Chair Yoga

This class is great if you experience pain in the knees or feet, have limited mobility, or want a mid-day pick-me-up at your desk. We'll flow with the breath, release tension + stress from the body. Beginner-friendly. This recording is similar to our Tuesday Insight Timer Live chair yoga class.

Transcript

Welcome to your chair yoga practice.

This is the audio version of the class we do on Tuesday afternoons on Insight Timer Live.

So if you would prefer some more visual cues,

Know that you can always hop on to our live chair yoga sessions.

Otherwise for this practice,

We're just going to need a chair,

Ideally one that doesn't swivel or roll,

So that you can have some nice grounded support.

This is a great practice if you have any injuries you're working with in the body,

Or if you just want a midday pick me up,

Maybe at your desk.

As we're all working with different levels of mobility here,

Know that you can change up any of the poses I say and that you can do really whatever you like here.

Just make sure it feels good in your body.

Everything I say is just a suggestion,

Just an idea.

Listen to your body more than you listen to me.

And with all that being said,

Let's get started.

So just sitting in your chair,

Any way that's comfortable to you.

Maybe you lean back to start,

Maybe you keep the legs crossed.

Just let yourself land,

Give yourself permission to let go of anything waiting for you after this practice.

Any thoughts of what happened before class,

Any to do list.

Allow your shoulders to melt,

Soften the face,

There's no need for expression.

Maybe your eyes rest on one point.

Maybe they close.

Feel the support of your chair behind your back,

The chair beneath you.

Feel your feet on the ground.

Notice if one foot touches the ground a little differently than the other.

And you feel the textures underneath your feet.

Bring that awareness to your breath.

So not changing it,

Just being aware of your body breathing.

Feeling that expansive,

Almost uplifting inhale,

The grounding releasing exhale.

We'll breathe through the nose for our practice today.

If that doesn't work for you,

Then just breathe naturally,

But otherwise we'll invite the breath to be moving through the nose.

That helps to slow the breath down,

Helps to keep the body nice and calm and focused.

See if you can watch the path of the breath as the inhales move in through the nose,

Down the throat,

Filling the lungs,

The rib cage,

The belly.

Breathing out,

Feel that release.

The next time you breathe in,

See if you could reach the crown of your head up towards the ceiling.

Your exhale could soften the shoulders down.

We're sitting nice and tall now.

If your legs were crossed,

You might uncross them now,

Letting your feet land on the ground.

The next time you breathe in,

Reach your arms up wide and up overhead.

Hands come together and you'll exhale and draw the hands down through center.

Inhale,

Arms come wide and up overhead.

Feel that slow motion high five,

Bringing the hands down through center.

Let your movement follow your breath.

Inhale,

Arms circle up.

As your exhale arrives,

Hands come down through center.

A few more just like that.

Feeling a hang of the breath,

The movement.

The next time both arms reach up,

Leave the left one there.

Let your right hand land down on your thigh.

Use your next breath in to stay heavy through both sit bones and reach up,

Up,

Up through the left fingertips.

As you exhale,

You could turn that into a side bend,

Leaning to the right ever so slightly.

Keep the collarbones wide.

Breathe some space into the left side of the body.

Use your next exhale to come back to center.

We'll inhale,

Bring the right hand up.

The left hand comes down,

Landing on the left leg.

Reach up through the right fingertips,

One long line from fingertips to right sit bone.

You might start to lean over to the left.

Find some space into the right side ribs,

Right side lung.

Let your breath do the work.

Your exhale will draw you back up to center.

Inhale to reach the left arm up.

This time as you breathe out,

Twist to the right,

Let your hands land down.

Exhale to reach the crown of the head up.

And exhale,

Maybe you twist a little deeper.

Let your arms be soft and let your breath do the work.

Inhales expand and lengthen.

Exhales might move you into the twist a little bit more.

Use your next breath in to unravel,

Reach both arms up,

Finding center.

And exhale,

We'll twist over to the opposite side.

Hands are soft.

Keep palms face up.

Try not to use the arms and let your breath do the work.

Lengthening,

Inhale.

Exhale to twist.

One more breath here.

Inhale to come back to center,

Reach the arms up.

As you exhale,

Let your hands land on your knees.

Use your inhale to reach the heart forward,

Maybe looking up.

Exhale to round your back,

Making a C shape.

Inhale maybe you use your arms to pull the heart forward.

Exhale round,

Gazing towards the navel.

Keep your hands glued to your knees.

Inhale to arch,

Shoulder blades come together behind the back.

Exhale as you round,

Let your shoulder blades separate.

Maybe you find some space there.

A few more of our seated cat-cows.

Let the movement follow your breath.

Great.

Do one more arching and rounding.

And find your way back to center when you're done.

Bring your arms out to make a T shape.

Palms facing forward.

Inhale to reach your heart forward.

Fingertips may come a little bit behind you.

As you exhale,

Wrap your arms around yourself like you're giving yourself a hug.

Inhale to lift your elbows up and almost away from the body as you keep that hug shape.

You could stay right here,

Maybe you're finding some space in the shoulders.

Or you could round back just like you did before,

Making that C shape.

I like to drop my head here,

Maybe you open and close the jaw a few times.

Giving yourself a hug as you find that C shaped spine.

I find that helps to deepen the sensation between the shoulder blades.

Sometimes even a wiggle side to side helps.

With your next inhale,

Come back up to center.

Remember which arm was over top.

Reach the arms out.

Find that T shape.

Palms face forward.

Heart moves forward.

Fingertips back.

And exhale.

Give yourself another hug.

Opposite arm over top this time.

You might try to reach the elbows away from the face or up.

Maybe you stay here and wiggle around a bit.

Maybe you round the back.

Let the head be heavy.

Release release for the upper back.

Let the breath massage you here.

Come on up with your inhale.

Unravel the arms.

Maybe you do a few shoulder circles here.

Maybe it feels good to bring one ear towards one shoulder.

Maybe find some neck rolls if that works.

Just releasing.

Then from here you might choose to walk your feet a little wider.

We're going to bring our forearms down onto our thighs.

Sometimes I like to interlace fingers here.

You're almost bringing your forearms near your knees here.

Head down.

Nice forward fold.

So if you're feeling any pressure in the abdomen here,

Then you could widen your legs a little bit more to give your belly some space.

If you want a little bit more of a forward fold,

You could even walk your hands down.

Maybe they land on your feet or the floor.

Allow your skull to be heavy.

You might find that you're craving a bit of a nod or shake of the head.

Our seated forward fold.

This is a great one to add in really whenever.

You could always do this when you just need a break from your desk.

When you're ready,

Slowly crawl your hands up your legs as you find your way back to your seated position.

Bring both feet flat on the floor.

Knees and feet are about a hips distance apart.

So some comfortable room.

Press your feet down into the ground.

Even weight between the big toe knuckle,

Pinky toe knuckle and the heel.

Almost like a triangle.

Press,

Press,

Press.

You could think of the inner arches of your feet lifting,

Even if they don't move.

And this pressing down action you might find helps to involve the legs a little bit more.

You might feel a bit of strength here.

Sometimes I like to think of almost lifting my thighs as if they were stuck to the chair.

You could imagine lifting them without actually doing it.

And I find that helps to lengthen my spine,

Allow me to feel the strength in my legs.

So you could stay right here.

If you wanted a bit more abdominal work,

Bring your hands onto your thighs,

Press your thighs up into your hands and press your hands down into your thighs.

It's harder than it seems.

Press,

Press,

Press.

For three,

Two,

One,

Let the body soften.

Feel all that release.

You might even shake out your legs.

So let's do that again.

You might stay here just pressing your feet into the ground.

You could keep working with this.

Maybe you bring your hands onto the thighs,

Press them into each other.

You choose the intensity here.

How much are you pressing?

What feels good in your body today?

For five,

Four,

Embracing the warmth and shakiness.

Three,

Two,

One,

Let it go.

All right,

Let's do just one more of those.

Whatever version you take,

Find it.

We're going to do it for 10,

Nine,

Eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five.

Yoga teachers count so slow.

For three,

Two,

One,

Let it go.

Nice.

Now we're all working with different levels of mobility,

Different things in the body.

So you might do any of these past variations.

If you wanted,

You could walk yourself a little forward on the chair.

Press into your feet and imagine hovering your bum a few inches off the chair.

So sometimes just imagining that and visualizing that can create a whole lot of work in the body.

If it's available to you,

You might even hover and hold it.

We're just going to do this one once for three,

For two,

One.

Sit down slowly and gently.

Lot of work in the legs.

From here,

We're going to walk the knees nice and wide.

So wider than hips distance.

You're going to point your toes out to either side of the room,

Heels come in.

And sorry if this one doesn't quite work through audio.

We're thinking of our chair goddess pose.

So nice wide knees,

Wide feet,

Knees directly above the ankles,

Toes pointing out,

Heels in.

You might bring your hands to press onto the inside of the thighs.

Bringing the heart forward.

You could think of drawing the navel in towards the spine.

And once more,

I think of pressing your feet down into the ground.

You could think of lifting through the thighs.

If it's available to you,

You might even hover your bum up off the chair.

You can sit down whenever you'd like a break.

You could stay here in stillness.

Or if you want,

You could press your right hand into your right thigh,

Letting your right shoulder roll in.

And you could look up over the left.

Inhale to come back to center.

Exhale.

Look over the right shoulder.

Let your left shoulder come in,

Pressing left hand into left thigh.

You could turn this into a nice little flow here.

You'll inhale to find center.

Exhale to twist to the opposite side.

Inhale center.

Exhale as you twist.

The movement could be big or small.

You could work on just pressing your feet into the ground and finding stillness with the upper body you choose.

We'll take a couple more breaths here.

When you're ready,

Even on each side,

Come back to center.

Your legs could stay nice and wide.

Take a couple breaths here.

You might soften the legs,

Maybe shake them out.

And keep your left foot on the floor.

Lift the right ankle,

So just the right ball of the foot is on the ground.

And you're going to pivot on that foot until the right knee turns to face the left shin.

So this is kind of our chair lunge pose.

So you might stay here with the right knee facing towards the left calf.

Or you could walk your foot back a little and let your knee face the floor.

So you choose your variation.

This can be a little bit of a difficult one to do just through audio again.

So if you've been to my class before,

You know what this shape kind of looks like.

It's our lunge pose with the chair resting underneath your left thigh.

You might need to rearrange on the chair just a little to find the support you'd like under the left thigh.

Turn your body to face towards the left.

Then you might stay right here pressing the ball of the right foot into the ground,

Imagining the heel lifting,

Back of the right leg could stay active even though the knee is bent.

Press down through the left foot,

Those three points.

Let the crown of your head draw up towards the ceiling.

And you might keep your hands down.

Or if you want,

You could reach the arms up and overhead.

You could let your eyes rest on a point in front of you.

Or if it's okay for the neck,

Look up towards your hands.

Draw the low ribs in.

And breathe.

So there's a lot happening here.

Press through the left foot,

The ball of the right foot,

Back of the right leg is active,

Reaching up almost.

Draw your low ribs in.

Find that connection to your core.

And breathe.

Slow,

Steady breath through the nose.

Notice how the breath might feel a little shaky.

You can take one more breath in.

As you exhale,

Let your hands lower down.

Then we're going to find that wide legged pose,

That goddess pose,

With your toes pointing out,

Heels in,

Knees nice and wide.

Even from side to side.

Maybe you just stay here and breathe.

Maybe you want to let that go with a couple twists to each side.

And then keep your right foot planted.

Lift the left heel.

Pivot on that left foot as your left knee points towards right calf or shin.

You could stay right here or you could walk that left foot back a little,

Keeping a nice bend in the knee.

The knee would kind of point towards the ground here or maybe towards the ankle of the right foot.

Keep working to press your feet into the ground.

Imagine lifting through the legs.

All that engagement.

And don't lose that as you reach the arms up.

Your arms would be up overhead,

Palms facing each other.

Maybe gazing at one point in front of you or looking up between the palms.

Notice if this is turned into a back bend,

Draw the low ribs in and we land and breathe.

Every muscle in the body is activated.

So much happening in this pose.

Can you breathe?

You can always rest the arms down.

Otherwise let's take three more breaths here.

Last inhale.

Let those arms come down with your exhale and walk your legs in.

And maybe let's find that forward fold again.

So knees and feet are comfortable distance apart,

Toes facing forwardish and your forearms could land on your thighs or maybe you fold even deeper and your hands could land on your feet or the floor.

Breathe slow and steady.

Maybe you feel the belly pressing into the thighs comfortably here.

Yeah you can still widen the legs if you prefer.

Feel how the breath kind of massages the body.

Come on up with your breath in.

Grab a hold of your left thigh,

Lift it up and you might just cross the left leg over the right.

Or you could turn this into a figure four and bring the left ankle over the right knee or thigh.

Flex the foot so the heel reaches towards the right and the toes point back towards the left knee.

Think of your knee moving down in space.

The goal here is to feel some sensation into the left hip,

Thigh or glute.

Nothing in the knee.

Wherever you are here you might inhale.

Maybe your exhale allows you to fold forward,

Maybe just a little kind of hinging in the hips or maybe a lot.

Finding almost that same forward fold you just had a moment ago.

Breathe into that area of sensation.

Just longer hold for this one.

On your own time you could come up.

You might keep the legs as they are and find just a little twist side to side.

And unravel the legs.

Let's try it out on the other side.

Grab a hold of the right thigh this time.

Lift it up.

An option to cross the legs or maybe you bring the right ankle over the left knee.

Keep that foot nice and flexed.

Let the knee move down.

Breathe in,

Find some length in the spine.

Exhale as you fold forward any amount.

Then we linger and breathe.

You might notice how a few breaths here feel so different than a few breaths in our lunge pose or those poses demanding strength.

Enjoying this kind of deep release.

Take another few breaths.

Come on up nice and slow.

Maybe you find a little twist side to side.

And we'll unravel the legs.

Shake them out.

Then let's dust off the body.

Bring your right hand to your right shoulder and sweep down towards your fingertips.

We'll do that a few times.

Sweeping from shoulder down to the tips of the finger.

Try to get every part of the arm.

Sweeping into the crook of the elbow,

Even into the underarm area.

Just sweeping off all this work we've done.

Once you've got every part of that arm,

Try the other one.

Opposite hand to opposite shoulder.

Sweeping down and away.

Every part of that arm is touched.

Feeling your own hand on your own body.

You could sweep off the chest,

The shoulders,

The belly,

Like you're sweeping dust or sand off.

You could sweep off the face,

The top of your head.

Even just give yourself a little pat on the back.

Sometimes that feels nice.

You can try to dust off any part of your back that you can reach.

There will always be a place where we can't quite touch.

You could sweep off the legs,

Down and away from the body.

Maybe you can even make it to your toes and the sole of your feet.

Sweep it all off.

Once you've swept off the entire body,

Let go.

Let yourself melt into your chair.

Lean back if you can.

This resting part at the end of our practice,

Shavasana,

Is really nice and really important.

It allows your body to soak up this practice.

Let yourself rest.

Your only job for the next couple of moments is to feel into the body.

Notice what feels a little different.

Noticing how we feel at the end of our practice.

Let yourself rest.

Bring your hands over your heart any way that's meaningful to you.

See if you can feel your heartbeat in your hands.

Send gratitude to your heart for beating.

To your body for all the hard work it does for you.

We could send some gratitude to those who came before us,

Who passed this practice down to us.

Send gratitude to yourself for carving out this time in your day to practice and breathe together.

Thank you so much for joining me for your practice today.

Peace.

Thank you.

Reviews

Awesome! I could follow everything she said. Perfectly timed for the pose and the breath.

Even though I’d not done one of her live events and this was audio, it was effective in restoring a sense of calm and peace. Namaste

So grateful to have found this chair yoga!!! I have trouble with arthritis in both knees so this will help me strengthen my body so I don't put all my weight on my knees! Thank you!!! 🙏💓

Hello beautiful 🌸🎀🌸🎀🌸Thank you so much for wonderfully chair yoga 🌷🎀amazingly going through my whole body and givyme smiles and glimmering 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste

Beautiful! The lunge to goddess to lunge was pretty brilliant 😄, but I wouldn’t expect any different from Hannah 🖤. I had two very large release “cracks” during this practice that I’ve felt building up the past week, so that was a huge bonus! Great stuff, thank you 🖤🖤🥰

Chair yoga is so under rated. This was noticeably helpful and enjoyable. Thanks!

Thanks Hannah! I loved this session. I will do this again.

I haven't done yoga in years & this is a lovely way to start again slowly. 🙏❤️

Always enjoy

Great chair yoga guided practice!

Excellent Chair Yoga Practice💥Hannah Brown is an Amazing Woman and Yoga Teacher. I LOVE this Chair Yoga, either Live on Tuesday or Anytime on Insight Timer
Pre-recorded. Hannah's Yoga has helped me Immensely.
I do this Recorded Chair Yoga Frequently. It has Helped My Body to Heal❤💞🙏

Hannah is a terrific teacher who helped me understand that perfect positioning is not the point - presence is. This is terrific for a beginner or older folks to wake up those muscles we tend to neglect

Wonderful, easy way to stretch gently and safely.

This is an amazing class! When I can’t attend your LIVE classes, this is my alternative—my Go-To yoga session to maintain my daily practice. Thank you for your clear verbal cues🙏🏼 You make it easy to follow along and smoothly flow from one pose to the next. I almost skipped the “brushing off” portion, but I’m so glad I did it!! What an incredible feeling❤️‼️ Thank you for this gift, Hannah!🙏🏼🌟

Really great! I love all the explanations and suggestions. Very effective yoga session. 🙏🤗🌺