Featured Pose: Chair Seated Forward Bend

by Baxter and Nina

This simple pose is another good antidote to sitting upright in your chair. An excellent hip opener, this forward bend counteracts the tightness of your hips that you develop from sitting with your legs straight in front of you, helping you to maintain mobility in your hip joints. The release in your hips can feel wonderful, and you may also feel a good stretch in your lower back and inner thighs. The pose also helps stretch and wake up your arms as you press them toward the floor.

By changing your relationship to gravity, this pose helps release tension you’re holding in your back, neck, and head. This can be particularly helpful if you’ve spent hours in front of your computer screen or driving, and your neck is stiff or even painful. The partial inversion also stimulates your circulatory system and can re-enliven you if you’re feeling sluggish, stimulates your circulatory system.

Because your knees are bent, this is a very accessible forward bend. If you are unable to enjoy straight leg forward bends, you may find this version pose some of the fabled quieting and soothing qualities that you've heard about but never before been able to experience. Try it sometime for stress or anxiety.

Like the other poses in our full-length office yoga sequence (coming soon!), you can do this pose almost anywhere there is a chair and in almost any attire, though probably not in a tight skirt!

Baxter prescribes this for:

• tight hips
• tension in the spine
• mental sluggishness or fatigue
• weakness in the arms (if you engage the arms)
• substitute for inverted poses for those who can’t do full inversions
• alternative for Standing Forward Bend poses for those who can’t bear weight on their legs
• arthritis (for maintaining joint mobility in the hips)
• anxiety or stress

Instructions: Sit near the front edge of your chair. Separate your feet so your thighbones are 90 degrees apart and position your knees directly over your ankles. Point feet your feet in the same direction as your thighbones, as shown in the photo, and place your hands on your knees. On an inhalation, establish the length of your spine.

On your exhalation, tip from your hips as much as you can to come into the forward fold with a straight back. When you reach your maximum (your pelvis stops moving), carefully allow your spine to round forward and bring your arms down between your legs. You can either push your palms firmly into the floor with your arms straight, lengthening from your pubic bone to your collarbones, or you can press your elbows into your inner thighs to create more widening or lengthening of your inner leg muscles.

Stay in the pose for one to two minutes. Come up on an inhalation, keeping your back relaxed and using your hands on your knees to assist if your lower back feels vulnerable. If you want to use this pose to increase your back strength, you can try coming up with your back straight.

If you have lower back issues or are very stiff in the hips, try a variation of this pose with your elbows on your knees come down about a quarter of the way.

Cautions: This is a relatively safe pose. However, if you have lower back disk disease or pain in your hip joints, approach the pose carefully. And if the pose aggravates your symptoms, come out immediately, and get advice from your teacher about how to get in and out of the pose safely. If you feel excessive pressure in your head, don’t stay in the pose very long.