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Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Of the buzzword yoga, chair yoga seems to have taken the western world by storm. While archaic images of a girl sitting cross legged with hands on her knees are common, chair yoga can radically alter these.

Here are 8 Best Office Chair Yoga Exercises:

All benefits of yoga can be achieved by practicing yoga from the comfort of your own office chair.  Now isn’t that easy and awesome. In fact, you don’t need to limit your chair yoga practice to work.   Try chair yoga exercises when flying, in a bus, on a train, watching TV, sitting at someone’s bedside for long periods or even in a waiting room.

A hot favorite is the “twist”.  When you actually do this pose, after sitting for hours, you will realize just how stiff your back has actually become.

1 – Twist

Place your palms on the arm of the chair and turn your chest and abdomen to the right, moving your left shoulder forward and your right shoulder back.  Expand your chest fully and feel your body detoxifying.  Twists are great for the spine and your abdominals. Repeat on the other side.

2 – Eagle Arms

Sit erect and place arms in front of you.  Cross your arms so that the right arm is above the left.  Interlock your arms and press your palms together with the tips of your fingers pointed upwards.  Feel yourself contracting.   This is a good preventative measure against carpal tunnel syndrome.

3 – Lotus Preparation

Lotus is the traditional pose for meditation.  You can just sit comfortably in your chair, with your neck and spine straight and erect. Place your hands palms up, with the thumbs and first fingers touching in each hand.  This helps free your spine from the stress of sitting at your desk all day.   Traditional Sanskrit texts claim that Lotus (“Padmasana”) , destroys all disease.  Lotus is a two-sided pose, so be sure to practice both leg crosses.

4 – Mountain Pose

Sit erect, clasp your hands, and extend your arms forward.  Turn the palms away from you and raise your arms until the palms face the ceiling.  Stretch and feel yourself growing taller .This posture strengthens your sides.  If you want, add to this posture by bending your arms to each side.

5 – Lunge

Put your hands on the chair, take your left foot back, and sink into a low lunge.  This is a great stretch for the hamstrings and it also strengthens the calf muscle group.  Repeat on the other side.

6- Thread the Needle

Sit in your chair and cross your right leg over your left knee.  Flex both feet and lift them off the floor.   Thread the needle is done by clasping your hands around your left leg, just under your knee. Repeat with the other leg.

7- Scale Pose

Place palms on the arms of your chair and cross your ankles.  Exhale, contract your abdominal muscles, and lift your buttocks and legs away from the floor.  Hold the position for about five breaths.  Lower yourself uncross your legs, and repeat the motion with ankles crossed the other leg up.  If you can’t lift yourself, change the cross of ankles, and repeat the motion.  

8– Restorative Poses

Before returning to work, give yourself a few minutes to relax.  This relaxing pose is simple, and is very effective in reducing stress in your facial muscles and helping prevent fatigue.   Simple cross your arms and place them on the surface in front of you.  Then rest your head on your crossed arms.

It might sound a bit obscure, but your body houses two kinds of fat – yellow and brown. Yellow fat is what obese people have, it act as an insulator and store house of those excess and unused calories. Brown fat is one that burns those excess brown fat or unused calories. If you have got enough brown fat in your body, you might be eating anything and everything at any given time and still not gaining a pound.

The good news is there are many natural remedies that one can use to accelerate the fat burning. It is obviously no substitute to exercise, without exercising there is no way possible of losing weight.

· Magnesium rich leafy green vegetables are known to kick off the fat
   burning process in the body.

· Ginger and cinnamon were often used in Chinese medication as well
   as Ayurveda as they break down body fat.

· Green Tea and White Tea – They have high level of antioxidants which
   speeds up the metabolism rate and thus converting yellow fat into brown
   fat.

· Food that contains Omega-3 and Omega-6 are another such food that
   activates brown fat. Omega-3 is present in tuna, salmon, cod, leafy greens
   as well as sprouts. Omega-6 is mostly found in nuts, flaxseed, walnuts, etc.