Senior & Beginner Workout - 15 minute Gentle Chair Yoga

Hi, welcome to Senior Shape. Today's workout is a chair yoga. This is a great time to relax, get some good stretching in. As always, you do you. This is not a workout to push yourself. This is a workout to feel better about yourself, relax, and gain some flexibility. I want to make sure that you check your posture first, rolling the shoulders down and back, stacking the spine straight on top. Everything's all lined up together. If you're petite, you may need to put something underneath your feet, maybe like a yoga block, a folded up blanket, to make sure that the knees are in line with your hip. So go ahead and check that for a moment, making sure that the ankles are underneath the knees, and again, that we're all lined up for proper alignment. Once you've got that settled, find your chair again, preferably with no arms, and let's get started. Go ahead and fold your fingers in your lap, sitting up nice and tall. Close your eyes and start with some deep, cleansing breaths. In and out. Again in. Exhale. One more. Open up those eyelids. We're going to start with the seated cat-cow. Drop the hands to your seat. Tuck your belly button into your spine. Go ahead and round your back, pulling the shoulders forward, and then the opposite. Shoulders go back, chest is proud, and pulling slightly back. Again, forward. Exhale. Rounding the back, maybe dropping the arms, whatever's comfortable for you. Come back up. Shoulders back, proud chest. Lift the chin slightly. A few more again. Round the back forward, and open. Shoulders back. One more. Round the back, curving the spine. Pull the belly button in, and then proud chest. Shoulders back, and then find your way back to center. Bring those palms together. Now lift them straight up to the ceiling. Nice stretch here, sitting up nice and tall. Turn the palms towards the front, and we're going to bring the elbows out to the side. This is a little cactus position. Let's reach it back up top. Palms together. And then nice and slow, using your own resistance here, pull those elbows down and back, feeling those back muscles and the shoulders. Again, lift. Exhale as the elbows come down and back, about a 90-degree angle here. Again, lift, inhale. Exhale. Shoulders down and back. One more. Inhale, lift up, and exhale out to the side. We're going to go ahead and cross one elbow over the other into an eagle position, trying to get the palms of your hands together, feeling a nice stretch in the back of the shoulders and the upper back. Hold that position here. Inhale. Exhale. And now let's lift the elbows an inch or two to deepen that stretch. You're still breathing. Inhale. Untwist those arms, reaching back up to the ceiling, coming back down to the cactus position. Bring those elbows together again, this time cross the opposite elbow over the other one. Palms come together again into our little eagle. Inhale here. Exhale. Hold. To deepen that stretch, you're going to push those palms harder together. And let's lift the elbows up an inch. Inhale. Exhale. Unwind. We're coming back all the way up to center. Go ahead and drop that left arm to your chair, reaching that right arm as tall as you can. Inhale here. Exhale, big bend all the way over to the side. Lift up. Inhale. Exhale all the way over, same side. Last one. Inhale up and exhale over. Leave that arm up. Let's bring the other arm to join it and other side. Right arm comes down, hold it onto the side of the chair. Really reach that opposite arm up, big lean over to the side and lift. Exhale over. Inhale, lift. We have one more. Exhale over. Inhale, lift. Bring that right arm back up to center. Now let's alternate. One arm down. Exhale, reach. Inhale, both arms up. Exhale, reach. Two more up. Exhale, reach. Up. Last one. Nice big stretch extension here. Up. And let's bring the palms down to heart center and release the arms to the side. Twisting over to the other side, nice spinal twist. We're going to put a little pressure with that palm of the hand on the opposite thigh and then do a big twist around us. Looking back over your shoulder. Inhale here. Exhale, one more. Hold in. Exhale, come back to center. Other side, big twist around. Opposite hand comes behind us, maybe hold it onto the chair for support. Sitting up nice and tall, deep breaths. One more in and exhale back to center. We're going to come to the edge of our chair here and then open those feet out. So then again, the ankles are underneath those knees, feeling a nice stretch in the inner thigh. Arms are out to the side, palms are facing forward. Reach those fingertips all the way to the side and of course, sit up nice and tall. We're going to inhale and as we exhale, we're going to reach one side all the way towards that ankle while the opposite arm is coming up and then we're going to look up into that top hand. Inhale. Exhale. Let's come back to center. Other side. Reaching towards that ankle, palm forward. Other arm comes up and then gaze up towards those fingers to relax the neck. Inhale. Exhale. Let's come back to center. Let's do it again. Other side. Reach towards that ankle, maybe go a little bit further this time. Keep that core engaged, pulling the belly button to the spine. Big stretch center and reaching down, looking up towards the finger. You may not come this far and if it's more comfortable for you, you can always even put a little pressure leaning on that thigh. One more time each side. Reaching down, gazing up at the ceiling, back out to center. Last time. Reach. Come back to center and release it down. Let's go ahead and walk those feet in. I want you to take your right leg and gently hug the knee into the chest. We're still sitting up nice and tall. Try to keep the spine straight or neutral. Nice big hug in here. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. We're going to take this leg. Ankle is going to cross on top of that leg into a figure four stretch. Double check that bottom foot, making sure our ankle is lined up underneath the knee. Sitting up nice and tall, we breathe in. Exhale, leaning slightly forward to deepen that stretch. Hold it here. Two more big deep breaths in and out. You're just gazing one or two feet in front of you on the floor to keep the spine in line. Last one. Inhale. Exhale and slightly forward. Back up to a seated tall position and lower that leg. Other leg first. We're going to bring that left leg, hugging that knee in, sitting up nice and tall. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale again. As we exhale, crossing that ankle over the other knee. Now, if this is uncomfortable for you, you also have the option to cross the ankle on your opposite ankle, just making sure that we keep the knee open to the side for that hip stretch. Here we are sitting nice and tall. Inhale. Exhale, leaning slightly over with a straight or neutral spine. Two more breaths in and out. Last one. Exhale. Maybe go one more inch. Listen to your body. And let's release out of that stretch. Pulling the heels a little closer to you, still sitting up nice and tall. We're just going to drop the arms to the sides, palms facing in. Inhale, belly button to the spine. As we exhale, we're going to forward fold all the way down, releasing that lower back. Again, just go as low as you're comfortable. Go ahead and interlace those elbows here, holding onto the opposite elbow. Drop the head. Let the head just hang low here. Big inhale. Exhale, release that lower back. Release all that tension. Again, in. Exhale. One more time. Big, deep breath in. Exhale, pull the belly button to the spine and let's slowly roll it up, dropping the hands one vertebrae at a time, finishing all the way with those shoulders. Nice job. We're going to do the same thing, but changing the position of our legs. So back to that nice, wide, open stance here. Toes to the corners. Make sure you've got enough of your bum on your chair. And again, leaning all the way forward, dropping the chest, grounding the back. Maybe grasp those elbows again. Let the head just fall. If you need to support yourself and put the hands on the floor, if they make it that far, please do. You do what's comfortable for you. One more. Inhale. Exhale. And slowly roll it up again, rounding that spine, helping yourself if you need to. And let's toe-heel those feet back in. Go ahead and take that right arm, reaching all the way up to the ceiling. Big stretch here. Bend the elbow, taking the fingers, trying to crawl them all the way down your back. Let's assist that stretch with the left hand. Elbows reach towards the ceiling, feeling a nice stretch in your tricep here. Keep that right arm there and release the left arm down, back and around, all the way behind us for a shoulder stretch. The goal is to get those fingers together. I'll turn around so you can see just a bit here. Hold here. Inhale. Exhale. This is a great one for our posture. One more big inhale. On our exhale, let's release that. Good job. This time, left arm reaches up as high as we can, bending that elbow, fingers reaching down the back. Let's go ahead and assist that stretch, bringing that right arm back up, walking the fingers further down the back. Keep the left arm where it is. Release the right, down, back and around, behind us. Again, the goal here is to get those fingers touching, maybe even overlapping. And it's totally normal if one side is more flexible than the other. Inhale here. Exhale. One more inhale. As we exhale, we're going to release that down. Sitting up nice and tall, drop the chin to the chest, relaxing the neck here. We'll do two big neck rolls to each side. So roll it all the way to the right, behind us, left, and down. And just using the weight of the head. And let's reverse it. One more to the side. Nice and slow. Bringing the chin back up to center. And then take the chin all the way to the ceiling, just dropping the back of the head. Inhale. Exhale. Find your way back to center. Keep that good posture sitting nice and tall. Shoulders are down and back. Lift up onto your tippy toes. Heels come off the floor. And then slowly lower those heels down. Left, and lower. Lift the heels. Squeeze those calf muscles. Two more. Left, slowly lower. Lift, and lower. Go ahead and pick up that right foot just as high as you're comfortably going. Try to straighten the knees slightly. And give me some big ankle circles right here. And let's reverse. Just waking up those calf muscles, keeping some nice mobility in those ankle joints. And release it down. Other foot comes up. Again, ankle circles to one side. And the other. And release it down. Nice work. That's it. You made it through chair yoga. Hope you feel better. As always, try to keep in mind your posture the whole day. Shoulders down and back. Tummy's in. Let's finish with a nice deep breath. Arms come up. And exhale. And one more. Inhale, arms up. And exhale down. Eat well. If you enjoyed the video, please like it. Share it with your friends. I'll appreciate any comments. And definitely subscribe to my channel. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time.