Phase 3 · Standing, and the Sit to Stand

Part of the 8 Week Adaptive Yoga Program for Balance After Stroke

30 Minute Standing Yoga Sequence After Stroke

The last two weeks. Standing work with a chair in front of you, and the sit to stand you actually use.

The last two weeks are about the things you do between rooms: standing up, turning around, reaching for something on a shelf, staying steady while one foot moves. Everything here is done with a chair or a wall within reach, and the session still ends on the floor. This is the phase to keep after the eight weeks are over.

30 min · Level 2

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When it helps

For weeks seven and eight, twice a week, and afterwards for as long as you like. Thirty minutes. A wall and a solid chair. This is for the chronic, stable phase, at least six months after a stroke and after rehabilitation has finished. It is an addition to your rehab rather than a replacement for it. Every study behind it ran in person with a yoga therapist who could steady someone. Practise where you can reach a wall or a solid chair, and with someone nearby if standing is uncertain.

Balance

Standing with a narrower base, weight on one leg, and turning while upright. All of it within reach of a chair.

Transfers

Sitting down and standing up, done slowly and on purpose several times. It is the movement most likely to go wrong in an ordinary day.

Confidence

Balance confidence improved alongside balance itself in the trial data, and fear of falling dropped. Both matter for what you are willing to do.

Standing, chair in front of you

Twenty minutes upright, with a chair back or a wall within arm’s reach the entire time. Sit down whenever you want to.

Tadasana

3 min

Mountain Pose

Feet hip width, hands resting on a chair back. Shift your weight slowly forward, back, and side to side. Small movements.

Moving your weight around inside your own base of support, deliberately. Everything else in this session is a bigger version of it.

Learn more about Tadasana

Virabhadrasana II

1 min each side

Warrior II

One foot forward and turned out, knee bent a little, hand on the chair. Go nowhere near your limit.

A wide stance with weight on both legs unevenly. That is what walking is, held still long enough to feel it.

Learn more about Virabhadrasana II

Parshva Tadasana

1 min each side

Mountain Pose with Side Bend

Standing tall, one hand on the chair, the other arm reaching up and over. Reaching to the side is where balance usually goes.

Reaching sideways while staying upright, which is the shape of getting something off a shelf.

Learn more about Parshva Tadasana

Trikonasana

1 min each side

Triangle Pose

Feet wide, one hand resting on the chair seat rather than reaching to the floor. Keep it high and keep it steady.

A wide base and a long side body, with the chair taking the place of the floor. No need to go low for this to work.

Learn more about Trikonasana

Vrkasana

30 sec each side

Tree Pose

Both hands on the chair back. Lift one heel, keeping the toes down. That is the whole pose. If it is steady, lift the foot a little.

The first time in this program that one leg takes the weight, and it happens with two hands holding on and a heel lift rather than a foot on a thigh.

Learn more about Vrkasana

Utkatasana

1 min, five times

Chair Pose

Standing in front of the chair, sit down slowly and stand back up. Five times, as slowly as you can manage. Hands on the arms of the chair if you need them.

The sit to stand. It is the most useful movement in this entire program and it is also the one that empties a room of confidence when it goes wrong.

Learn more about Utkatasana

Down to the floor

Ten minutes finishing on the floor, and a slow deliberate way back up at the end.

Bitilasana

2 min

Cow Pose

On hands and knees, chest forward on the in breath, then rounding on the out breath. Take your time getting down.

Getting to the floor and back up is a skill worth keeping, and doing it twice a week keeps it.

Learn more about Bitilasana

Marjaryasana

2 min

Cat Pose

Rounding the back, slowly, a few more times.

The spine again, after twenty minutes of standing.

Learn more about Marjaryasana

Apanasana

2 min

Knees to Chest Pose

On your back, knees towards the chest.

A small shape on the way to the end.

Learn more about Apanasana

Savasana

4 min

Corpse Pose

Lying flat, cushion under the knees. Roll to your side before getting up, push up with the stronger arm, and stand holding the chair.

Four minutes still, then the safest way off a floor. That last sequence of movements is worth more than any pose above it.

Learn more about Savasana

Phase 3 · Weeks 7 to 8

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Standing, and the Sit to Stand, the third phase of the 8 Week Adaptive Yoga Program for Balance After Stroke. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Twice a week for weeks seven and eight, plus the ten minute seated sequence. After that, keep this one twice a week for as long as it is useful. There is nothing after week eight that replaces it.

The teacher behind this sequence

Gründer & Autor

Manish Rana

Gründer von Asanaverse.de. Manish schreibt über Yoga, Ayurveda und Meditation und verdankt seine tiefe Verbindung zum Yoga seinen indischen Wurzeln. Mit über 1000 Stunden Yoga Alliance Teacher Training gibt er sein Wissen an die Community weiter.

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