Energizing Chair Yoga for Seniors & Beginners // 25 minute Dynamic Flow

Hi and welcome to this all seated energizing chair yoga routine. You'll love this routine if you've done my other chair yogas. We have a lot of big dynamic moves here, so there's a lot of flow. We will be relaxing, we will be focusing on our breath, but it's going to leave you feeling energized and there's a lot of movement to this practice. So getting started, everyone's seated in your chair, probably a chair without side arms is best, and we're going to sit up nice and tall. The knees are straight in line with the hips, ankles in line with our knees. Roll the shoulders down and back. We engage our core by tightening in the belly button region and not allowing the ribs to flare out. Thinking about a rib hip connection here, so the torso is nice and firm and we have an imaginary string from the top of our head allowing us to sit up as tall as we possibly can. Big inhale here, exhale slowly through your mouth. Again, inhale, exhale. One more time, inhale, exhale out. We'll be starting this practice today from the bottom and work our way up. So simply putting the weight into our toes, we lift our heels, squeezing the calf muscles, and slowly lower them back down. Left and lower. One more like this. Now the opposite, let's lift our toes up and down. Heels stay on the floor, feeling this in front of the shins. Let's alternate. One heel, breathe in, breathe out. Last two, and last one. Lower those heels down. Extend the right leg straight out in front. I really want you to squeeze the quad, the muscles on top of the thigh here, and then put it down. Four times like this. We lift, straighten the knee as much as you can, and lower down. We're just straightening the leg, we're not lifting anything. You might feel a little bit in the hip. I really want you to feel working the muscles on top here. Important for knee strength. Let's leave this last one up and give me four ankle circles to the outside. Four, three, two, one. Slowly lower that leg. Other side. We lift and lower. And the foot is neither pointed nor flexed, it's just neutral. Squeeze, straighten that knee. Hold this one up, and again circle the ankle to the outside. Lower down. Let's do that again. Right leg up for four, three, two. Hold it here, this time circle the ankle to the inside. Relax it down. Lift for four, three, two. Hold, circle in, and lower down. Coming to the edge of our chair. Again, making sure our feet are still in line here. Grow tall, relax the shoulders. Again, another deep breath in, and exhale. Let's take our right leg, and we're just going to kind of butterfly it out to the side here, rolling onto the side of the foot, but everything else stays still and square. Bring it back in. Left leg out to the side, and bring it back in. I want you to feel this in the outside of your hips, and then the inner thigh. Using those inner thigh muscles to bring the leg back in. In, out, in. Let's do the legs together. Remember your tight core here. I have some specialized core work in store in this video for you guys. Let's go, three, two. Last one. Let's relax back into our chair. Now our backs are pressed into the back of the chair, supporting us. Taking a slow march, alternating legs. We lift up, and down. Again, I want you to think about your core here. Those muscles are helping you, especially the lower ones here. Lift the leg. Exhale. Inhale. Two more like this. Let's hold the right leg up. We extend it, bring it back in, then lower down. Other side. Up, extend, in, and lower. It's okay if your leg doesn't come very high up off that chair. We'll get you stronger. A few more. Last one. Beautiful work. Coming to the edge of our chair again, making sure we are all lined up. Working up now into our spine. We're going to take a cat-cow. We're going to tuck our chin, rounding our back like you're gazing at your navel. Coming back, a little C-curve. Think about tucking your hips. And then the opposite into our cow. Our chin comes up and our shoulders come back, and we arch that back. Should feel lovely on that lower back. Take this at your own pace. Let's exhale, and then inhale. Allow the ribs to expand when we're in our cow. I have a side view here on the screen so you can see what the back should be doing. Everyone's positions will be different here. Let's take one more. Finish in our seated cat, and then we come back up to a neutral spine. I like to call this next move stirring the pot. So we're going to flow through those two movements, the cat and the cow, when our torso is forward and back. So we're going to start forward. Our chin comes up. We're going to go out to the side. We come through the back, that cow position, to the other side, and end up back. So we're just making a nice big circle here. Remember to tuck those hips. And we'll finish three on that side, and let's reverse. We come forward, shoulders back. Round, gaze at your navel, all the way through. This should feel amazing. Again, on that lower back, really waking up that spine, and we finish here. Come back to center. Next, we're going to open up our legs nice and wide. I want you to make sure that your knees are pushed back and that they're in line with the ankle. So I don't want your knees to come forward like this. We want to keep them in line. So if you need to bring your feet a little bit closer to keep the knees pressed back, then that's the most appropriate position for you. So as long as you're comfortable and knees stay pressed back, again, we grow tall. Give me a big inhale. Arms come up. Exhale, push the arms down at the sides, and we leave them there. Shoot some energy out through those fingertips. Having that rib-hip connection again, navel into the spine, just using the abs and the torso, we lean to the side like you're trying to reach something. Come back to center. Reach. Come back to center. This is great for the obliques. And again, you might be feeling a stretch in that lower back. Maybe a peak down. Make sure that your knees haven't dropped forward. Reach and reach. Both sit bones stay in the chair. Think about just moving the top half of the body. Okay, next one, we're going to hold here. Lower the left arm so it's supported on the knee. Pick up your other arm. It reaches over. Big side body stretch. Hold here, and then just the arm is moving. We rainbow it out to the side and slightly behind us, and we come back, trying to meet those hands together. Hand of the head, if it's comfortable for you, is going to follow the hand. Exhale. Inhale. One more time. And we leave it open out to the side. Push up off your thigh out to the side again. Four more times. We reach side and center. Let's grow taller as we do this. Hold here. Drop the left elbow to the left thigh. That was your right. Left hand reaches all the way up and over. And then twist around, opening, rainbowing that arm down and back. Again. Inhale. Exhale. And I say, you guys do you. Everybody's range of motion is going to be different here. But this should feel amazing on that torso. Chest opener. Stretching those shoulders. And we come back here. Back out to the side. Push up and relax down. Let's toe heel the feet in. Extending the right leg in front. We're going to scoop down and then reach up. Big stretch. Make sure your other leg here is stable. Toes to the ceiling. Heel on the floor. We scoop. Feeling a hamstring stretch. And big reach up. Two more. Last one. And down. Other side. Flex the toe. Scoop. Big reach up. Exhale. Inhale. Let's take one more. Hold it down here. Feel that stretch. Nice proud chest. And walk your hands back up. Bending that left leg. Taking the hands underneath the thigh if it's available to you. And we're going to hug that knee in. Again, just as much as you're comfortable with. Relaxing the shoulders. A little hug in. And if you're able to, we're going to take that ankle, crossing it over into a figure four. Modification here is to cross at the ankle. The idea is to open up that hip. So wherever you're comfortable, cross at the ankle or above the knee. Give yourself a minute here to relax. This beautiful hip opener. I do it in almost every one of my videos. It is my favorite stretch. If you'd like to deepen the stretch, you can slightly lift our chin and ever so slightly hinge forward with a straight spine. You'll feel that stretch go even deeper into the hip. Big inhale. And exhale. One more time. Let's lift the torso and gently help that leg down. Right leg stretches out. We're going to come down one more time. Holding the hamstring stretch. Again, proud chest. Straight back. Inhale. Let's gently walk our hands up our leg. Lacing our fingers underneath our thigh. Bending the knee. We hug it in towards the body. And once again, you're either going to cross at the ankle or assist that leg crossing above the knee. Remember to grow tall. Foot is slightly flexed. Allow the hip to relax. Taking deep breaths. And again, if you'd like to intensify, we hinge forward ever so slightly. Take a couple of deep breaths on your own here. One more. We lift the torso and gently help that leg down. Bringing the hands to prayer. Sitting just about halfway back in our chair. Inhale. Arms come up. Exhale. Press down. Flip the palms. Inhale. Arms up. And exhale down. Just a few more times. Really reach up. Taking our hands here from prayer. We're going to crisscross. So fingers are on the opposite shoulder. Sitting up as tall as you can. Keeping the straight or neutral spine. Working on the core here. We're going to lean back. Maybe touch your upper back to the chair. And keeping that straight spine, we come right back up. So check out this side view here. You can tell I'm not moving anything except that hinge position. So you're really going to feel this in your core. Making sure your belly button is pulled into that spine. And you're breathing. Two more. And last one. Nice job. Lower the arms. Inhale. And then exhale. Elbows coming out to the side. Fingertips gently behind the head. Inhale here. As we exhale, we're going to pull the elbows together. Inhale. Open. Feeling a beautiful shoulder stretch here and into the back as well. Open the chest. Elbows back. And then squeeze together. Adding on here with a little crunch. Open. Exhale. Drop the chin. Round the back. Crunch down. And open. Inhale. One more. Open up. Stay here. Bringing the left elbow to the right knee. We have a little crunch. And lift up. Staying on this side. And it doesn't matter if the elbow doesn't hit that knee. We're doing our best. It's about progress, not perfection. One more. Other side. We twist. And come up. Inhale. Exhale on that twist. Let's alternate one in one. Crunch. Open up. Relax the arms down. Coming to the edge of our chair, let's extend the right leg out to the side. Whatever's comfortable for you. Toe can be forward or toe can be out to the side. And then lift your right arm up as well. You can hold on to the side of the chair for some stability. Inhale. Reach up as high as you can. And then side lean over. Inhale up. Exhale. Side lean. One more time. And relax it down. That feels great after working those abs. Same thing. Other side. Extend the leg out wherever it's comfortable for you. Arm comes up. Reach up high as we can. First inhale. Exhale. And reach. Lower the arm. And bring that leg back in. Coming back to the position we started in. Everything is nice and square and center here. Flex your hands towards me. So fingertips are towards the floor. Palms towards me. Straight elbows. Reopen up that wrist. Hold here. Trying to pull your fingers even further down and back. And then the opposite. Let's point the fingers towards the ceiling or maybe even a little bit towards you. Doing a beautiful stretch in the wrist here. Coming back to that flexed position. If you are able to, we're going to lace the fingertips together and then turn inside out here. Again, only if it's available to you. If not, just bring your hands back in a prayer position. Inhale. Arms come up. As we reach up, I want you to think about dropping your shoulders down with your hands reaching higher to the ceiling. Beautiful stretch there for the arms. And again, lean over to the side. Center. Side. And center one more time. Release those fingers and drop the hands. Extend the right arm out to the side. Then I want you to take your left ear towards your left shoulder. You should feel a beautiful stretch all the way down the side of your neck. Shooting out your fingertips. We're going to hold it here and then take some nice slow wrist circles. And really just release, allowing that neck to relax. Reverse the wrist circle. Lower the arm. Lift the head. Let's go to the other side. Right ear to right shoulder and extend the left arm out. Get tall. Relax shoulders down and back. Wrist circle back. And reverse. And lower. Let's roll our chin down to our chest. Hands are just relaxed at our sides. Nice and slow in a movement that's comfortable for you. We're just taking a neck roll only to the front and the half circles. We're back to that ear towards the shoulder position. And a slow roll coming through center to the other side. Try not to lean forward here. If you have a sore spot and need to stay there and hang out for a minute, allow it to release. Please do so. One more time each side. Let's finish chin down center. And then we lift our chin. And our final exercise. Do a big inhale. Arms come up. Exhale. Push the arms down. And then give me a big shoulder roll up and back. Again. Inhale. Exhale. Shoulder roll. Up and back. Shoulder roll. Arms out to the side. Cross them in front. Give yourself a big hug here and a nice stretch for a job well done. I hope you feel amazing. I know I feel better as well. Let me know how you guys like this in the comments. I love hearing from my viewers. Thanks for working out with me and we'll see you next time.