25 Minute Chair Yoga For Upper Body & Posture

This 25 minute chair yoga class focuses on upper body strength and improving posture!
It is perfect for anyone looking to build stability, balance, and confidence in their movements.

The intention of this class is to build stronger shoulders, arms, and upper back muscles.
Release tension in the neck and chest and find gentle movements for better spinal alignment.

No yoga experience is needed to participate. The only prop you will need is a sturdy chair! If you have light hand weights and a blanket, that would be helpful to have available too.

Transcript

Everyone, Thanks for joining today for this Improve Your Posture Chair Yoga class. This entire class will be done with the upper body only. So all you need is a sturdy chair. There's no lower body movements in this practice. It will be heart opening focused. So we're working on pulling the shoulder blades back, Opening the heart forward, Stretching a little bit through the neck, Working to stretch, Strengthen, And stabilize all along the sides and the back of the body. A couple of prop options you might have today might be a rolled blanket similar to what I have here and either two weights, Light weights, Either one pound or two pounds or two water bottles of about the same weight or a soup can might work. If you would like to add a little extra weight for the strength part of the arms. You definitely don't need it. You'll still feel the strength benefits without the weight. Just an option there. So we'll start with some mindful breaths. If you feel that this practice or any of the other chair practices are valuable, You could like, You can subscribe, You can share with friends or comment below on other ideas of practices that you'd like to see on this channel. And we'll begin maybe with the eyes closed, Maybe with the gaze soft, Letting the hands rest either by the sides of the chair or on your lap. Start to bring awareness to your posture as you arrive here. The arms land, Wherever the gaze is, Notice if you could bring the head back just a little bit further. Letting the ears come more over the shoulders. The shoulders. More over the head. Feeling this beautiful lift of the spine as the sitting bones ground down to your chair and the top of the head rises up towards the sky. As you're doing this, You might feel that you're sitting even just slightly forward of the sitting bones. And the shoulders are pulling back even further than where they would normally be in a seated position. Pausing here to take a few mindful breaths. Bringing awareness to the body. Awareness to the spine Inhaling deeply. Exhaling fully. If it feels right for you to set an intention. You might set an intention here. Maybe it's just one word that you bring with you. Into this class. Repeating your intention to yourself a couple times. With absolute certainty. And positivity. The next couple breaths see if you can let the exhale be just slightly longer than the inhale Feeling the heart lift on the inhale. Maybe even the abdomen, Expand. And on the exhale, Feeling your seat melt deeper into the surface beneath you, But the heart continues to extend forward. This is a practice of receiving, Of opening. Of creating homeostasis and balance throughout the whole upper body. For the next breath, If the eyes are closed, You might start to flutter the eyes open. And just begin to take a couple gentle circles of the torso. Circling the upper ribs forward, Back and around. Maybe the eyes are still closed for this. And then whichever way you're circling start to change direction to circle the opposite way. Forward, Back, And around. Taking a similar motion with the neck. We'll bring the gaze over the right shoulder, Starting to look over your right shoulder, Keeping the shoulders facing forward and the torso facing forward. Start to lower the chin down towards the chest and circle the neck around. All the way until you come to face the left shoulder. Pause here. Notice if the shoulders are trying to turn with you. Keep the shoulders forward, Just warming up the neck here. Couple more slow half circles, Gazing over one shoulder, Coming down, Around, And up to the other. Noticing the small movements. And then it doesn't need to be a big dramatic movement of the neck. You might begin to gaze at And then down, Opening through the throat. Again, Noticing if the upper back tries to round and join into the stretch, Keeping the shoulders pulled back as you lift the chin, Lift the gaze, And then round the chin down. Roll the shoulders back down in a way. And the next breath coming back up. We'll take a cat cow in a different form today with cactus arms. So opening the arms wide. If this doesn't feel good for your shoulders, You could pull the elbows in lower or just take a standard cat cow with the hands on the legs. As the arms are wide, See if you can pull the arms back a little bit further, Extending the heart forward. As you do this, We'll round into cat and take the elbows to kiss together in front, Rounding the spine. Now match the breath for five more rounds. Inhale to open the heart. Pull the elbows back. Maybe the gaze comes up. Little backbend. Exhale, Round forward. Lower the chin towards the chest. Pull the navel in towards the spine. Three more. Deep, Slow movement. Working the muscles slow and focused. Inhale to open. Stretch through the front of the body. Exhale to round. Taking one more as we inhale to open. Exhale to round. This time maybe the hands reach forward on the knees. Start to bring the hands back up. And we'll open the fascia along the shoulders and the side body. So with this move, We're going to take the left hand to your heart center. Just to keep the torso still here. So without rotating the whole body, Just like with the neck stretch, We're keeping the torso facing forward. The hand here just reminds the body to stay upright, Keeping that straight posture. Keeping the torso facing forward. Start to reach the right arm out to the side, Gaze to the hand as you look wide to the hand. Pull the arm back in to tap the opposite shoulder and then begin to work your way down. Reaching long through the arm, Come back to the shoulder. Continuing like you're stepping down a ladder here. Big reach through the arm, Take the hand back in. Again, Moving slow. Through this motion. Not allowing momentum to take over. Really take your time to watch the hand come up. Once you've reached pointing down at the floor, Start to work your way back up the ladder, Taking hand to shoulder, Opening arm wide. Hand to shoulder and open the arm wide. Coming all the way up to the point where your hand is reaching towards where the wall and the ceiling meet. And then work your way back down to shoulder height. So following this pattern at your own pace. Match the breath to the movement. Continue to follow the hand with your neck and gaze. Once you've reached shoulder level with your hand, Lower the hand down so the palm faces in towards your body. And take a couple circles of the right shoulder. A couple times one way. And then the other way. You might rest both hands down by the side. Either closing the eyes, Softening the gaze, Or just being with the body for a moment here. Feel and notice. The right side body, The right shoulder feels any different than the left. It might, It might not. Just being aware. Observing the differences between one side and the other. And then we'll take the right hand to the heart and repeat the same thing on the other side. Starting with hand to shoulder, Reach the arm to shoulder height. Taking this all the way down towards the floor, Taking your time to stretch long and draw the hand in. Stretch along. Dry the hand in. Noticing and observing that one side might feel a little tighter. It might stretch a little easier. We tend to have one more dominant side of the body. Maybe a side that you use more. Yoga works beautifully to create that balance between the left and the right. Once you've reached where the ceiling and the wall meet, You can start to work your way back down towards shoulder level. Notice if you've started to increase the pace, Can you keep it slow? And focus. Once you're back to the shoulder level, No rush, Taking it at your own pace. Lower the hand down. Take a couple circles of the shoulder one way. And then a couple circles the other way. And then we'll rest both arms down by the side. Maybe roll both shoulders back down and away a couple times. Notice what you feel. Notice any changes, Maybe the palms rotate to face forward, Maybe the palms are facing in. Taking a couple deep breaths here. Feeling this opening. This stretch. Take out time now if you'd like to incorporate the weights. You could reach for your weights now. Not necessary, Not needed, But just an option. So we're really working to work the back of the lats, The back body strength here. So if you have cans, Bottles, Or weights that you'd like to incorporate, We're going to take the weights in so our elbows are close to the body. As the elbows come in close to the body, Light hold of the weights. Notice if you're gripping or tensing anywhere. Now bring awareness to the neck and the shoulders. Tries to help wherever it can. See if you can relax the jaw. Relax, Lynette. Relax the shoulders. If this feels like you're tensing just to hold the weights here, Then place the weights down and do this without the weights. If you have the weights, Great. Notice the strength of just holding the weights in this position for a moment. Then we're gonna start to bring the hands in closer towards each other. And take the arms back out. Feel the shoulder blades squeeze back together. Inhale bring the weights in together. Exhale squeeze the shoulder blades back together. Nothing else is moving. Find a gazing point. Maybe down or straight ahead. That helps to relax the muscles of the face. Relaxing through the neck. So that all the work is happening in the back body. If the weights start to feel too much. Just place them down and do it without the weight. Find a speed that's working for you. Slow and consistent. To create change in the body. Finding this even pattern in breath. We'll take three more. And then after the next one, We're gonna pause. Keeping the arms out to the sides, Or if you need to just rest for a minute and shake it out in the arms, Let the weights come down to the legs and shake it out, We're gonna come back to the same position. As you feel ready, You can watch first if you want and then come into it. Taking the elbows into the sides, Arms out to the sides. Similar movement. We're going to reach the arms out and then pull the elbows back in. So we're reaching out and then pulling the elbows back in towards your side body. Again, We're focusing on sitting up nice and tall. Working our posture by strengthening the back muscles. Avoiding the shoulders and the neck. Coming forward and curling in. Sitting with the heart open. We're gonna take a couple more like this. Same thing if the weights are feeling too much or you feel discomfort on one side or the other, Just let the weights come down and do it without. If it feels better for you to take one side at a time, You could take one arm at a time. Rather than both together. Especially if one side is rehabbing or coming back out of an injury. Or you have one side that's very dominant. And the other that's working on building the strength back up. Find what works for your body today. And we'll take two more, Wherever you are. If that's two more on each side, Great. If it's two more together. And then we'll bring the weights down to the sides. Lower the weights down. Then just shake the arms out a little bit. You might lean forward and let the arms sway. Letting the arms sway side to side or around, No specific rhythm or pattern. Just. . . Being in this motion. Coming back up to a tall seat, Lifting the heart, Rolling the shoulder blades back down and away, We'll start to strengthen the core. So still working the low back, The mid back. And then the center of the abdomen muscles and lower muscles. So you'll feel this in different ways. I'm going to turn sideways so you can see how far I'm leaning back. And depending on what type of chair you're sitting in, You might need to shimmy a little bit more forward on your chair. It's going to be a very small, Small movement. We're going to cross the hands of the chest. The same idea, Hand to shoulder, So that we're keeping the torso straight and reminding the body to stay upright. So the shoulders are stacked over the hips. The ears are coming back. A little bit further. Pausing to feel this motion. Let the shoulders cross, Hands crossed opposite shoulders. And we're gonna hinge back into a core strength movement. So keeping the core engaged, We're gonna start to hinge back and then pull yourself back up. So very small movement. Avoid any rounding of the spine. We're coming straight back and then pulling the body back up. Take six more and match your breath to the movement. Inhale to come back. Exhale, Big strength to come back up. As you come back up, Try to stop in that straight position. Avoiding that momentum push of coming forward. So when we come back to a seat, We want to come straight back to that seat that we started in. And then hinge back Pull forward and hinge back. Take three more. Just like that, And then we're going to switch it up. Finding your own pattern and your own pace. Pause as you need, And then take the arms back down. Let the arms sway a little bit side to side. We're gonna do the same thing, But this time hinge forward. So without letting the low back get involved in it, The low back will be strengthening as the core is strengthening, But we don't want the low back to be rounding and taking over the movement. So still crossing at the arms, Crossing the hands over the heart space. We're gonna start to hinge forward. And then pull back up to a straight seat. As you pull up, You might imagine like there's a string coming from the top of your head. As you hinge forward, You come straight back to where you started. For six more of the same thing, Hinging forward, Pulling yourself back up. Finding the breath to match it. And find the pace. That works in this direction. Noticing how it feels maybe a little bit different than the last direction. Coming back up, Release the hands. And we'll take a little gentle twist. Releasing that before we come to one more backbend. Coming to the twist you could take the hands to the hip Lifting up nice and tall. If you want to reach your arms up overhead for a little more cardio, You could bring the arms up overhead too or out to the sides. We're going to inhale, Lift up proud. Exhale, Twist to the right. Take opposite hand to opposite knee. Maybe hold the back of the chair or the side of the chair by your hips. Lifting tall. Feel yourself twist a little deeper with the exhale. One more breath here. Keep the body in the twist, But turn the gaze to come forward, So not unwinding the twist. Start to take the left ear down towards the left shoulder. Little stretch for the right side of the neck. Breathing here. Maybe adjusting the nose or the chin slightly up or down. Feel the stretch down the right side of your neck. Start to lift the head back up and then gently unwind the torso back to center. Find a little shake, Reach the arms back up or out. Inhale, Big inhale, Exhale, Twist to the opposite side. Hand comes to knee, Twist through the torso. Feel the ribs finding the twist. Keep the head lifted tall. From here, We'll turn the head to face forward, Keep the torso in the twist and bring the right ear down towards the right shoulder. So we're stretching now through the back of the left shoulder, The traps are the opposite of whatever side you were at. Maybe the nose or the chin comes down slightly. Bring the head back up to stack over the torso, Start to unwind, Come back to center. Shake it out a little bit here. We're going to come to a back bend now. So we call this locust pose, Which on a mat class, You would do lying down. Since we're seated, This is where you might use the blanket. It's not necessary. So if you don't have one, It works just the same. No worries. If you have a pillow or something else that you'd like to place on your lap, You could do that. It's just going to give us that little extra space to fill as your belly kind of presses down towards the blanket. So I'll again do this one facing forward. First and then I'll turn to the side so you can see the back. We're going to keep the gaze down with this so we want to focus on the neck staying nice and long. Be kind to the neck, Soften through the jaw. A few different options from the hands. So we'll take a couple different rounds. You can reach the hands down by your sides to start. And start to pull the arms back. Maybe the palms are facing in towards you, Or you might have the palms facing down. We'll start to extend the heart forward. And feel the shoulder blades pulling back down and away. So you feel the heart extending and the back opening. Gaze forward and breathe here. And then start to come back down. Bring the hands together and maybe roll into the blanket a little bit. I'll show from a side view of this. So depending on what style chair you're sitting in, You might use the back of the chair to hold onto too. This helps to rotate the shoulder blades down sometimes, Or you might interlace your hands behind your back. All depends on how you're feeling and what looks and feels like a good option for today. So if the hands are interlaced, You're going to inhale, Lift the heart, Roll the shoulder blades back down and away. Gaze forward, Long neck, Long spine. Really press the lower abdomen into your blanket or pillow, Feeling that support. Feeling that pressure, Light pressure there for you. Breathing deeply, Start to release the hand. Maybe round into the blanket or take a little cat cow if that feels good to counter. And then we'll take one or two more. So taking the same options, Either reaching for the back of the chair, Interlacing the hands, Maybe doing it without the blanket to see how that feels in your body. Or reaching the arms back behind you. As the arms extend back, The fingers reach long and the shoulder blades pull back. Continue to breathe here. Notice where your eyes go. Adjust how this feels in your neck. So if you're feeling a lot of tension in the neck, It may be where you're looking. You might watch the video and then try it. On your own without looking. At any screen. Start to release, Roll forward, Maybe take the hands to your knees for a big child's pose. Or if it feels good for you to fold fully over the blanket or your legs, You could take a full forward fold from the hips in your chair. Maybe finding a little sway side to side here. And then we'll interlace the hands. Press the heels of the hands away. Maybe the thumbs are down or in. As you start to press the heels of the hands away, Keep as much of a bend in the elbows as it feels good for the upper arms. But feel the spine lift. So we're not rounding into this right now. We're lifting up tall through the spine. That might be bringing the elbows more back here if it's too intense of a stretch for the arms. Pressing away. Feeling the top of the head reach up tall. Breathe here. And then slowly start to lower the hands. Towards your lap. There may be one spot that feels really good in the back. Or in the arms, If there is, Just breathe into that spot a few breaths. Maybe going back up to return to any spot that felt nice. Keeping the fingers interlaced, Draw the elbows down, Circle the wrist a couple times one way. And then the other way. Take the hands now to interlace around the wrist or the forearms. Start to bring the arms over towards your right. Bring your gaze towards the left. Keep the torso facing forward, Just the arms and the gaze are moving. The neck is turning gently towards one side, Opposite side as the hands. Come back through center. Again, We're sitting up nice and tall here. Start to move the arms the opposite way. Gaze the opposite direction. We'll take that one more time. If it feels too intense where you're holding, You could interlace the fingers or you could come towards elbow hold. Inhale, Come back through center, Switch to the other side. Reach the arms towards one side, Gaze over the other shoulder. Bring the hands back in together and release the arms back down. Take a little sway. Hi, The IMCR. And release, Taking the hands down by your sides, Just observing the body here, Observing. Your posture, Observing the stance of the feet grounded. To the place in front of you. Top of the head reaching up towards the sky. Maybe softening your gaze here and taking a few deep breaths. Feeling the strength work for your back, Through your back. Help support you standing, Seated, Lying down. The positions of life. Taking time to bring the blanket if you'd like over your body for a little extra warmth. Maybe start to relax the body into a more comfortable position. The hands might come. Over the heart or together at heart center. Taking this time. To observe the mind. Serve the breath. Seal the practice. And when you feel ready. You can start to flutter the eyes open. Closing out the practice with love and gratitude. Thank you.