Davis Mary - Chair yoga for you : a practical guide

Clarissa C. Adkins, Olivette Baugh Robinson & Barbara Leaf Stewart

Photography by Mary Davis

www.chairyogaforyou.com

Copyright 2011 Clarissa C. Adkins, Olivette Baugh Robinson, Barbara Leaf Stewart

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1456324500

ISBN-13: 9781456324506

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010916650

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTERS

Clarissa C. Adkins

Clarissa is YogaFit trained, RYT 200 (Registered Yoga Teacher), with a passion for the study of all styles of yoga, especially Ashtanga and Iyengar. Her background includes a BA in English from James Madison University (1997), teaching English in Japan, and learning yoga from her father starting at age 14. She spends time coordinating yoga classes, teaching yoga, and freelance writing. Much of her writing appears on Livestrong. com. In 2010, she celebrated her five-year anniversary as a yoga instructor. Clarissa thanks those who have inspired her on her yoga path, including Jasper C. and Verena V. Lupo, Lawrence Lupo, Jeanne Wheeler, Arlene Bjork and Olivette Robinson.

Olivette Baugh Robinson

Olivette was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1925. She received a MA degree in Early Childhood Education from NYU in 1953. After enjoying a long career as the director of a day care center in Brooklyn, New York, Olivette discovered yoga. In 1994, she took the month-long teacher training course to become a certified Sivananda Yoga instructor. She began teaching yoga classes and chair yoga classes in senior centers in Queens, New York. Having moved to Midlothian, Virginia, she introduced chair yoga to one of the YMCAs in 2001. Olivette continues teaching yoga, chair yoga, gentle yoga, and kids yoga at YMCAs, a retirement community, and a senior center. At age 86, she feels blessed to be able to continue teaching yoga. Olivette wishes to thank Theresa Price for teaching her yoga and chair yoga.

Barbara Leaf Stewart

Barbara has an MS in Physiology from Florida State University. During her thirty-year career in college teaching at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College (Professor Emeritus), she worked on the national, regional, and local level advancing science education and teacher preparation. Her yoga practice began in 1985. Retirement gave her the opportunity to fulfill her long-term dream and complete the Teacher Training Course at the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre (RYT 200). Barbara currently teaches yoga in the Richmond, Virginia, region. She thanks her mentor Olivette Robinson, her yoga community, and her students for helping her continually deepen her yoga practice.

Herb Baugh, Model

Herb enjoyed his years as a pilot and flight instructor. At age 54, Herb became aware of the many benefits of yoga while taking yoga classes on Long Island, New York. He is pleased that he introduced his sister Olivette to yoga.

Mary Davis, Photographer

Marys passion is photography. After nearly ten years of photography and art experience, she began her own business as a professional photographer. She specializes in wedding and portrait photography in the Richmond, Virginia, and surrounding areas.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful for the advice, contributions, patience, and knowledge we received from family, friends, teachers and colleagues, especially the following individuals: Linda McDorman, for helping us get this project started; Mark, Katherine, Daniel, and Eric Adkins, for their continued love, patience, and support; Eric Davis, for helping us with babysitting during photo sessions; Eric, Nita, and Ashley Baugh, for their review of medical-related content; David P. Baugh, for legal advice; Kevin Stewart, for recommending CreateSpace; Demand Studios, for the generous grant and encouragement; and to our yoga students, for providing us with the inspiration to take on and complete this endeavor.

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CONTENTS

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WELCOME

Chair yoga is part of the hatha branch of yoga. Hatha relates to yoga of the body, including poses, breathing, and meditation. Yoga techniques help you create a better harmony between your body, mind, and spirit. They also provide you with a low-impact way to increase strength, flexibility, and balance, while teaching you how relax.

In chair yoga students practice poses while seated in a chair or use the chair for assistance in some standing poses. Anyone can practice it. Those with chronic conditions, weight issues, past injuries, disabilities, or anyone looking for gradual and gentle ways to increase his or her range of motion can all experience benefits from this practice. Chair yoga is also appropriate for students of more traditional yoga classes who want to rediscover poses that they long ago committed to muscle memory. In other words, people of all ages, levels, and physical conditions are able to start a chair yoga practice without hesitation.

In creating this book, we sought to incorporate the needs of students studying on their own, as well as those wishing to design their own chair yoga classes. We are hopeful these pages will express our belief that anyone and everyone can discover the beauty and benefits of yoga, whether using chair yoga as a starting place or as an addition to their mind and body fitness routine. Additionally, we encourage you to seek out yoga classes in your area so you can enjoy the group setting. It is our goal that all yoga students discover one of the simplest rewards of yoga: being able to function through lifes daily activities and demands with ease of movement and peace of mind.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

We encourage you to read through the following paragraphs, which outline the principles of yoga, precautions, and how to begin your practice.

Additionally, take a little time to read over the breathing exercises and poses before practicing them so your experience is more fluid. Accompanying most poses are photos to help you visualize the written descriptions. We divided the yoga exercises into the following categories:

At the end of this book, we include several sequences, or combinations of poses, for a practice of at least thirty minutes. You can also design your own sequences as you become more comfortable with the poses. Always start with a few poses from the warm-up section and end with a few from the cool-down postures. Because the universal language of yoga is Sanskrit, you will also find an index at the end of this book with English to Sanskrit translations of poses.

PRINCIPLES of YOGA