades to move down your back as you get to upwards with your fingertips.
• Keep your arms and shoulders at a distance.

Benefits:

• Makes the chest and shoulders stronger
• Strengthens the calves, thighs, spine and ankles
• Enhances functioning of immune system
• Helps in decreasing the fat of the body, mainly in the buttocks
• Helpful in arthritis and joint pain

Precautions:

• Avoid this yoga, if you have a shoulder injury. Apart from this, do other chair yoga poses.

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Chair forward bend or Uttanasana

• For this, sitting on the chair
• Exhale and come into a forward twist over the legs
• Now inhale and lift the arms back up over the head
• Repeat this cycle several times and shifting with the breathe

Benefits:

• Reduce the stress in the head, neck and shoulders
• Stretches the back body and stimulates belly, thus improving digestion.
• Revitalizes the body, if you are ill or tired

Precautions:

• If you have a headache or high blood pressure problem, then avoid this pose

Chair extended side angle or Utthita Parsvakonasana

• After your final forward twist, keep folded
• Take your left fingertips to the ground on the outside of your left leg
• Just open your chest as you turn to the right on an inhale, taking your right arm and look upto the ceiling.
• Hold here for some breaths and take the right arm down while you are breathing out.
• If your left hand does not come simply to the ground, bring it to your left knee in its place and bend from there.
• For more powerful twist, take the left fingertips to the outside of the right leg before bending.
• Repeat this same pose with right arm down and the left arm up.

Benefits:

• It enhances stamina but stimulating the belly organs.
• It stretches out several body parts such as legs, chest, ankles, lungs, spine, groin, abdomen, waist and shoulder.
• It strengthens the ankles, legs and knees.
• Precautions:
• If you have trouble of headaches, insomnia or any other conditions connected to hypertension or blood pressure then avoid this yoga pose.

Chair Pigeon or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

• Now come back up to sit
• Bring your right ankle to relax your left thigh, putting the knee in line with your ankle as much as possible for you.
• Hold 3-5 breaths.
• You may bend ahead to intensify the stretch if you want.
• Do again with the left leg up.

 Benefits:

• Flexes the groin and the hips
• Stretches the thigh muscles and helps reduce back pain
• The muscles in the neck, shoulder and chest are stretched that helps in good body postures.

Precautions:

• Avoid performing any back twisting pose, if you have had an injury to your neck or back.
• Person who is suffering from migraines, hypertension or insomnia then avoid this pose.

Chair Eagle or Garudasana

• In Chair Eagle Pose wrap your right thigh over your left thigh. If you can cover up the right leg all the way about the left calf
• Wrap your left arm over the right one at the elbow.
• Bow the elbows and bring your palms together.
• Raise the elbows while dropping the shoulders away from the ears.
• Take 3-5 breaths and repeat on the other side

Benefits:

• Make your ankles, calves, thighs and feet stronger.
• Builds focus and improves balance
• Develops circulation and digestion
• Stimulates the thyroid and pituitary glands
• Improves willpower

Chair Spinal Twist or Ardha Matsyendrasana

• Be seated sideway on the chair or in front of the left
• Twist your torso towards the lest, keeping onto the back of the chair
• Stretch your spine on each inhale and bend on each exhale for 5 breaths
• Shift your feet around the right side of the chair and do again this twist to the right side

Benefits:

• This is one of the best pose in chair yoga poses; it increases the flexibility of back and spine.
• It relieves stiffness of the shoulder, upper back and neck.
• This pose massages the abdominal organs and so aids in digestion.

You can do many other chair yoga poses such as chair spinal twist, chair warrior-1, chair warrior-2, chair reverse warrior etc.

Chair yoga includes common yoga posses that trainers adapt and modify so anybody can practice them in a chair. Chair yoga poses have multiple benefits like maintain overall fitness of your body, Flexibility, Stress Relief, Strength, Handy Prop etc.