Featured Pose: Simple Chair Twist

by Baxter and Nina

The Simple Chair Twist is one of our five essential office yoga poses. It releases back muscles that are stiff or sore from sitting at a desk or from traveling, or from everyday activities that stress the back, such as gardening and painting, and increases the rotational mobility in your spine. Twisting also helps nourish the spine—movement of the spine helps maintain the health of the discs—and also strengthens the bones themselves as your back muscles pull on the bony insertions of the spine. And it also strengthens the oblique muscles of your core (and we could all use a little of that).

Traditional yoga teachers recommend twists for the health of your internal organs, improving circulation to and function of the abdominal organs, although no studies have been conducted to confirm this. And finally, for many of us, twists can release physical and emotional tension, providing relief from stress.

The Simple Chair Twist has the additional bonus of being accessible to almost everyone in any location, whether office chair, airplane seat, or even a car seat (except, as Baxter noted while sitting in Nina’s backyard, a 50s style butterfly chair).

Baxter prescribes Simple Chair Twist for:

• general back tension
• stiffness
• people with balance issues (or who are unable to stand)
• certain low back conditions
• digestive difficulties (constipation or sluggishness)
• strengthening the oblique muscles
• arthritis of the spine
• people who engage in sports or other activities that involve rotation (all you golfers can restore symmetry to your body by twisting on both sides instead of one)

Instructions: Side sideways on the chair, with your feet resting comfortably on the floor (if your chair has arms or is attached to another chair, see below for an alternative). Your thighs should be parallel to the floor, so if you’re tall you may need to sit on top of something and if you’re short you may need to place something, like a book, under your feet.

Keeping your thighs parallel to each other, lift your spine and turn toward the back of the chair, placing your hands on either side of the chair’s back. Inhale and create an inner lift from your sitting bones through the crown of your head. Then exhale and encourage the twist from your upper belly (above the navel) and chest. Continue lifting on your inhalation and twisting slightly deeper on the exhalation for about 1 minute. Then change sides and twist in the opposite direction. When you’ve finished the pose, pause for a moment to assess how the pose affected your body.

If you can’t sit on the side of your chair, you can sit facing forward as shown below.

As you twist to the right, place your right hand on the chair’s back and your bring your left hand across your right leg. To twist on the other side, simply switch your arm positions.

Cautions: With certain low back conditions (such as severe arthritis, bulging disc, spinal stenosis or sciatica) you should approach twisting cautiously and skip it entirely if it aggravates your symptoms. If you have osteoporosis, twist gently and don’t move through your full range of motion (stay within 50 to 70 percent). If you feel pain, please stop and when you get a chance, as your yoga teacher for help.

AFTER THE RETREAT: OFFICE YOGA

by Baxter

During my just-completed Italy yoga retreat, we had the unique opportunity to practice hatha yoga twice a day for nine days. As you can imagine, one can cover a lot of ground in that amount of time. So one afternoon session, I shared a chair practice that Nina and I have taught over the years as part of our Yoga For Stress series. It is a sequence that I often encourage students to consider practicing at work, as all you need is a sturdy chair and a small section of a wall.  Well, the group really loved the session, and several students asked if there was a video of the practice they could refer to once that returned home to work and their regular schedule.

As Nina and I were talking about her post for this week on the effects of chronic stress on health and aging, it occurred to me that one of the biggest contributors to increased stress these days is mounting pressures placed on us in the work place. So my prescription this week to all of you readers out there is to consider adding a wee bit of chair/office yoga to your work day to help lower the stress levels. Read on for some suggestions to try and stay tuned for some video content from us on this topic soon!

Until we make our own office yoga video, we’re including a link to a video by Esther Ekhart. This video includes several of our favorite office yoga poses and is generally pretty good. However, please skip the neck rolls at the end, as these can overstrain your neck!

When you do the poses, try to keep your mind focused on your alignment and the physical sensations of being in the pose (rather than thinking about your work).

Suggested office yoga poses:

1. Right Angle at the wall, desk or chair (see Esther Ekhart video below)

2. Chair Backbend (see Esther Ekhart video below--try it with hands clasped behind your head)

3. Chair Twist (see Esther Ekhart video below) 

4. Chair Forward Bend or Wall Hang (see earlier post)