Midlife Musings: Debra Johnstone
Welcome to Week 4 of our Chair Yoga Series!
This week, we’ll focus on exercises to help stretch and strengthen both the upper and lower body. Chair yoga is an excellent way to improve flexibility, increase muscle strength, and promote overall mobility, especially if you have limited range of motion or need to stay seated due to physical conditions. It’s also perfect for anyone new to yoga.
In this session, we’ll work on opening up the chest, shoulders, and hips, while also engaging the legs and core. Let’s begin!
Trigger Your Parasympathetic Nervous System With Your Breath (5 Minutes):
Before diving into the stretches and strengthening postures, start with a gentle breath awareness. By triggering your parasympathetic nervous system in this way, you will find the postures more easily available to you. This is because you are more relaxed.
Sit comfortably right into your chair with your spine tall against the back rest. Make sure your feet are flat on the ground, your ankles under your knees and feet hip distance apart. Take a few breaths deep into your lungs, allowing your abdomen to expand as you inhale and as you exhale your abdomen softens.
In this weeks practice we will flow through postures for the upper and the lower body.
“By triggering your parasympathetic nervous system in this way, you will find the postures more easily available to you.”
1. Upward Salutes (Upper Body):
These simple and effective yoga movements bring more mobility to the shoulders, while stretching through the sides of the chest. Releasing tension all while seated.
2. Seated Spinal Rolls (Upper and Lower Body):
These fluid movements bring flexibility to the whole spine, releasing tension in the neck and strengthening the core.
3. Seated Palm Tree Both Sides (Upper Body):
These stretches work on opening the sides of the chest while releasing tension in the shoulders. Working with both sides of the body, we begin with fluid movements and end with asanas.
4. Seated Hip Mobilisers (Lower Body):
The gentle flowing movement of these mobilisers relieve tightness and create more openness in the hips. We complete these movements with an inner rotation asana.
5. Seated Spinal Roll/ Bridge (Upper and Lower Body):
Again we are working with mobilizing and creating space in the spine. This time our spinal rolls end in a gentle back bend opening up across the chest and relieving tension in the shoulders. A wonderful movement for a healthy posture if you do a lot of desk work.
6. Seated Eagle Legs And Arms Both Sides (Upper and Lower Body):
A beautiful adduction stretch for the hips and at the same time creating a deep stretch across the shoulders, This posture can be adjusted to suit the tension felt in the shoulders. More stretch the elbows go up, less stretch the elbows stay lower.
7. Seated Cross Spinal Twist (Upper and Lower Body):
Again a wonderful adduction stretch for the hip while gently twisting the spine. The twist can be adjusted to suit your level of flexibility, partial twist or full twist. Opening up the spine and feeling the spine relax with each breath.
“More stretch the elbows go up, less stretch the elbows stay lower.”
Closing With Breath Awareness or Yoga Nidra (5 Minutes):
We always finish the session with a short breath awareness or Yoga Nidra. If you are able to get down onto the floor you can finish with your deep relaxation on your back. Otherwise, this can easily be practiced in the chair.
Make sure you are sitting fully into your seat again, your spine tall against the back rest. Feet hip distance apart, ankles under knees. Return to your natural breath, with a gentle expansion of the abdomen on the inhale and a softening of the abdomen on the exhale.
By practicing these flows regularly, you can experience the benefits of a more balanced, flexible, and mobile body. See you next week for more chair yoga!
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About the Author:
Deb Johnstone is a Transformational Mindset Coach and a Midlife Transition Mentor. Experiencing midlife transition herself, she wanted work with more meaning and started her coaching practice in 2012.
After the death of her father in 2019 and processing her grief, Deb experienced a deep loss of self where her identity felt challenged. It was through this that she felt the calling to work with women in this phase of life.
It is now her mission to support women to transition midlife and beyond feeling confident, empowered and free to be your true self and live the life you want and deserve. You can connect with Deb on Facebook through The Empowered MidLife Woman where she posts insights daily, or connect with her through her website.
If you are finding these sessions helpful, please remember to subscribe to the Women Reinventing Midlife YouTube hannel to support Deb in bringing more beautifull like like this to you. https://www.youtube.com/@womenreinventingmidlife/featured
