It’s the second hour of your all-day workshop. You take stock of your audience and notice that the first people are drifting away. Some are not looking at their screens any more. Others are asking about things you just explained.
Get their attention back quickly: Revitalize the audience with some exercise!
Chair-Yoga is for anybody and can be practiced in front of the computer.
Here is all the information you need to exercise in your next workshop:
1. Why chair yoga makes your audience more attentive
First of all: chair yoga is a form of exercise. Several studies [1] show that spatial learning and memory are improved for people that exercise.
But the secret ingredient, in this case, is blood!
Yoga helps your blood flow through your body. The twists and relaxations help your blood flow more freely. More oxygen is transported to your brain. The result:
The attention is refreshed and the ability to learn something new is heightened.
It is also a “circuit breaker”. Meaning the flow of your workshop is interrupted with something different. This too, makes your participants pay attention again.
2. A complete primer on chair-yoga in three minutes
First of all, chair yoga is not only for seniors. You can do it with your course full of adolescents as well!
It is a less taxing form of yoga that is done sitting down on a chair. Because of this, you can do it with virtually any audience you have. During chair yoga, you get into certain poses and stretches and hold them for a small amount of time.
No matter whether the people are experienced or absolute beginners. Chair yoga will work for them. Especially if you show the exercises first.
Besides the benefits with attention and blood circulation chair yoga has several more benefits:
- More flexibility
- More strength
- Better body awareness
You can start right now since we curated five easy exercises that you can perform with your next workshop.
3. Five easy chair yoga exercises to try in your next workshop
Enough talk, let’s get to practice: Here are five poses you can learn instantly.
Forward Fold
This one brings blood back to your brain. First, sit straight. Then slowly bend over, while sitting, until your upper body lies on your legs. Let your head and arms hang loose. Hold for as long as comfortable.
Cat Pose
The cat removes any neck and back tension you might have from staring at your screen all day.
Sit straight and put your hands on your knees. Now inhale while slowly arching your back and looking at the ceiling. Next, exhale, while forming a hunchback and looking towards your knees. The end-pose should look like in the following picture.
Start at the beginning and repeat a few times before going to the next pose.
Sun Salutation
Again, sit straight. Now breathe in and bring your palms together as high up above your head as possible. When you breathe out, bring the arms back down again slowly.
Neck Stretches
The second pose is also one to combat neck pain. Since it’s the most common ailment when sitting in front of a screen.
Use your left hand to grab the right side of your face, with the hand overhead. Then slowly tilt your head to the left until it lies on the shoulder. Do the same with the right hand (and the left side) and repeat a few times.
Eagle Arms
This one might take a few tries to get it right. But it targets the shoulders and is very worth it since sitting in front of a computer strains the shoulders.
Put your arms straight in front of you. Now bring one arm above the other, while you cross them. Bend the arms for 90 degrees so they both point up. Now try to twist your arms to press your palms against each other. Hold this position and repeat with the other arm “on top.”
It might be easier for some to intertwine their fingers instead of pressing the palms into each other.
Did you try out yoga breaks at your workshops? Let us know, or tag us in your pictures. We would love to hear your yoga stories!
Sources:
[1] Cassilhas et al.: Physical exercise, neuroplasticity, spatial learning and memory