A Comprehensive Guide to Iyengar Yoga Practice with a Chair
THE EXTENDED
CHAIR FOR YOGA
Eyal Shifroni, Ph.D.
Based on the teachings of Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, Geeta S. Iyengar, and Prashant S. Iyengar at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute (RIMYI), Pune, India
Eyal Shifroni
All rights reserved 2020
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
The author of this book is not a physician and the instructions, procedures, and suggestion in this guide are not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of a trained health professional. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Consult your physician before adopting the procedures suggested in this guide, as well as about any condition that may require diagnosis or medical attention.
The author and the publisher disclaim any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use of this guide.
ISBN 978-965-92519-9-5
Mudita Books
Photography Yul Shifroni & Nimrod Landsman
Models Anat Scher, Liat Bagon, Inbar Grinberg, Ravit Moar, Rachel Gross, Ohad Nachtomy, Anat Rachmel, Eleanor Jacobovitz, Michael Sela & Eyal Shifroni
Text Editing Barnaby Hutchins Introduction) & Michael Sela (rest of the book)
Graphic Design Rachel S. Aqua
The Extended Chair for Yoga
Table of Contents
Detailed Table of Contents
Each Variation is marked with:
( Restorative ),
( Beginners ),
( Intermediate ) or
( Advanced ) (or a combination of two of these letters).
Use these marks to select the Variations according to your level of practice.
The inspiration for this book is my Guru, the late Yogchrya B.K.S Iyengar (19182014), the founder of the Iyengar Yoga method. The use of chairs in yoga practice was introduced by Mr. Iyengar along with many other tools that he has invented and adapted over the years. His brilliant innovations and his deep understanding of yoga were combined to create a magnificent and highly effective method of practicing yoga! I wish to express my deep admiration and gratitude for him, not only as my personal teacher, but also for making yoga accessible to millions enabling every person to benefit from the gift of yoga. I am grateful that my Guru had devoted precious time to review the manuscript of my first book: A Chair for Yoga and suggested valuable improvements and corrections.
With Iyengar at an intensive workshop in the early 90s
My initial interest in writing A Chair for Yoga was kindled during visits to Pune while practicing with a chair under the guidance of Prashant Iyengar at RIMYI. Geeta Iyengars DVD, The role of the chair in the yogis life, initiated many of the ideas presented in this guide.
I wish to thank these three great teachers for introducing me to the world of Iyengar Yoga and for being a continuous source of knowledge and inspiration!
I also wish to thank many other teachers, most notably Faeq Biria, Birjoo Mehta, and Jawahar Bangera, who have deepened and enriched my practice, with and without chairs.
Gratitude is also due to my students who helped test and develop new ideas involving the use of chairs during classes and workshops. I hope that they have enjoyed this process as much as I have!
Thanks to my friend and colleague, Michael Sela, who went so carefully over the text, edited it, and improved the flow of the writing and the structure of the book. Thanks to my friend Prof. Ohad Nachtomy who gave insightful and helpful comments about the introduction and also urged me to add a sequence for home and office practice with the chair, as well as volunteering to model for this sequence.
Thanks to all the yoga students and teachers who modeled for the photos in this book. I am especially grateful to Liat Bagon, Inbar Grinberg, Ravit Moar and Rachel Gross, who devoted many hours of their precious time, energy, patience, and knowledge of the sanas as models. Additionally, a special thanks to Anat Scher for her willingness to model for the two sequences for seniors.
The writings in this guide have been a collaborative effort with the teachers who teach with me at the center in Zichron-Yaakov (Israel). We have all experimented with the many variations and usages of the chair, and they have contributed their own ideas. Thank you, dear teachers and travel partners on the path of yoga! And, of course, I gratefully acknowledge the enthusiastic response of all the wonderful students at my center and for their willingness to be the first to try out new ideas.
Special thanks to Sivan Goldhirsh and Tally Eldor, Sivan is always happy to go over my writings and improve them significantly. Tally tested all the Variations in the book and gave many helpful comments and suggestions. Tally also proofread the book and with her hawk-eyes found many mistakes. Thanks to Cecilia Harrison and Barnaby Hutchins who agreed to edit the Introduction for this book, and to Rachel S. Aqua for doing such a tedious, devoted, and professional job in designing the graphics. Finally, thanks to our wonderful photographers, Yul Shifroni & Nimrod Landsman who did a dedicated and wonderful job in taking the photos and editing them! And finally, I want to thank my beloved wife, Hagit, for her continuous love and support!
We use Variarion with capital V to denote the Variations in this book, as opposed to other sana variations.
Yoga is a spiritual path toward uniting oneself with whatever supports and gives meaning to ones life (you might call it God, or any other name that suits your tradition and belief). The practice of sanas is an important component of this path. If Our body is the bow and the sanas are the arrows to hit the target the soul as my teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar, put it , then sanas have a central role in the yogic path of uniting with our soul. Iyengar has showed how the eight limbs of yoga ( aga yoga ) can be developed through the practice of the third limb ( sanas ) and the fourth limb ( prnyma ) of that system. Humbly, I can say that sanas have indeed played a central role in my own yogic path.
Props are important component of sana practice as they are guides for self-learning (to quote Iyengar again). Props enable us to stay longer in sanas without stress, to calm and deepen our breath, to quieten the waves of our mind and help us to surrender and experience the merging with the Infinite ( nantya-sampattibhym in the language of Patanjali).
Yoga aims to quieten and control the movements of the consciousness . If the regular, preserving, and alert practice of yoga is the foundation for stabilising the consciousness then any aid for our practice is a great boon for our path.
This book is a modest attempt to show how we can deepen our practice using one simple yet useful prop the chair . My aim is to ignite your curiosity and imagination by showing how this single prop can be used in so many ways, allowing for so many hours of joyful experimentations and explorations.
The chair as a yoga prop was the subject of my first book, A Chair for Yoga . When I showed the manuscript of that book to B.K.S. Iyengar, he gave me valuable comments and suggestions. With his feedback, I published the book in 2013. As Guruji predicted (see his letter in ), the book was received very well by teachers and practitioners of yoga around the world.
