I often participate in seminars, workshops and online webinars that address how to teach mixed level yoga classes. What I have not seen or heard much about is how to teach mixed needs yoga classes. I teach chair yoga and chair yoga by its very nature attracts people who are older or those who for one reason or another have issues getting down on the floor. Often it is difficult enough to teach older folks who have had little yoga experience or who have not engaged in physical exercise for years. Add on the complications due to physical disabilities or limitations and you have the makings of a class that can and most likely will present a challenge for the teacher.

When I was studying for my 500 hour teaching certification at Kripalu in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, US we were taught that at the 500 yoga teacher level a chair yoga class was certainly within our scope of teaching. We even had training sessions on how to teach at this level. But the trainings targeted mostly older folks and stopped short of addressing physical challenges other than back issues and a little arthritis. My 200 hour teacher training was with Integrative Yoga Therapy (IYT) so I believe I am a little more prepared than most yoga teachers to address the students in chair yoga classes. What I was not prepared for was the complexity and variety of the issues in this class.

In the chair yoga class I am teaching as I write this blog post, there are several students with double knee replacements, one person with late stage cancer, several people with low back issues, one person paralyzed on the left side from a stroke, two people with broken wrists and one person with serious anxiety issues. And they are not all “old folks.”

When I first started preparing my lesson plans for this class I was baffled as to what poses to choose. The poses were to be the heart of the class but for every asana I planned there was always one person for whom it was contraindicated. So my first line of action was to set about learning all the alternatives and options for each of the poses. I then would choose those poses for which most of the students could perform in the safe zone. For the first few classes I assumed nothing. The name of the class is “Chair Yoga On and Off the Chair.” But for the first few classes we started on the chair and we stayed on the chair. Balance poses were off the menu for the first few classes; then we worked into them very slowly.

I also started experimenting with meditation and pranayama techniques to ground and relax students. At first there was some resistance and several people left the class. This was disheartening but I plowed on including these practices in my classes. I expanded the plan of the classes to include modalities other than what is usually associated with yoga. I introduced several qigong movements that were soft and easily accessible to everyone.

So now I am into the end of seventh eight-week session with this chair yoga class and it is only now that I am beginning to get the hang of what works and what doesn’t. What I am doing now is an evolution from where I started. It is still chair yoga and I do include a large variety of poses that are the heart of the class but I now interweave the asanas with other techniques to engage the mind, spirit and whole person. Some of these techniques include qigong exercises, mindfulness exercises, visualizations, pranayama, metta meditation, and quiet sitting.

I am interested in having my students become aware of the connection between their bodies and mind and not just in the intellectual sense. However they feel emotionally, physically or psychologically when they come to class, I invite them to be present with what is at that moment – to tune into whatever is going on physically or mentally and to work with some of those feelings/sensations as we progress through the class. And then I encourage them to use the class to sharpen their skills to carry whatever is happening with them off the mat to their outside world with calmness and ease.

Here are some things that I have found work in a multi needs chair yoga class.

• • Being clear in my own mind as to why I teach chair yoga and what I am there to do assists me in setting the agenda for a class. I find it very helpful if I know why I am teaching a chair yoga class and how I plan to relate to the students in that class. Not many yoga teachers I know really want to teach chair yoga. The most popular yoga classes are vinyasa style yoga and hot yoga classes or something similar. For me chair yoga offers many opportunities to be creative, to include other modalities and to reach a population that is often under served and one that I value and find interesting to work with. What I am there to do changes a little each week. There are classes when I offer a more physical class or teach a new pose, other times I set up a class to be more relaxing for stress release or to be more reflective or meditative. Once I am clear as to how I am trying to relate to my students in board terms I am ready to set the intention for the class.

• • Setting an intention focuses the class. During the first few minutes of class I tell my students what the intention is for that particular class. Sometimes, if it is enhances the intention, I may also present a philosophical concept that connects with my intention for that particular class. For example, one of my intentions for a particular class might be to invite students to sense their limits, to be true to themselves rather than to struggle to get into a pose that is not good for them. Here I introduce the second yama – Satya or truthfulness; being truthful with yourself. Setting an intention also directs my class plan. I can then plan poses so that students move into a pose in a progressive way that allows them to pause or stop along the way as needed. I continually remind students not to move into poses that exceed their limits, to go only as far as they can still breathe comfortably in the pose. Offering options and alternatives are helpful here.

• • Inviting students to set their own intentions promotes a sense of their taking charge of their own experience. I have no idea about the frame of mind or physical status that students present when they come each week for class. Often, I will invite them to set their own intention for the class. By setting their own intention they start the process of taking charge of their own experience as we move from the grounding and breathing exercises to the poses and final relaxation.

• • Knowing why I have chosen the poses for a particular class greatly aids student’s experience. Having students with a variety of physical limitations sitting in front of me triggers the opportunity to choose one area to focus on that everyone can relate to. Lower back pain or sensitivity is a concern in my classes and whether my students are experiencing back pain currently or not, almost all my students have moments or weeks or months where back pain is an issue. In some classes I focus on those poses that address the back knowing that everyone can relate. The same idea can also work for hip openers or a focus on shoulders.

• • Reminding students to breathe throughout the practice is often an eye opener.  Very often during a chair yoga class students will comment how they never realized how much of the time that they forget to breathe especially when they are stressing out over some issue or even trying to find ease in a yoga pose.  I try to continually make them aware of their breathing pattern throughout the class so that when they do find themselves in a stressful situation they can fall back on finding some calm in their breath. 

• • Inviting students to question how they experience the poses shifts the emphasis from ‘performing’ to awareness. Judith Lasater talks about how so often we as teachers cue asanas and students perform them without asking themselves the question of how this pose feels to them. Shifting the emphasis from what I as the teacher want to what the student is experiencing helps students enter more fully into the whole experience of yoga.

• • Repeating poses is great for building confidence and for fostering relaxation. Repeating poses from week to week is like performing a loved ritual that we do over and over so that it becomes so engrained in our nervous system and so smooth that we enjoy the process, we enjoy the movement and we like how we feel. We become comfortable with the process. It builds confidence. Repeating poses week after week creates a kind of ritual. Students begin to relax and will take the risk of going deeper. Repetition is the framework for building sequences. See the next comment.
    However, doing the same thing week after week can also become boring. To minimize the risk of the class from becoming stale I break out one aspect of the pose to work on and encourage students to go deeper into the pose.

• • Building sequences builds confidence. Even on a chair guiding sequences is a great way to keep students interested. I take the poses that they already know and build a sequence of 3 or 4 poses. I bring students awareness to the flow of the poses as they move from one pose to another as I remind them to follow the breath. I find that guiding my students through several repetitions of sequences helps them to learn the poses and to become attentive to transitions that link the poses together.

• • Introducing new poses gradually helps students learn poses in a safe environment. So students don’t become overwhelmed I offer new versions of poses they already know. This enhances and deepens their knowledge of a pose. When I introduce a new pose I spend time explaining the details.

• • Being persnickety about alignment teaches students to become aware of the details involved in poses. Learning to read bodies is a skill I continually work on. I start by looking at the whole person while sitting in tadasana or standing in tadasana and notice on a quick glance if there is anything that stands out to me. One shoulder lower than the other or the head displaced forward are easy to see. These would speak to me as areas when the chi or energy is stagnant. After get a whole body scan I then begin observing students from the feet upwards. Are the feet aligned so that they are straight? Are the knees facing forward? Are the hips even? Is the foot in the back turned in a little when doing poses such as trikonasana (triangle pose)?

• • Using props myself invites students to follow along. I have always been very frustrated by offering options for a particular pose only to have students totally disregard any of the options offered as they try to move into a more advanced version of a pose that they are not ready to do. My using the props as I teach a pose has helped students open themselves to at least trying the pose in a more progressive, gentle way. Somehow the ego is assuaged if the teacher is also using the props.

• • Asking myself what I want my students to get out of a pose helps them craft the pose with precision and safety. I usually clarify this in more depth by asking students to notice where they experience the pose, or what thoughts or emotions arise as they hold the pose longer than comfortable. Can they still breathe comfortably or do they need to back away a little?

• • Introducing qigong exercises at the beginning of a class helps students relax. I have been taking qigong and tai chi lessons for many years but I have only recently incorporated some of the forms into my classes. I am finding that the qigong exercises help my chair students relax. Often they are worried that they won’t be able to do the poses for a particular class. Starting the movement section of the class with qigong exercises is calming for most everyone. The movements are slow, rhythmical and simple to perform. The qigong moves set the stage to progress to the more complex yoga poses.

• • Allowing a long savasana helps student release into the effects of the poses.
    Stay tuned for my next post on this topic. How long is long and what are the benefits of a long savasana?

I find that no matter what I do and how well I plan my classes there will always be someone who is not easy with the class. I have had people leave because they do not like the visualizations or meditations. Other people are looking for a ‘good physical workout’ and others think they should be further along than they are. Whatever the reason(s) I will have dropouts and while this can be disheartening I try to focus my attention on those who stay and are consistent in their practice. To have someone change or transform in a beneficial way in even a small amount is certainly worth the effort. For my first try in giving a chair yoga session no one showed. The second session I had three people and I now consistently have seven or eight people in a class. Six to eight people in a chair yoga class is my magic number because I can watch and give people attention as they need.

Final point

Relating to your students will mean the difference between a good class and a great class for them. Feeling out the class to know what works and what doesn’t is important. As important, or more so is knowing why you are teaching yoga in the first place and why your are teaching a chair yoga class.  Give it some thought.  It is worth the exercise.