Chair Yoga For Golfers-Improve Mobility, Flexibility & Focus

This 30-minute chair yoga session is designed specifically for golfers to enhance mobility, flexibility, and stability, all from the comfort of a chair. Are you recovering from an injury, looking to prevent stiffness, or simply wanting to improve your swing? These stretches will help you stay strong and fluid on the course. The intention of this session is to help you: increase flexibility in the hips, shoulders, and spine; improve balance and posture for a smoother swing; release tension and stiffness in the back, neck, and wrists; develop core strength and stability; and calm the mind and improve focus. This practice is beginner-friendly and accessible to all levels. No special equipment is needed, only a sturdy chair and an open mind. Please remember to listen to your body and consult with a professional if you are recovering from an injury.

Transcript

Hi everyone, My name is Catherine and today's chair yoga class is for golfers. This class is intended to be used before going out on the course or maybe even in the weeks leading up to golf season. This is great for anyone to improve their golf swing and most importantly, Prevent injuries. We'll mainly be working the shoulders, Neck, And core, But the whole body will get a little bit of a warm up. So all you'll need for this class is a chair, A sturdy chair without wheels. If you have one that doesn't have sides, That would be great too. You can wear sneakers or be barefoot for this practice. And if you have blocks, You might use something similar to a yoga block or books to help bring the earth up closer to you, Especially depending on the height of your chair. And the height of your legs, You might want to put the blocks underneath your feet. And if you don't have blocks, Just find some books around the house that are similar in size to what a yoga block might look like, Like I have here. If you have a yoga strap, You could use, It doesn't have to be a yoga strap, You could use a scarf, Any kind of strap, Or you could actually use your golf club for what we'll be doing with this. So have something, Either your club or a strap handy for some twisting later on. Having everything set up next to you in your space. We'll get started through today's flow. This practice is for everyone. You can do this even if you are not a golfer and just want a nice stretch, Or this would be great to start or end your day. Let's begin seated in what we call Mountain Pose. This whole practice will be done in the chair. So finding a comfortable seat with your ankles under your knees, You might sway a little bit side to side in the chair so you find where The sitting bones land evenly. Maybe taking a couple rolls of the shoulders. Up and back. Creating some space between the ears and the shoulders. And then if it feels comfortable for you, You might start to soften your gaze down at the floor or maybe even close your eyes, Your choice. Just to take a moment of breath awareness here. So great to focus the mind before going out to play. Even focusing the mind at the beginning or the end of the day. Just scanning the body from the soles of your feet, Feeling where the feet touch the earth. All the way up your legs. And spine. Up to the shoulders. Feel the ears come over the shoulders and the spine lift up nice and tall as you take a couple mindful breaths here. In and out. Not trying to change or fix anything, Just feel your breath. Flow in its own natural rhythm. The hands might be resting on your legs, Or maybe you even take one hand to the heart. One hand to the abdomen. Helping to feel the breath. As it moves through the body. And at this time, You might choose to set an intention. You might be setting an intention to stay focused. For the game ahead. Or any other word or intention that comes to you naturally. Repeating your intention to yourself here. Once or twice. With absolute certainty. And with the eyes still softened, You might let the hands rest down by your side. Palms facing forward. And start to inhale as you reach the arms up overhead, Nice wide reach, Either interlacing the fingers overhead or reaching for your elbows, Whatever feels more comfortable. We'll start to press the heels of the hands up gently towards the sky, Stretching through the sides of the body. Maybe even taking a gentle sway over to your right. Keeping the hips grounded and then a little sway to the left. And then slowly with control, Start to lower the hands all the way down to your lap. Pressing through the heels of the hands. Stretching through the sides and backs of your arms. Once the hands reach down towards your lap, You can release the fingers. And just start to roll out the rest. You can take the hands in and just take some gentle circles of the rest one way. And then the other. And then catching a hold of either your wrist or your forearms or even near your elbows, Whatever feels accessible. Nice tall spine lifting up nice and tall. We're gonna inhale, Bring the arms over to the right as you bring your gaze towards the left. Taking a full breath in here. It doesn't have to be far of a movement. Start to come back through center. Let the hands, Arms, And head all meet in center. And then go the opposite way. Arms go to the left, Gaze goes to the right. Come back through center and do that two more times at your own pace and rhythm. Shifting the arms one way. And the gaze the other way. And then coming back through. Take one more at your own pace. Following your breath. With the movement. Just like you will in your golf game, Continuing to come back to the breath. Lower the hands and let the arms roll out by your sides. From here, We'll just take one ear down towards the shoulder, Doesn't matter what side you start on, And then come back up to center, Go the other way. Couple times gently, Ear to shoulder, Keeping the shoulders reaching down, Shoulder blades Lowered. Letting go of any shrugging or tension that might be held. Next time you're at neutral, We'll start to bring the gaze side to side, Like a nice slow no, Looking towards one shoulder and then the other, Being careful not to bring your shoulders and torso with you, Just the head. Side to side. Next time you're back at center, Nice and slow. Yes, Up to the sky. Down to the earth. The back is still nice and straight. Continue to look up. And then down. If it feels better to close your eyes as you do this. You could close the eyes or soften the gaze. The next time you're at neutral, Take the nose forward and draw little circles with your nose one direction, About three times one direction, Whatever size circles you have. Feel comfortable. Then switch direction. Maybe the circles are smaller or larger now. Continuing to warm up through the neck. Come back to center, Shrug out the shoulders a little bit more, Take a couple rolls of the shoulders here, And then make that some torso circles. So keeping the hips grounded, You can keep the hands on the legs or even down by the sides of your chair. We're just going to bring the heart forward, Back and around. So feel the whole sternum press forward. Come to the side, Back, And around. Now match your breath. Inhale as you come to the side, Exhale as you circle back around. Finding some deep breaths. Again, This could be a very small circle of the torso or maybe a little larger. Change direction now, Reverse the circles, Whichever way you were going. Start to change direction going the other way. So you feel the ribs come forward to the side. Back and around. Now we're gonna take a similar motion but widen the feet a little bit. You might even turn the toes out slightly and then take the circles. Now you might start to feel this warming up a little bit more through the hips. Maybe now the circles are a little bit larger, Maybe even smaller. And then change direction once again, Circling the opposite way. Now we're gonna move the circles down to the ankles. So walk the feet back in together, Lifting one foot up. You could hold underneath the leg if that feels comfortable and circle the ankle about three times one direction and then switch maybe three to five circles. And then lower the foot down, Come to the other side, Circling the opposite foot three to five times, Finding some movement in the legs and feet. And circling the opposite way, Good. Start to lower the feet down and you might just pedal out the feet a little bit, Maybe tap out the feet. Finding a little more movement through the legs. Coming back to that seated mountain pose, The heels are under the knees. Shoulders are up over the hips. We're gonna start to pull the heart, The sternum, Forward. Reach the hands and elbows back. So you're creating a little bit of a back bend. And then on the exhale, Bring the hands to the knees, Round the spine, Cat-Cow. We'll take that five more times. Inhale, Big breath in to come forward. Reach the elbows back, Exhale, Cat-Cow. Round forward. Take it at your own breath, Your own pace. You could go a little quick through this or you could go nice and slow. Good, We're gonna start to combine these movements a little bit, Coming back up to a seat, Coming back to where we started, Reaching the arms up high towards the sky, Interlace the hands, Press the heels of the hands up towards the sky. The elbows will have as much of a bend as the shoulders are comfortable with, So the hands could be as high up as the arms in the back feel comfortable. If it feels better to reach closer down the wrist or forearms, You might do that. We're gonna inhale to lift, Exhale, Take the hands to the outside of the right knee and feel your left hip. Pulling back just slightly. Full breath in here. Hands reaching towards one knee, Hip pulling over towards the opposite direction. On the next inhale, Come back up through neutral and go the other way, Coming down towards your outside of the left knee. Feel the right hip now reaching the opposite direction as the hands. Big side stretch. We'll do that two more times. Inhale to come up. Exhale, Lower down to the right. Feel the left hip reach back to the left. And how to come up once more, This time to the left. And take it one more time each way, Lifting and lowering. Preparing the body for some swings and motion and twists. Making your way back up to center, Start to sweep the arms down. And maybe take just a little sway of the arms, Let the arms come down and take a sway forward and back. The shoulders release. Now we're going to take the arms straight up to cactus arms. So nice bend of the elbows here. The spine is nice and straight. You're gonna inhale here, And then as you exhale, Bring the hands down towards the earth. Taking this about 10 more times or so, Your hands could go all the way so the fingers point down if that feels accessible to the arms, Or it could be just a small lowering of the hands just an inch or two. So feel what feels right in your body today. The whole back nice and aligned, Just like we started, And feel where the limit is. Maybe with a couple rounds, The hands start to rotate a little further down. And know that each day this might feel or look a little bit different in your body. Most importantly, We're getting this. External and internal rotation of the shoulder happening. Depending on what you have going on with your shoulders, It might also feel better to just take one arm at a time. So you might do one arm a couple times, Rest that arm, And then take the other. Especially if you've had any injuries, Surgeries, Or maybe just favor one side over the other, It might feel more effective to do one at a time. Start to lower the arms back down and grab your strap. Or your club or whatever you have that you can hold into a straight line here. So we're gonna have the hands a little bit wider than shoulder width apart. So however that works in your strap, If you have the strap loop. And you want to hold the edges that way, That might be an option. If you have a scarf or something else, You could use that or a rope. With the arms here, We're going to take a twisting motion side to side. So creating a twist through the core. On the inhale, Twist to the right. Exhale back to center, Twist to the left. Back to center. Don't worry too much about the breath, Just keep breathing full breath. Feeling the fullness of the four points of the breath. The inhale, The pause. The exhale, The pause. And then find a speed in this twist that feels good for your body. So be kind to your body. It doesn't have to be a large twist. You might be going very small, Side to side, Feeling this motion through the center of your spine, Right through the thoracic. So as you twist side to side, You might be going a little slower now, Or maybe you've picked up a little pace, A little heat. Continue for just a couple more rounds. Notice where the breath is. Notice where sensation is in the body. Just as the observer, Not to judge anything. Knowing that each time you do this, Might feel a little bit different. After this next round, We're going to pause and center and lower the arms down. Good, You can take their strapper, Whatever you used, Over to the side now. Coming back to center, Take any little roll of the shoulders or body. And then we're going to take the hands to interlace behind your back, If that's accessible. Another option may be to hold the sides of the chair a little bit lower. So we're going to come to a slight back bend. We're going to roll the shoulder blades back and extend the sternum, The heart space forward. So if you're holding the sides of the chair, This is how it might look. You may also take your hands to interlace behind your back and reach your hands back, Opening up through the throat, Through the front of the body. Or depending on how your chair is, You might hold the back of the seat. Wherever you are, Take another two full breaths. Feeling this slight, Slight back bend. And then gently release the hands. And take a forward fold, Keeping the hips down. Just try to melt down towards the mat. Let the arms sway here. You might rock a little bit side to side with the hips. Or find any other motion that feels good. And then using your core, Inhale to lift your arms out to the sides. And then reach the arms all the way back up to the sky. Lowering the hands down. To your heart space. Okay, Let's take a little bit of a tricep stretch for the arms. Taking your right arm up to the sky, Take the right hand to the place between your shoulder blades or maybe to the back of your neck. Take the left hand to gently press the elbow down like you're reaching the hand down a little bit. Hopefully you're feeling this somewhere along the tricep area of your arm. You may also be feeling it around your underarms or your side body. Stay with it for a couple more breaths. There's no need to be forceful in the pushing of the elbow. Just let the motion happen. Let the stretch gently. Release, Opening. All the connective tissue. Creating new space and energy. Release the left hand down, Release the right hand down. Take the opposite side. Opposite hand comes up. To the back of the neck or the space between the shoulder blades. Take the right hand now to the elbow. Notice this side might feel different, Might feel. A lot tighter, Maybe a little more flexible. The goal is all about finding balance. Mobility, Stability. And a deeper stretch. Helping to. . . Prevent and avoid. Any future strain or injuries. With the next breath, Release both hands back down. This time we're going to take the right arm across the body and take the left hand towards the forearm. So as you start to reach the arm, Try your best not to bring the torso with you to the side. Keep the shoulders squared off to the front of your chair and just gently guide the arm across the body. Getting in this way closer towards the deltoids. All different. Areas surrounding the shoulders, All different areas used. Within the practice, Within the game. One more breath here. Maybe the arm is slowly getting closer towards your body. It may not have changed at all. Start to release both hands down, Take the opposite side. The left arm come across the body. Notice if the whole shoulder and torso wanted to come with you. Bring those shoulders to square back off. Gently guide the arm. Across the front of your body. Holding with either your hand or forearm to forearm. With the next breath, Start to release the arms down, Shake out the hands and arms as needed. We'll take one more side body stretch, Then we're gonna take two lower body stretches and finish off the practice. So for this next one, You're gonna walk here. Right foot out to the side. So you may come to the corner edge of your chair depending on what type of chair you're seated in. So we're making this like V shape on the corner of your chair. The left foot is facing forward. The right foot is facing towards the side. If this doesn't feel good with your hips or body, Just find a way that adapts. To feel comfortable in a similar type style position. The legs can also face forward and you can follow along with the side bend without creating the shape. If anything doesn't feel comfortable, Listen to your body, Listen to your hips. And move mindfully through the practice. We're going to start with the. Opposite hand, Your left hand down by the side of the chair. Take the right arm up and over. Feeling from the right foot to the right hand, This whole side opening up. Feeling the breath, The body from the right. Top of your head, Down the waist. Deep breath in, Deep breath out. Maybe the hand is behind the head or at the shoulder. Use your core strength. Inhale to come back up to center. Open both arms up to a T here. This is a variation of gate pose. Take the opposite hand now down to the leg. And reach now your left hand up and overhead. If reaching the fingers overhead doesn't feel good, Again, Come to the back of the head or the shoulder, Or maybe even just keep the hand down at the waist. You might rotate just slightly up towards the sky. Or rotate the gaze more down towards the earth. Feel. Where the breath is traveling. Where the stretch is happening. Start to use the core strength again, Ground down through your feet, Through your glutes, Through your seat. Inhale and lift back up. Bring the hands into heart center and start to walk the feet so that you're coming to the opposite side now, Creating the same movement on the other side. We'll take the right hand down to the chair first and reach the right arm up and over. Feeling. The opposite side now. So for you, I'm sorry, The left arm is probably extended over your head and you're feeling from the left foot up to the left arm, This long reach. Without collapsing into the right side. Use your breath, Your core to lift back out to a T. Take that left hand now down to the leg and reach the right arm up and over. The hand might be at the shoulder, The head, The neck, Or the waist. Maybe the ribs. The heart are turned up to the sky. Or down towards the earth. Breathe here. Whichever variation you're in on this side, We're creating space and length through the waist. Through the side body. Inhale to reach back out. Bring the hands back into the heart center. Walk the feet back to center. Realign to the center of your chair. Working just a little bit of core and hip stability and strength. The hands could be at your waist or you could hold on to the sides of the chair. We're gonna just lift the feet. So it's like a seated march. You could do this standing too if you wanted to work your balance a little more. The feet don't have to come up high, Just lift one knee and then the other. Keep the seat nice and grounded. If you want to add on, You could even start to lift. The opposite hand up. Working the shoulder strength. And the core in a different way, Your choice. You could go at different paces here, Maybe picking up the pace a little. Or going really slow. And mindfully. Noticing how the muscles around the core. Maybe work even stronger and harder. When you move slow. With your breath. Take one more on each side to even things out and then rest the feet down. Let the knees sway a bit side to side. We're gonna start to take a little bit of a hamstring stretch. So if you had a strap or a rope or. . . Scarf or something that you'd like to reach under the sole of your foot to help with this, You could strap something underneath the sole of your foot. We'll take the right foot forward first. The toes could be lifted or they could be lowered to the floor. The straighter the leg is, The deeper the stretch. Depending on your chair, You might need to shimmy closer towards the edge. Just make sure you're stable on the chair. If you are near the edge, You might hold on to the sides of the chair. And as that leg extends and straightens, We're looking to get a stretch through the back of the right leg. If it's not much of a stretch or sensation, You might, With each breath, Start to melt the heart down closer towards the center of the body, Keeping the hips grounded as you inhale. Find length as you exhale, Maybe lower closer towards the leg. And how find length. Exhale, Release. If you have the strap, You might be using the strap to help guide the leg straighter or closer. And with the next couple breaths, If you're forward or have the strap, Start to come back to neutral, Bring the foot back in. Sweep out that foot a little bit, And then take the same foot, The right foot, To either cross over the left ankle. For figure four, Or if accessible, You might even cross the ankle over the top of the left knee. So wherever this foot is, If the knee is feeling some sensation, You might choose to flex the toes back a bit more towards the knee. If this is a lot fully lifted here, Keep the foot down closer towards the ankle. If you haven't felt enough, Of a stretch around your hip. Right glutes. Then you might start to hold on to the sides of the chair and with a straight back, Melt closer towards the legs. Deepening the opening, Deepening the sensation. Let's see what feels good here. Stay with it for about three more full breaths. Full breath in. Exhale out. Full breath in. Hands could be resting on top of the leg or holding the sides of the chair. Take your time to gently. Lift back up if you've melted forward. And circle out. The right knee and hips. Couple circles each way. Coming to the other side, Extend the left leg. Toes could be down or lifted as straight as the left leg wants to be. Maybe placing that strap under the sole of the foot to help guide the leg straighter. And if you want to go deeper here, You could hold the sides of the chair, Keep the seat grounded and start to melt forward, Deepening the stretch up the back of the leg. Stay with this side a couple more breaths. Use the breath to help you. Go further into the stretch as needed. Making sure. The hamstrings can support the low back. As you start to make your way back. Into the spring like weather or golf season whenever it is. In your season. In your time in life. Take your time to lift the chest, Lift the heart, Lift the head. Bring that foot to cross over the ankle or the top of the knee, Depending on where you are in this side, Finding the left hip. Glute opening. Just a bit more. This is great. You have low back pain, Sciatica. A very gentle. Kind way to find some relief there. If you've been traveling or in the car. This can also be a great. Stretch to do. The morning, The night, Before you play or after the game. If you need a block to go under the foot as it crosses over too, You could put a block or book there. And if you choose to melt closer towards the center, Deepening the sensation, Deepening the stretch. That might be an option too. With the next breath, Slowly take your time to come back up. Release the foot, Release the leg. Circle out the hip a bit here. Bring the feet back to neutral where you started, But find a comfortable position. Find any last movements, Any last sway or circling of the body. Maybe a little stretch in the feet by letting the toes curl under. If you have sneakers on, Sometimes this works. If you're barefoot, It might work better. Maybe getting just a bit of a stretch through the tops of the feet or the shins and ankles. And then bringing the whole body into a resting position. Resting the hands, Resting the arms. Maybe even softening the gaze or closing your eyes. Your choice. Letting go of any control. And just taking a moment here to set your intention now maybe for a strong and focused game. For Focus, Stay ahead. Bringing your mind and attention back. To the health and stability of your body. And when you feel ready, Knowing there's no rush, As you start to make your way back out, If the eyes are closed, You might start to flutter the eyes open. And wiggle your fingers and toes, Ankles and wrists. Coming back out of the practice and into the day. With so much love and gratitude.