Chair yoga exercises for work / beginners & seniors

Chair yoga exercise at work or chair yoga poses!

Yoga is known for relieving stress whether it’s mental or physical. Today’s sedentary lifestyle because of our work causes a lot of mental and physical stress, it may or may not be possible to change this lifestyle however you can inculcate few habits that would help you keep yourself energized, rejuvenated and stress free.

As they say ‘a person is as young as his/her spinal cord’, it is important to take care of your back. We all know how much stress does our spinal cord take because of our jobs that require us to spend most of our time sitting on a chair.

Here are some yoga poses that you can practice at your desk that would help you keep your spine happy and would help you relieve physical as well as mental stress.

I would suggest you to make this a part of your routine and practice any of these yoga poses or mindful breathing after every one or two hours.

Chair yoga exercises

Mindful Breathing

• Sit in a comfortable position
• Hands preferably on your knees
• Close your eyes
• Focus on your breath
• Your mind will wander, thoughts will distract you
• Simply ignore them, do not entertain them and use this as an opportunity to remind yourself to focus on your breath
• Use any distraction to remind yourself to focus on your breath
• With each breath you take, feel it relaxing your mind
• Slowly switch to longer inhalation and even longer exhalation
• Relax and be at peace and when you are ready, blink your eyes to open

Seated Back-bend

• Straighten your back
• Inhale and raise your arms up
• Exhale and using your upper back bend backwards, hold for 5 natural breaths
• Exhale and release your hands down slowly

Back-bend Arch

• Sit in the middle or the edge of the chair
• Hold the bottom of the back rest of the chair
• Inhale and inflate your chest out and slowly arch your back up till your shoulder bladed
• Hold for 5-8 breaths
• Exhale and release

Seated Side Stretch

• Hold left side of the chair with your left hand
• With inhalation lift your right hand up
• With exhalation bend towards your left hand side, do not lean forward or backwards
• Stay for 5-8 breaths, inhale and release
• Repeat on the other side

Seated Cross Side Stretch

• Hold right side of the chair with your left hand
• With inhalation lift your right hand up
• With exhalation bend towards your left hand side, do not lean forward or backwards
• You can look up towards the ceiling or downwards
• Stay for 5-8 breaths, inhale and release
• Repeat on the other side

Desk Shoulder Opener

• Place your hands on your chair or desk
• Bend down till your waist and drop your head down to give your shoulders a nice stretch
• Hold for 5-8 breaths
• Walk slowly towards chair or desk to come out of the pose

Seated Twist (My Favorite)

• Sit straight, exhale and twist (from your abdomen mostly) to your left hand side
• Keep your legs in static position
• Hold the backrest of your chair with left hand and armrest with the right hand and keep twisting comfortably, you can look towards your extreme left
• Hold for 5-8 breaths
• Exhale, release and repeat on the other side

Forward Fold

• Inhale and raise your arms up towards the sky
• Keeping your back straight, with exhalation slowly bend down
• Keep your hands on the ground / hold your shin or fold them to hold arms whatever is comfortable
• It is okay to bend your knees a little if you are trying to touch the ground (bend your knees in case of knee pain).
• Hold for 5-8 breaths
• Keeping your back straight, slowly come back up with inhalation

Try these chair yoga poses at work in regular intervals to keep your back happy and healthy, if you have any questions or feedback, please do mention in the comment section.

Namaste!

Also Read:

• How to do Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) – Bhujangasana Benefits and Contraindications
• How to start doing yoga at home for beginners (with pictures and videos)
• How to do Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) – Steps, Benefits and Contraindications