Get Fit While You Sit

If you’ve ever done yoga, you know it involves various positions, inversions, and bends.

But is offering a different kind of yoga next weekend and you don’t even have to get out of your seat to participate.

On Sunday, April 17 at 1 p.m., the studio will offer “chair yoga” – a class designed for people with disabilities, health issues, joint problems, or weight challenges.

Instructors Darla Lux and Debbie Wenclawiak will lead the 1 hour and 15 minute class, which is all done while sitting in a chair. “We encompass the whole yoga experience in a chair,” Lux said.

“It’s really nice for seniors that want to try yoga but don’t want to feel like they have to get down on a mat,” Lux explained.

Participants will get the benefits of a complete yoga class, including a warm up, the warrior series, sun salutations, and shivasina.

It’s good for beginners, too. “People don’t feel intimidated like they have to get up and do downward dog,” Lux said.

Lux, who trained for chair yoga at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts, said participants get a nice stretch, complete with breathing exercises and joint work during the class.

Yogasphere has the necessary props, like blocks and blankets, to help participants feel more supported in the chair as they do the poses. 

This is not the first time Yogasphere has offered this specialized class. They’ve done it once before. About 15 people came, Lux said. One attendee was in a wheelchair (Yogasphere has an elevator so it’s wheelchair friendly) and the others had various health issues, Lux said.

The concept of chair yoga was developed by Lakshmi Voelker, a teacher at Kripalu. Her friend was struck with arthritis in her 30s, Lux explained. Voelker knew there was still so much that could be done in a chair, so she was inspired to develop the seated poses for her friend. Then, she started a class to expand the benefits to others, Lux explained.  

“Her friend loved the class and six months later she returned to the mat,” Lux said.

Lux and Wenclawiak also teach chair yoga Wednesdays at 10 a.m. at the Middletown Senior Center in Levittown. In that class “my oldest student is 92-year-old male,” Lux said.

Chair yoga will be held Sunday, April 17 at Yogasphere. The fee is $20 for drop-ins. Register ahead of time at www.yogasphere.net.