Standing Poses with a Chair: Neck & Shoulder Release – Weekly Advanced Class 454

This class presents nine essential standing poses practised with the support of a yoga chair. The chair serves several important functions throughout the sequence. By providing additional balance and stability, it creates a more secure base from which you can observe and refine alignment. It also helps distribute muscular effort more evenly through the body, allowing the arms, shoulders and chest to contribute to the work of the poses and reducing the tendency for the legs to become overly fatigued. This can make it possible to remain in each pose for longer with greater composure, creating more space to observe subtleties that might otherwise be obscured by effort. The chair also provides a firm structure to work with and against, offering additional leverage for adjusting the feet, pelvis, spine, shoulders and chest. A particular focus of this class is learning how the positioning of the pelvis, chest and shoulders can influence freedom in the neck. In poses where the head traditionally turns to look upwards or to the side, including Trikonasana, Virabhadrasana II, Parsvakonasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Parivrtta Trikonasana and Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana. You will explore ways of creating the spinal and upper-body mobility needed for the neck to turn more comfortably and with less strain. Supported twisting actions also help to mobilise the thoracic spine and release stiffness through the back, chest and shoulders. As a whole, the class offers a balanced combination of therapeutic work for the neck and upper back with a systematic consolidation of essential standing-pose actions.