Chair yoga improves strength, coping skills

The Jan. 7 Woman of Wellness (WOW) program featured "The Joy of Yoga the Gentle Way," presented by Sandra Buckingham, E-RYT (experienced registered yoga teacher). The event, sponsored by the Fallbrook Healthcare District, was held in the community room of Fallbrook Library.

First, Buckingham asked her audience how many had never done yoga before. When several ladies raised their hands, she disputed their claim, holding up photos of a baby and a toddler in poses equivalent to yoga moves. She also showed some pictures from a cat yoga calendar, saying that she likes to inject an element of fun into her classes, so the exercise is not tedious.

She said yoga is about breathing and stretching in fluid motions. She cited a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology which found that regular yoga practice might benefit the heart as much as walking or biking, improving risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

For those with compromised balance, doing yoga while seated in a chair is a safer, gentler way to reap the benefits of yoga.

She lead the ladies in the audience through some chair yoga moves as she explained the benefits of doing them.

One benefit of chair yoga is improved strength which enables elderly people to continue living independently and to stay involved in their hobbies and daily activities. Also, if they happen to fall, their improved strength will help them to survive and cope with fewer injuries.

Chair yoga also improves flexibility and mobility issues. Better flexibility allows people to bend down and reach things again as in tying their shoes and picking objects up off the floor.

According to Buckingham, another benefit of yoga is "being mindful of your movements and knowing where your body is in space." Called proprioception, this knowledge is especially important for elderly people as it can prevent falls. She said, "For people with disabilities or conditions such as MS, it may mean having greater control over your body and its movements."

To look younger, she advised the ladies to keep their heads up and shoulders back. In doing a shoulder rolling exercise with them, she said that she's noticed that men always start out rolling their shoulders forward and women roll theirs backward.

Chair yoga also reduces stress and improves mental clarity. Performing chair yoga, Buckingham said, can lessen the impact of chronic illnesses and pain. The exercise promotes a calmness and relaxation which leads to feelings of happiness and well-being, combating any feelings of isolation. Joining a chair yoga class also offers opportunities for the elderly and those with mobility issues to meet people and socialize.

Yoga can also improve stress and pain management because it includes breath work. Through meditation and paying attention to one's breath, people can better manage stress as well as cope with and manage pain, helping them to keep chronic conditions under control as they age.

Besides demonstrating stretching different parts of the body from a sitting position, Buckingham showed some stretches that can be done standing at a kitchen counter. In her classes, she ends the yoga session with massage and meditation to complete the process of relaxation.

During the question and answer session, "hot yoga" was explained. Instead of creating heat from the inside (of one's body), hot yoga is done in high temperatures, bringing the heat from the outside in. Those classes are more popular with young people she said. They want to work harder physically to detoxify their bodies through sweating. The classrooms range in temperature from 85 to 104 degrees, depending on the class, some of which include handheld weights and some use music.

The next WOW program will be held on Thursday, Feb. 4;

the topic is still to be determined.