Phase 2 · Standing, With a Chair

Part of the 12 Week Adaptive Yoga Program for MS Fatigue

35 Minute Supported Yoga Sequence for MS

Weeks four to eight. Standing positions with a chair, dosed carefully, and the same cool room.

The middle five weeks add standing work, and every position in it has a wall or a chair as the standard version rather than the fallback. What is being built is functional: standing up, staying up, and reaching. It is honest to say that the trials measuring balance and walking directly did not find a yoga specific advantage, and it is also honest to say that supported leg work is worth doing anyway.

35 min · Level 2

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When it helps

For weeks four to eight, twice a week, on a better energy day. Thirty-five minutes. A wall, a chair, a blanket and a strap. Practise in a cool room, at a moderate intensity, with breaks. Around three quarters of people with MS get a temporary worsening of symptoms when body temperature rises, and it usually settles within a day. A wall or chair for every standing position. On a bad fatigue day, do less rather than none. This is for people who walk independently or with one stick, alongside neurological care rather than instead of it.

Leg strength

Supported standing, held for a manageable time. Functional rather than aesthetic: standing up, staying up, reaching.

Fatigue

Still the primary aim. The session ends with the same lying down and humming as every other session here.

Balance

Worked on, and worth being honest about: the cleanest controlled trial found no yoga specific advantage on balance or walking distance.

Standing, chair in front of you

Sixteen minutes upright. The chair is the standard version of every position here, not the modification.

Tadasana

3 min

Mountain Pose

Cool room, feet hip width, hand on the chair. Weight moving slowly in each direction. Sit down at any point.

The base, and a chance to notice how steady today is before anything else is asked.

Learn more about Tadasana

Virabhadrasana II

1 min each side

Warrior II

Wide stance, front knee bent a little, hand resting on the chair back. Wider than feels normal.

A wide base with the weight uneven between the legs. Widening is the progression here, not deepening.

Learn more about Virabhadrasana II

Ardha Uttanasana

2 min

Half Standing Forward Bend

Hands on the chair back, feet stepped back, back long, head level with the heart.

Length through the whole back with the arms sharing the load.

Learn more about Ardha Uttanasana

Urdhva Hastasana

2 min

Upward Salute

Both arms overhead, chair within reach. Notice whether one side is doing less today than last week.

Overhead reach, and a weekly check on the two sides.

Learn more about Urdhva Hastasana

Utkatasana

1 min, five times

Chair Pose

Stand in front of the chair. Sit down slowly to a count of three, stand back up to a count of three. Five times, hands on the arms if you want them.

Getting out of a chair is the movement that decides the shape of a day, and it responds to being trained.

Learn more about Utkatasana

Parshvottanasana

1 min each side

Pyramid Pose

One foot forward, hands on the chair seat, back long, folding only as far as the back stays long.

A long hamstring stretch with the hands supported. It also asks the front leg to hold you, which is the point.

Learn more about Parshvottanasana

Down to the floor

Nineteen minutes lower down, ending with the lying down and the humming breath.

Adhomukha Shvanasana

1 min, twice

Downward-Facing Dog

Hands on the chair seat rather than the floor, hips back. Keep the head above the heart, which also keeps you cooler.

The back of the legs and the shoulders, in the version that does not put your head down.

Learn more about Adhomukha Shvanasana

Marjaryasana

2 min

Cat Pose

Hands and knees, rounding on the out breath.

The spine, once you are down.

Learn more about Marjaryasana

Bitilasana

2 min

Cow Pose

Chest forward on the in breath, slowly. Stop and rest if you start to feel warm.

Extension, and the temperature check that runs through every session.

Learn more about Bitilasana

Supta Hasta Padangusthasana

90 sec each side

Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose

On your back, a strap around one foot, knee as bent as you want. Let the floor take everything else.

The back of the leg with the floor holding you. Spasticity often eases more with a long steady hold than with anything active.

Learn more about Supta Hasta Padangusthasana

Where the fatigue work happens

Seven minutes lying down with the humming breath, the same as every session.

Viparita Karani

4 min

Legs Up the Wall

Legs up the wall, or knees bent with the feet down. Then the humming breath: in for five seconds, out with a hum for fifteen, ten to twenty rounds.

Unchanged since week one, and the part of this session with the strongest evidence behind it.

Learn more about Viparita Karani

Bananasana

1 min

Banana Pose

A long soft curve to one side, then the other.

On the way out.

Learn more about Bananasana

Savasana

3 min

Corpse Pose

Flat, covered, cushion under the knees. Get up slowly and in stages.

Three minutes still, and an unhurried way back to your feet.

Learn more about Savasana

Phase 2 · Weeks 4 to 8

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Standing, With a Chair, the second phase of the 12 Week Adaptive Yoga Program for MS Fatigue. 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 four to eight, with the ten minute sequence for the days in between and the days that go badly. If a session leaves fatigue worse for more than a day, cut the standing section in half next time.

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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