By Tyson Sunnerberg, Certified Personal Trainer & Co-founder of Type One Fitness
What if you could improve your balance and rehabilitate any part of your body that may need it?
Maintaining our strength as we grow older is just as important to our health as is eating a nutritious diet. Engaging in a low-impact fitness program works many different important muscles that are essential for maintaining balance.
There is a fun class that enables active older adults at all levels of participation to improve their functional performance and balance – Yoga Fitness with Chair Assist.
Yoga Fitness with Chair Assist is a whole-body practice where the intent is to move and stimulate the body, mind and soul from head to toe. It is a blend of traditional yoga postures and practices (asana, pranayama, mudra, reflection and meditation) combined with fitness-based practices to improve full-body strength, length and joint mobility. The Yoga Fitness with Chair Assist class incorporates seated and standing movement. With the option to use a chair as an “assist,” participants are able to maintain balance and gain strength while performing standing postures.
Although modifications and stronger variations are offered throughout the class to appeal to multiple levels of practitioners, the participant is ultimately in control of choosing how to move. The movement is intended to stimulate, not aggravate the body, so participants should always respect their own body’s limitations.
This class, along with Gentle Restorative Yoga and others, is led by Kim O’Brien, a local registered yoga instructor. Kim has consulted with the Massachusetts Commission on Aging in an effort to assist local area senior centers with online fitness class development. Kim believes that moving the body in every direction with healing intention creates a better quality of life. Yoga Fitness with Chair Assist is tailored to active older adults’ needs to improve their functional performance, but it also provides participants with an opportunity to socialize.
If you’d like to talk about participating in the class yourself or for a group that you are involved with, contact Type One Fitness.
About the author
Tyson Sunnerberg is the co-founder of Type One Fitness, a boutique fitness center with a unique focus on diabetes wellness that is open to everyone. With nearly 20 years of experience and success as a Certified Personal Trainer, Behavior Change Specialist and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Tyson has a passion for fitness and well-being. He is dedicated to creating and delivering safe and effective exercise programs for individuals and groups, including those with medical clearance to exercise. Type One Fitness offers a comprehensive array of training, workshops, and group classes taught by celebrated industry professionals. For more information call 781-987-1393 or visit the website at https://typeonefitness.org.
