Exercise is an important factor of everyday life for people of all ages. Research shows that when older persons engage in physical activity, this activity helps protect them from illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer.
This research further shows that exercise also helps improve mental health which can delay the onset of dementia and overall, it improves their quality of life and well being (1). A chair yoga sequence for seniors program can be one easy way to help older adults workout and achieve the aforementioned benefits with a reduced likelihood of straining themselves.
Read on to learn more about chair yoga for seniors, why this exercise is suitable for older people, as well as being the best source for your beginner chair yoga routine.
If you haven’t come across chair yoga before, this is a more gentle form of yoga that is often recommended to older adults. These are people who struggle with balance and stability, but wish to improve their strength and functionality.
As the name suggests, gentle chair yoga for seniors is modified from traditional yoga poses to make it easier to do. In class they use a chair to help them with the workout. These exercises are usually done either while seated or while standing and holding on to the chair for support.
The fact that this exercise is gentle is the main reason why this exercise is an ideal beginner workout program for older adults. Over the years, studies on the barriers affecting physical activity in older adults have shown that poor health, a fear of fatigue and other physical limitations are among some of the biggest challenges that keep them from working out (2, 3, 4, 5).
Because chair yoga is so gentle on the body, it typically bypasses all the above-mentioned limitations and thus older adults can participate in the program without worrying about aggravating any issues they may already be dealing with. Of course injuries can still happen so please contact a medical professional before getting started on any exercise program. Although chair yoga is typically a low impact and low risk form of exercise, injury can still occur. In addition to this, most chair yoga sequence routines for seniors are also rather short and thus an older person may not feel too tired by the end of the workout.
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Research shows that older adults are at a higher risk of falls and fractures, due to age-related loss of muscle mass (aka sarcopenia), problems with balance and gait, and postural hypotension – blood pressure dropping too much when you get up from lying down or sitting (6).
One study published in the International Journal of Yoga found that after an 8-week chair yoga based program (done twice a week) the seniors who participated in the program had increased mobility and less anxiety from falling over. This proved to the researchers that such a program can keep older adults safe from falling over and from the fractures that come from such falls (7).
The decline of muscle mass and strength in older adults is something that is very common (8). However, engaging in gentle chair yoga for seniors exercises can help fix the muscle strength issue.
In a small 12 week study done on 31 community-dwelling older women with low physical activity, researchers found that this program led to a significant improvement in the women’s handgrip strength, lower limb muscle strength, and upper limb muscle strength (9).
Also known as functional fitness, this is the ability to tackle everyday activities like standing up, walking up and down the stairs, reaching up a shelf, lifting something off the floor, etc.
In the above mentioned study, aside from improving muscular strength in the women, researchers also found that the chair yoga program also improved women’s functional fitness and well being (9).
In a more recent study done on 85 Taiwanese older women with knee osteoarthritis, researchers found that after a 12-week chair yoga exercise program, the women registered a significantly higher level of functional fitness and daily life activity scores than before the program (10).
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Chair Yoga for Core Strength
According to poll statistics published by the University of Michigan in 2022, about 70% of older adults occasionally suffer from variation of joint pain with 60% of them suffering from arthritis.
One study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that after an 8 week chair yoga program (sessions done twice a week for 45 minutes) the community-dwelling older adults reported a reduction in pain, pain interference, and fatigue, and improvement in gait speed (11).
It should be noted that these effects only lasted for 3 months post intervention which may suggest that the best results are seen after long term and consistent practice of chair yoga.
One review published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that aside from yoga improving the balance, lower body flexibility and strength as well as the general physical health of older adults, the exercise can also improve their sleep quality and mental health (12).
Research shows that depression is one of the most common mood disorders in older adults that can lead to poor quality of life and increased morbidity, disability and mortality (13). Cases of depression in older adults seem to be increasing with recent analysis showing that in adults aged 60 years and above 28.4% showed signs of depression and 13.3% being diagnosed with major depression (14).
From the above statistics we can see that encouraging older adults to participate in chair yoga programs could help save them from this illness. Encouraging them to do chair yoga in groups instead of alone could also help combat loneliness which is one of the leading factors of depression in seniors (14).
Yes, doing chair yoga for seniors to lose weight could help you shed those extra pounds. One study published in 2023 stated that aside from changes in functional ability in older adults, those in this exercise program also showed changes in the subjects body mass index (10).
It should, however, be noted that because chair yoga is such a gentle exercise routine, it will typically not burn a lot of calories. If you want to lose weight, chair yoga should not be the only workout that you do. We suggest other low impact activities like walking, cycling and swimming to help increase the calorie burn. Additionally, in order to see weight loss you will need to be eating less calories than you are burning daily. Increased daily exercise combined with appropriate eating habits will lead to weight loss.
You can also engage in other indoor activities for seniors like Pilates, strength training (use weights, body weight or resistance bands), dancing, Tai Chi, etc.
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As a beginner you can try doing chair yoga exercises twice or three times a week. After building your endurance and strength, you could push it to exercising up to 5 days a week. Do not be tempted to push for more days as, contrary to popular opinion, more exercise is not always good. Rest is just as important as getting exercise in.
For the best results from your workout routine, you are encouraged to rest for a consecutive 24 to 48 hours a week. This will prevent overtraining which can negatively affect your physical and mental health, thus derailing your progress (15).
There are many routines out there that claim to be the best chair yoga program for seniors. While each may have its own distinct positives, we believe that the best program is the 28 day chair yoga for seniors program by BetterMe.
As the name suggests, this is an almost month-long program dedicated to seniors to help them work on their balance, flexibility and strength using chair yoga. The program – found on the BetterMe App – is a chair yoga sequence for seniors with pictures and written instructions which makes it easy for you to follow along.
This program was reviewed by a team of certified fitness experts, making it leagues beyond the free chair yoga for beginners routines found out there, in terms of safety.
We suggest doing both instead of picking just one. Not only is a more varied workout routine better for your mind and body, but both Pilates and yoga are complimentary workouts – meaning the benefits of one enhance your performance in the other.
For example, yoga is more of a stretching workout while Pilates is more of a strength workout, despite using stretching movements. Basically the flexibility you gain via yoga can help you while doing Pilates and the strength you grow from Pilates will help make your yoga moves better.
Read more: Embrace Relaxation With Chair Yoga for Hips
As previously stated, chair yoga is a gentle workout which means that it is generally safe for seniors. However, if you have some doubts, we suggest speaking with your doctor and also working with a certified instructor so they may keep an eye on you during the session.
No, it is not. Even gentle exercises still work the muscles and overdoing the exercise could lead to fatigue and overtraining as mentioned above.
Yes, it absolutely does. Albeit a gentler exercise than most.
It depends on what your definition of “in shape” is. Will this form of exercise burn calories? Yes. Will this form of exercise allow you to run a marathon? Probably not. You can increase your overall fitness levels but it will likely take a long time since the exercise doesn’t burn that many calories or challenge your endurance that heavily. For faster results, we encourage you to look into more high impact workouts that burn a lot of calories, keep your heart rate up, and build more muscle.
There is no specific way to do one exercise in order to burn belly fat. As long as the workout burns calories, it will eventually help you get rid of overall body fat which will then decrease your belly fat. Remember to also eat at a calorie deficit and increase your fiber and protein intake to make this process possible.
For any older adult that doesn’t know where to start in terms of their fitness, we suggest looking into a chair yoga sequence for seniors. The benefits listed above show that this is a good and typically a safe place to start working on your strength and balance. Overtime, they can look into more challenging workouts to help them build more muscle strength, mass as well as better flexibility and functional fitness.
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