Chair Stand Can Boost Strength and Help Maintain Independence

By Carol Krucoff, C-IAYT, E-RYT

One of life’s most common activities – getting up from a chair – is critical to maintaining independence and quality of life.   And your ability to perform this movement, called “sit to stand,” reveals a great deal about your fitness and health — with poor performance linked to increased risk of a variety of problems ranging from falls to early death.

The yoga practice taught on this video is called Chair Stand, and it’s designed to help enhance your ability to perform this essential activity of daily life.  Watch the short video first, then try it by following along.  Over time, just a few minutes of Chair Stand practice once or twice a day can help strengthen your lower body, boost your balance, enhance your endurance, and increase your confidence.

If you’d like to see how your ability to “sit to stand” stacks up with your peers, take the 30-Second Chair Stand test, which determines how many times you can stand up from a seated position in 30 seconds.   Instructions are available on the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Then, after you’ve practiced the yoga Chair Stand for a week or two, repeat the test to assess your progress.

Chair Stand is one of the practices we teach in our Integrative Yoga for Seniors Professional Training, which is designed to help yoga instructors learn how to safely and effectively teach older adults.   For information about our November training, which combines the best of current, evidence-based medicine with the ancient wisdom, experience and tradition of yogic teachings, visit