Class #2901

Yoga Fusion Wunda Chair

30 min - Class
108 likes

Description

Explore yoga on the Wunda Chair in this flowing workout by Zoey Trap. She alternates between coming on and off the Wunda Chair, working your breath and motion in a whole different way. She uses a light spring throughout the entire class so you can prepare for body for the balance challenges to come.

Zoey is using a Peak MVe Chair, but she explains how you can use a different Chair for this class.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair

About This Video

Transcript

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Hi, I'm Zooey trap peak, pull out his master trainer and I'm also a Jeeva mooky certified yoga instructor. Yoga and Politesse have been side by side in my life for over 20 years. Today we're gonna Explore Yoga. I'm the chair and with me is Connie Bordeaux, Pete [inaudible], master instructor, and also a yoga instructor in the Ashtanga tradition. So let's get started. This is an MBE chair and so the MBE chair is an open frame concept.

It's very sturdy. We've got the um, setting of the springs down the lightest end of the spectrum down on one spring. If you're on a different brand of chair, I want you to experiment, change the springs if you need to, but work at the lighter end of the spring setting because this is yoga isn't meant to be [inaudible]. We're going to be coming on and off the chair and really working one breath, one motion in a whole different way. Working with that lighter spring setting actually challenges the stability a little more in is more transferable to our traditional yoga. So to get started, go ahead and face your chair in. Just, um, reach forward to the back of your chair. You want to have a nice long spine here with the sitz bones lifted.

And if that's your set up, you are fine to go ahead. County, bend your knees and come up and let's get started. Inhale, take a big breath up, open your heart, grab some energy, and pull your hands to your heart center. Take a minute to just feel the beating of your heart to come into your body ground down into the earth and from this quiet place. Set an intention for your practice today, an intention that takes you beyond your small, ego-driven self and helps you unite with a greater cause. Maybe love.

Open your eyes when you're ready and inhale, sweep your arms up. Exhale, forward fold swan dive and bring your hands right to the edge of the chair. Exhale, bend your knees in. Inhale, lift your sits bones higher. Exhale, bend the knees and inhale sits bones higher. Look right at the peddle. Bend your knees, sits phones higher. One more exhale. Inhale, bring your hands for your hip crease. Exhale and inhale. Push the pelvis forward. Step back about another foot. For Surya Namaskara sun salutations. Ground down into Dyson, our mountain pose. And inhale, sweep your hands over your head. Exhale, Swan, dive to the pedal and ride the pedal down on the outbreath and inhale, come up along spine.

Think of pulling the heart open in the shoulder blades together. Almost like the shoulder blades were doorway to the heart. Hold the pedal down. Lunge back with the right foot plank chatter rung up. Bend the elbows. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Open. Exhale, idle Mukha downward facing dog. Inhale, right foot forward lunge. Exhale, foot meets right foot in. How half pedal stroke up. Exhale down. Inhale, come all the way up quietly. Release the pedal.

Reach up over your head and hands to heart center. Let's do that on my left. Inhale, reach your arms up. Exhale, Swan, dive to the pedal. Inhale, long spine pump for work on the breath. Inhale, rise in with the pedal like clouds in the air. Hold the pedal down. Left lunge, back. Inhale to plank. Exhale, bend your elbows. Chaturanga. Inhale, upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale, left foot in lunch, right foot meets, left foot. Inhale, half pedal stroke. Exhale, fold. Inhale, ride the pedal all the way up.

Reach up over your head and exhale hands to heart center. Inhale, reach your arms up over your head and bring your right foot to the pedal. Spread your hands apart and really reach up like you're grabbing energy pump four and three. Keep pulling into your midline to ground down to rise up and come all the way to the top. Take the leg back. Crescent lunge reached the leg behind you.

Lift way up tall. Lift this heel up, spin it back and lift the knee brightly. Now forward fold. Take the pedal with straight arms and a little shoulder. Depression one and two. Pull the arms from the back three and now tuck your chin standing splits. Push the pedal down, drives the leg up.

Reach high and bend and straighten the arms one and bend and just pump and challenge your breath. Now reach the leg. Way Up. Kundalini is descent. Bend your knee and come to the outside of your base leg and drive back up. Exhale, come down and inhale up. Exhale, come all the way down. Sit quietly, release the pedal and spin right into a twist. Take a breath ground down through your foot, and then turn and face the pedal.

Hold onto the pedal. Shift your weight forward and stand into warrior three. Pull the pedal to meet you. Flex your back foot. Open your heart. And then if you feel steady in balanced, reach your hands behind you. Reach through your fingers and pull your heart open. Reach right into me, push me away.

And now softly bring the toe down for Chin to shin. Flatten out your spine and bring the front leg forward. See if you can get the toes up on the pedal. You might have to bump your back leg in a little bit. That's okay. And now hold here. Take the front leg hip crease in, pull it back and derive the back leg hip forward scaring like a turn.

And then release your toe from the pedal. Inhale half stroke up. Exhale down. Bring the feet together and [inaudible] in a forward fold. And now come all the way up. Reach the arms over the head. Let's repeat it on the other side, other leg to the pedal. Reach up and take yourself high as you pump the pedal.

Keep lifting the ribs off the hips and lifting out of the base leg. Stay right at the top. Crescent lunge, back heel lifted. And this coming off the pedal is really difficult stuff. So be gentle with yourself if you wobble lifted back to me more. Reached toward the pedal with straight arms, shoulder depression, pull and pull. These are hand stand muscles. Now tuck the chin.

Go down for standing splits pedal goes to the floor. Lift the leg up, straightened both legs. Put your intention right up on those toes and pump the arms. Hold your intention up to the sky and CUNA linis descent them the knee and touch the ankle and derive and softly touch the earth. Don't even leave an imprint. Come down for seated twist softly release and follow the twist right around.

Lift the spine high and then unwind yourself. Find the pedal, shift your weight forward, lift up, find your balance, and then reach. Come into your warrior three. Pull your heart open and look forward, and then a few feel grounded, reached the hands behind you. Keep pushing through your back heel and then softly release the toe to the floor for Chin to shin. Inhale half pedal stroke up and find your toes.

So get your toes right on top of the pedal. That increases the stretch here. And then take a minute to just find your pelvis alignment. Hold their, release your toes. Take a breath halfway up and down and step the foot to meet the other foot. Inhale half gaze up. Ride the pedal down and come all the way up.

Reach your hands up over your head. Big Stretch and bring the hands to heart center for the side leg series. Inhale, sweep your arms up over your head. Swan, dive to the pedal and take your leg closest to me out. Reach through your heel and bend and straighten the arms for. Keep reaching this heel away.

Pump one more time and hold the pedal down. Bring the leg behind you and ride the pedal up. Comes side and pedal goes down. Leg goes back. Keep the leg as high as you can. Sweep the leg back, sweep it high to the side. One more back hold. Bring the leg down. Inhale, halfway up.

Exhale, fold. Inhale, come all the way up. Press the pelvis, reach up over your head and bring your hands to heart center. Let's do that on the other leg. Inhale, reach up. High. Exhale, Swan dive and other leg goes out to the side and try to keep the leg out to the side as you bend in, straighten the arms, push this heel out and keep it right in line with the other foot and then hold the pedal down. Bring the leg back and arms straight. Float that leg high into the side, connecting to the pedal, to the earth and leg comes down. Inhale, half pump up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, ride the pedal all the way up. Reach up over your head. Big Breath, and exhale hands to heart center. Front leg pump.

Hands go up. Now lower your left arm. Reach up through your right fingers and down through your right foot and bring your left foot to the pedal. Stretch up and pump. Four. Pull the sitz bones together. Keep lifting through the center. One more. Now stay right here at the top. Reach down for a balance.

Hold under the thigh or come around to your big toe. Take your big toe and reach up. Route back through this shoulder right out through and I'll reach both arms over your head. Straighten the leg and lift for three. Keep lifting two and one. Bend the knee and stand down. Lower the arms and we're in both arms up again.

Now keep the left arm in the air, left foot down. Reach way up and bring the other foot to the pedal. And pump four keep lifting tall. Three to add one. Hold the pedal at the top. Pull your sitz bones together.

Hold under the thigh or reach down and take your big toe. Hosta Pata Gustafsson a big toe pose now. Root back in the shoulder. Reach up, root down, hold both arms. Go up straight leg lift. Rise up. Reach fingertips to the sky and bend your knee and stand down. Lower the arms and Viniyoga twist.

Take your legs out nice and wide. Open your arms as though you're in saw. Stretch all the way out like a star. In. Inhale, right arm straight to the pedal. Keep your gaze down, ride the pedal down. Exhale, bend your left. Inhale, twist, and straightened more and returned back up to your no arm. Stay Straight and returned back up to your saw. That's a little coordination thing. Let's do it again. Inhale, left hand to the pedal, look down, then the top elbow. Inhale, twist and look up and return up straight arms.

And we're there at the beginning. And again, inhale, twist, exhale, bend the top elbow. Inhale, twist more. Open and return gaze straight ahead. And last time, inhale left hand to the peddle. Exhale, bend the arm. Inhale, twist open more. And both arms stay straight. Come all the way back up and step this way for Eagle. So if you're on an MBE chair, you want to be with your pinky toe in line with this back black cap. So Connie moved back this way and if you're on a more traditional wooden chair, your big toes where they join would be on the wood.

Now we've your arms for eagle. Take your arm closest to the chair and put it over the other one. Now pull that link together and bring the opposite leg up to the pedal. Pump four and three. This doesn't need to be a full range of motion to stay level and one hold at the top. Pull everything together for Eagle pose.

Weave the leg behind and then bend the knees down. There you go. Sit Deep, hold, hold, hold and inhale. Arms go up. Release the leg and steps slightly to the side for a sideways sun salutation. Stand in Tadasana. Big Toes touching. Inhale, sweep the arms up. Exhale, Swan, dive to the pedal. Write it down.

Take your inside leg closest to the pedal. Back a launch. Pump the inside arm once and again. Go back into plank and pump once and twice. Laurier arms, elbows, Ben, Chaturanga. Inhale up dog. Roll over the toes. Exhale, roll back over the toes, down dog and inhale.

Leg closest to the pedal comes in. Other leg comes to meet it. Now inhale, halfway up. Exhale, fold down and inhale. Come all the way up. Reach the arms over your head and bring the hands to heart center and keep them there. Press the thumbs into the heart and spin the elbows out a little bit wider.

Side leg pump. Bring the foot up onto the pedal and pump for, and three stay steady. Two and one. Pull the sitz bones together at the top more and you can release one hand to take your foot into tree. Spin the heel forward in your tree and press the heel to the groin and the groin to the heel. Inhale, send your arms over your head, root down and rise up and bring your foot down for crescent stand.

Lower this arm closest to the chair and take a nice standing moon pose. Reach out, reach out, reach out and come all the way around. Turn to face the chair again for Vinny squats. So stand behind your paddle legs a little more than hip distance apart. Inhale, reach your arms up, keep your arms in the air and squat down what the hands follow.

Inhale the arms only go up and exhale. Press from the legs to rise and lower the arms down. And let's turn to the other side to start this again. So side tree first. So bring your hands to your heart center. Bring the leg up, stand tall, and four pumps, four and three and two.

One more. Now hold at the top and tree pose. Release the hand to bring the foot in if you need to. Spin the heel forward and then press into the trunk. Grow up as though a tree reaching to the light. Hold and stretch up, up, up, up, and then bring the leg down. Standing Crescent Laurier inside, arm down and reach out.

Reach out, reach out. Step back just a little bit on a diagonal for the side Sun salutation. Inhale, arms go up. Exhale, Swan, dive to the pedal. Push the pedal all the way down and take the inside leg back. Pump twice in a lunge.

Stay nice and square and then step back into a strong plank and pump twice. Work the inside line down and bend your elbows. Chaturanga Dandasana. Inhale up dog. Exhale down dog. Inhale inside leg lunges forward, back leg comes to meet it. Inhale, halfway up. Exhale down, and inhale.

Ride the pedal all the way up, up, up, up, up. Reach up and step back for Eagle. So align your pinky toes right to the edge here. And then weave your arms under for ego. Find the arm position first. So outside arm, under foot on the pedal. Nice and parallel.

Kind of pull your arms together and if you can get your fingertips even. And then pump for work. The range of motion here to stay level in the hips to last time one. Now come up, take your time, cross the leg over that's on the pedal and weave it around and under. As you sit down, hold, hold, hold, and then fly high. Free yourself and come all the way down.

Take a seat. [inaudible] take your feet onto the pedal, knees touching, big toes, touching, thighs, touching and reach out and pump four and three. Pull your abs back and now hold the pedal down. Twist the left elbow to the right knee. Inhale, open the arms and spin more. Exhale, bring the hands back together and come to the center. Reach and pump. Four and three, like you've got a big ball of energy there too. And hold the pedal down and then twist elbow to knee and open.

Now you can give a little peek at your knees and make sure their level and then come back to center and sweep the arms up and take the left foot off the pedal. Reach the writer or leg out in four pumps. Four sit nice and tall. Three to hold the pedal down. Bend your knee in for crane. Take your foot lift way up. Think bringing yourself together in the middle and get me four pumps here.

Stay round and lift way up one more and bring both feet to the pedal. One leg pump on the other side. Take your leg out. So what we're doing is priming these balances with the pedal. That's why one spring is good. And then these movements as so often are very, very difficult in yoga. Become a little more beneficial, a little more useful for finding the balance.

Now Connie table, we're going to counter it. So let's start. Take your feet a little bit apart here and let's do the first table from the floor. So Provo tenascin a prep. Drive your knees into me. Lift your seat up and pull your shoulder blades together. Now if it's not comfortable, we don't take the head back. It can stay right here and go ahead and sit down.

That was hard for you to stay there. But if you've got it in you, let's go on up and do what's a little more familiar to us. [inaudible] people. Oh and for three keep lifting this seat two and set and that is really just what Yogis need is to get that backside fired up. Spin around on the chair, separate your legs coming into warrior two pretty goes down and arms come out wide though warrior draws the sword. The gaze is right at the middle finger here. And then hand goes to the peddle. Sweep the arm over the ear into extended angle and stretch farther.

Straighten this arm farther farther and come up reverse wire. Turn the palm up, stretch back into me. Reach, reach, reach and dancing. Warrior windmill, the arms to the pedal. Turn your body straight. Arms. Nice big stretch here. Ride the pedal up and down on your breath. Exhale takes you down. Inhale brings you up and stay up at the top and [inaudible].

So hold on to the middle of the chair itself, not the pedal. And then bring your foot back in. Align right in the middle of your chair. Now pull the chair toward you. Reach up through the heel, spin open and reach up to the ceiling. Half Moon pose, but with a whole new perspective of the chair helping you. And then lower down and take an owl stretch. Reach right back, take a little stretch and then come onto the chair for pigeon.

So the leg closest to the um, paddle bans. Flex the foot and then sweep this leg back. Now this is a little more accessible on the chair than it is on the floor, but I really want that foot strongly flexed. Inhale, arch back and exhale. You're going to slide right down. Take the legs of the chair, take a moment here, big breath and then inhale, come up. Pedal goes under the hand and the other arm rides way up.

Now reach way up and go over. Go farther, go farther. Straighten this arm, go farther, and then come all the way up. Put your hand down on the chair and let's go into our extension series. Exit the chair. You want to put yourself halfway on the chair. So step to the right, not the center of the chair. So you're more off to one side. And take yourself down onto the chair.

Extend your legs out and extend your right arm out. You're on the right side of the chair. Reach that right arm out and float the pedal up. And then straighten and bend the elbow four times. So holding out and just creating a really long line there. And then inhale, come up, bend the knee, half bow and inhale and exhale.

So kind of riding your bow pose here. Push the foot into the hand and now extend back out long. Bring your right hand to the chair, roll into side plank. Fine. Just a nice long wine. First, reach your head back and your heart forward. And then experiment with taking the top leg and arm up. Reach, reach, reach, come down, turn to face the chair and the pedal again. Bring the peddle up, stretch back. Take a little while, stretch.

Center yourself on the chair and now place your pelvis in the middle of the chair for Scorpion. Take your hands down. Let's start with familiar. All Swan. Inhale, ride the pedal up. Exhale rock and with the legs. Then the knees. Keep the pedal down and stretch the legs away and then come down and go again. Knees high. Try to touch the head in the feet together.

Stretch the legs away and ride the pedal up and press back. Take a rest, take a nice l stretch. Get a counter there and then go ahead and turn your body into warrior on this side. Face me. Sit on their chair and bring the leg over. Great. That's right.

And the other leg back. There you go. Now take your arms out, gaze at the front, Middle Finger and inhale into extended wire and stretch farther, farther, farther, and come up reverse while your palm goes up. Sweet. Back over the back leg. Strfat shout and then dancing warrior windmill, the arms right around Tuck the Chin and work to stretch the spine. Bring the pedal up and down a few times. Just kind of easing out the spine. Come all the way up, up, up, and our Dra Chin dress in us.

So pull the pedal toward you and bring that chair surface right in. Turn your foot and then bring your leg out. Reach into me, roll your hip open, reach up, stretch, stretch, stretch, turn and face the chair and take a little owl stretch here and then come on the chair for pigeon. So like closest to the peddle flexes the other leg, works all the way back. Nice and long. Inhale arch and stretch up. Exhale forward full.

And you can use these nice long legs of yours to reach out farther and then pull into the chair legs and then come up inside. Hand in the pedal, other arm to the ear and stretch away away. Push me right away and come all the way up. Release the arm and it's time to go down to the floor. So stand up, take yourself all the way around to face the pedal and sit facing the chair with your legs long. Now if you're not on an MBE chair, what I want you to do is slide your feet onto the wood and you're not going to be making such a big pedal. So you might just be able to pull on the pedal, but not pump it. But because we're on an MDE, we can do that. So feet are flexed. County's going to live way up. Keep the heart open and pull the pedal down.

Working from the upper back, sitting taller, taller, taller, and then slide the hands to the chair surface. Lift and look up and pull yourself longer. Bring your neck in alignment, hold and hold and hold and then bring your hands to the pedal. Bend your knees and take your legs outside. Oop, a visco Konasana inhale, arch your back and ride the pedal. And exhale, come up now reach your arms all the way up to the ceiling, Connie and behind you. And then push your hips forward. Come into the chair more closely. Now fold right elbow under, left elbow. Shift your weight forward onto your sitz bones and pump the pedal down.

Keep reaching out through your heels, kneecaps points straight up. And now at the top, take the arm that's underneath and just slide it across and hold on for a stretch. Open this arm up and reach, reach, reach. And now bring the other arm underneath the left arm under and pump for three. Keep sitting up taller. One more and then again slide the arm that's on the bottom across the whole the chair and then reach way out as though the fingers.

We're going to go over the toes and bring the hand down. Supine frog. Bring your feet into the middle, shift back a little to adjust. Lie On your back, the feet rolled together, the knees open and the souls of the feet touch. And then just pull the pedal all the way down. If you feel like you need to adjust back, go ahead and do that.

You want to get a nice long low back and then let the pedal come up and down a few times. Work to pull evenly. And think of pulling the pedal into your groin one more and come up, release the pedal, roll your knees together for hamstring curls and again boosts your bottom forward so that you're a little closer. And then working the legs as a unit, pull the pedal into you. Work the whole back chain. So this is often the weak link for us. One more time and now we're going to make it a little bigger. Let's bring the feet up onto the chair surface and boost your bottom way forward for a bridge, a series, then your knees and take your feet sort of.

So the arches are on the top of the chair, boosts your bottom way up. Now you can either stay here and think of lifting the back of the side into the front of the thigh or you can come under for a bind. Bringing the hands palm to palm, the hands express the shoulders. So push the pant, the hands into the mat and really lift up. And then keeping the hands bound rule all the way down.

And just take a moment of, of lying down there on the hands of this feels just so nice to open this way. And then lift your hips a little and free. Hug your knees to your chest. Connie, sit up and spin yourself around 180 degrees for a traditional yoga closing. So we're gonna end with shoulder stand and she's going to bring her eyes underneath the pedal and then hold on to the outside of the chair frame itself. Then the knees into the chest up to the ceiling. And you might want to just stay here.

If you're not a shoulder stand fan or you have a neck issue, it's fine to just stay here, even bend your knees. But if you want a little more challenged, you're going to come over, Hook your toes to the edge and lift your right leg up. Keep your shoulder blades active in your arms active so you're not laying on your neck. Leg comes down and other leg comes up. So one leg is kind of holding and the other leg is reaching up, reaching up, reaching up, no way down the neck. And then come down for Heloc Asana. Take your hands and bring them down by your side.

Soften your toes and just drag your legs as though they're going right along your face. Come all the way until the feeder, right over the hips. And then bend your knees. Slide your legs out for Matsyasana fish, the counter pose. So what Connie did there, county, can we just show that a little more slowly? She popped right into it cause she's an experienced Yogi.

So she's going to come up and placed her forearm on the mat and then pull your shoulder blades together. Create a little pillow for her head and breathe into the throat Chakra. This is the place where truth resides. Say what you mean and mean. What you say. Take a big breath in and then bring the chin to the chest. Come down onto the mat, take your arms and legs out for the final.

And most important pose, Shavasana [inaudible]. Allow your breath to just become very normalized. Let yourself be breathed. Stay here as long as you want. And as you relax and rest, know that your work today was enough, that you're enough just as you are. No, I'm a stay.

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Comments

I love that Peak chair.. had the pleasure of working out on one in Houston few years ago.. light weight and a nice wide seat..easy to move around..ok i will shut up and watch the video now... ha
Love the yoga on the chair!! Connie you were amazing!!!
A beautiful practice guided with love and impeccable clarity. Thank you, Zoey. As always, the transitions flow from one move to the next which allows for a full-body, complete practice. Thank you, Connie, for your open heart and lovely practice.
Tracie K
A really creative blend. Thanks!
Started my early morning with this...I am not a Yogi, but really enjoyed how Zoey brought the Pilates Language to this work out so I could follow. Zoey... On the Peak chair, would it be one middle spring or one high? I moved in and out of both. Connie - as usual - great form and grace! Love you two. xo
1 person likes this.
This class felt so good! Pilates meets yoga, I love it!
Gonna do it again soon!
Lovely! Flowing , creative class. Will come back to this one. Thank you.
1 person likes this.
Creative!
1 person likes this.
Great Class. Zoey can you place more classes on the MVE chair. Pilates and Yoga..
Z A
Very creative🙏🙏
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