Take a seat and find your Zen: Chair Yoga for all!
By Jane McIntosh
You don’t have to get out of your chair to get moving on your fitness. Being seated for 45 minutes has therapeutic value — if you’re doing chair yoga!
In 1982, traditional yoga instructor Lakshmi Voelker-Binder developed a routine for a student suffering from arthritis. This evolved into a method of strengthening lungs, lengthening muscles and improving mobility.
Florida Atlantic University conducted the first randomized controlled trial examining the effects of chair yoga on pain and physical function of older adults with osteoarthritis. The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, was an eight-week trial comparing participants in a chair yoga group with a health education group that received lectures.
The results demonstrated that participants in the chair yoga group, compared with those in the health education program, had a greater reduction in pain and pain interference during their yoga sessions. Most significantly, the effects lasted for about three months after the program was completed.
Results also found that participants had increased lung capacity. This is important: Although we are born breathing deeply, from our diaphragm, as we age, our breathing often becomes shallower (from the chest). As well, participants experienced enhanced blood flow, which reduces the likelihood of getting blood clots.
Other benefits
The beauty of yoga is that the practice can easily be modified to meet participants’ physical capabilities and limitations. Many traditional yoga postures are modified to allow the practice to be done while seated or standing and even using a chair for support. Chair yoga classes sometimes use poses that require participants to voluntarily stand up from the chair.
Chair yoga helps with building strength and stability. Research shows that the loss of muscle mass and strength can begin as early as your 30s. The loss of skeletal muscle (sarcopenia) is a leading contributor to reduced strength and mobility, increasing the risk of falls and injuries. Although not exclusively an issue for the elderly, it is more common among them.
Isometric exercise, the type of movement primarily involved in chair yoga, lowers blood pressure, increases muscle tension and constricts blood vessels. These contractions strengthen the heart muscle, making it more efficient at pumping blood with less effort.
Is yoga a religion? No
Approximately 36 million Americans practice some form of yoga regularly; however, there are no specific numbers for chair yoga.
The practice is linked to spirituality because it can facilitate a sense of connectedness to something larger than oneself. It helps to quiet the mind. As the mind focuses on breathing. It helps to create a sense of peace and lifts spirits. Yoga breathing switches the nervous system from fight, flight and freeze to rest and digest.
Equipment is minimal. All you need is a stable chair without arms and the practice can be done anywhere. Additionally, chair yoga has a reputation for being suitable for seniors, but everybody can benefit from the opportunity to breathe and move while enhancing their posture.
A personal perspective
Yoga has changed my life both physically and mentally. In my younger days, I would never attend yoga classes because they weren’t aerobic and didn’t burn calories. After years of those hard-hitting exercise classes and other unhealthy practices, I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, herniated disks, spinal stenosis and arthritis. I am a chronic back pain sufferer.
I discovered yoga through injury and use it every day to manage my back pain. It honestly does keep the edge off. I am passionate about sharing with others as back pain is so prevalent in our society. Yoga has changed my life in so many ways, both physically and emotionally.
Local classes
It is an honor to teach at Firstenburg Community Center in Vancouver. We offer three chair yoga classes: 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and 8:30-9:15 a.m. and 10:30-11:15 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday. For information, call 360-487-8311.
Jane McIntosh is a registered yoga teacher, certified nutrition specialist, National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coaching coach and American College of Medicine certified personal trainer.
