AFTER THE RETREAT: OFFICE YOGA

by Baxter

During my just-completed Italy yoga retreat, we had the unique opportunity to practice hatha yoga twice a day for nine days. As you can imagine, one can cover a lot of ground in that amount of time. So one afternoon session, I shared a chair practice that Nina and I have taught over the years as part of our Yoga For Stress series. It is a sequence that I often encourage students to consider practicing at work, as all you need is a sturdy chair and a small section of a wall.  Well, the group really loved the session, and several students asked if there was a video of the practice they could refer to once that returned home to work and their regular schedule.

As Nina and I were talking about her post for this week on the effects of chronic stress on health and aging, it occurred to me that one of the biggest contributors to increased stress these days is mounting pressures placed on us in the work place. So my prescription this week to all of you readers out there is to consider adding a wee bit of chair/office yoga to your work day to help lower the stress levels. Read on for some suggestions to try and stay tuned for some video content from us on this topic soon!

Until we make our own office yoga video, we’re including a link to a video by Esther Ekhart. This video includes several of our favorite office yoga poses and is generally pretty good. However, please skip the neck rolls at the end, as these can overstrain your neck!

When you do the poses, try to keep your mind focused on your alignment and the physical sensations of being in the pose (rather than thinking about your work).

Suggested office yoga poses:

1. Right Angle at the wall, desk or chair (see Esther Ekhart video below)

2. Chair Backbend (see Esther Ekhart video below--try it with hands clasped behind your head)

3. Chair Twist (see Esther Ekhart video below) 

4. Chair Forward Bend or Wall Hang (see earlier post)