Chair yoga catching on among seniors

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H E A L T H: Chair yoga catching on among seniors

A more gentle form of yoga is catching on in some retirement communities.

The yoga mat is replaced by the chair. Sometimes two.

Instructor Lakshmi Voelker-Binder says her students can duplicate any yoga

pose typically done on the floor, but it¹s easier on those less limber

muscles.

During a recent one-hour session, she taught her comfortably supported

participants to stretch by holding modified versions of traditional yoga

poses. The normally upright forward bend, for example, entailed sitting in

one chair and positioning both legs on a facing chair, the hands reaching

for the second chair¹s arms.

³The only thing I won¹t ask you to do is headstands,² Voelker-Binder joked

to the group of six women ranging in age from 50s to late 70s. They were

gathered in a dimly lit ballroom at the Joslyn Senior Center near Palm

Springs.

An estimated 13.4 million Americans practice yoga or other mind-body

exercises such as tai chi, according to a 2003 survey by the Sporting Goods

Manufacturers Association. Of those, an estimated 1.6 million were 55 or

older.

Those numbers are expected to rise, said spokesman Mike May, as senior

citizens join health clubs and senior centers offer more exercise programs.

A self-described hippie who felt ³misplaced in New York,² Voelker-Binder

moved to Palm Springs in 1989, becoming one of four yoga instructors in the

desert city east of Los Angeles. Today, the lean and lithe 55-year-old says

there are at least six yoga studios in the area but she teaches the only

chair yoga class in town. The older students say chair yoga increases their

strength, flexibility and concentration. ³It keeps me motivated,² said Edie

Wallace, a 79-year-old in jeans who switched smoothly between poses. ³It

helps me want to go further and do more,² Wallace said. ³Walk that extra

half-hour.² Nearby, a new student said it was more challenging than she

expected.

³I noticed some lopsidedness that I have,² said , 56, who had

gone to mat yoga classes for about 18 months. ³Plus you have to really

balance yourself on the chair, or else you end up slipping.² Voelker-Binder

discovered chair yoga in the late 1980s when she was teaching a mat class

and one of her students, Candace Terry, developed rheumatoid arthritis.

Terry, who was in her 30s when they met, said her arthritis was so severe

she had difficulty dressing herself or opening a car door ‹ much less doing

form poses on her hands and knees. ³Lakshmi understood my predicament,² said

Terry, now 53. ³It¹s a gentle way of teaching people to experience it as

best as they can, which is very encouraging.²

Terry said she saw gradual improvements in her health as she practiced chair

yoga daily for about five years after being diagnosed with arthritis. ³I

feel that between yoga, good nutrition and other things I¹ve done in my

life, I¹ve beat the odds compared with many people stricken with the

disease,² she said.

Peggy Cappy, an instructor who created the video ³Yoga For the Rest of Us,²

which includes some chair poses, offers the chair option at her yoga classes

in borough, N.H., to help students ease into more strenuous poses. It

also helps them gradually build muscles and joints until they¹re strong

enough to practice on a mat, said Cappy. ³The chair is there for safety,²

she said. ³As a result, people are willing to try things because they know

they¹re not going to be hurt.² ap

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