Lasater Yoga: Graceful Aging: Chair Yoga

This class is for serious students and yoga teachers working with aging practitioners, people in injury recovery, those seeking pregnancy support, and anyone wanting to practice yoga safely and confidently as their body changes. It is also for students whose practice feels inaccessible and teachers looking to adapt poses for older or recovering students. No prior credentials are required.

The class uses a chair as a stable and versatile prop, teaching you how to adapt common yoga poses so you can practice with clarity, creativity, and compassion. Mary Richards guides students through functional movement patterns, balance work, and strength building that support joint health and everyday mobility.

Specific outcomes include cultivating stability, strength, and lower-body mobility; improving joint health and dynamic balance; gently reducing pain, tension, and stiffness; and reconnecting with breath and embodied presence. The curriculum blends anatomical insight with accessible sequencing, drawing on Mary Richards’ background in yoga therapy and functional movement alongside Lizzie Lasater’s work in Restorative Yoga and movement science.

The class is taught by Mary Richards, MS, a certified yoga therapist who teaches alongside Judith Hanson Lasater in the Experiential Anatomy: Yoga Therapeutics program, specializing in functional anatomy and therapeutic asana. It is hosted by Lizzie Lasater, course architect at Lasater Yoga, whose work draws on yoga therapy, movement science, and Restorative Yoga.

The format is fully self-paced. The 2-hour session was originally taught live by Mary Richards and is now available as an on-demand class replay through the Lasater Yoga learning platform. Enrolled students receive three years of access to re-watch the class, plus a downloadable 8-page PDF with diagrams featuring Mary’s stick-figure drawings of the full sequence and bonus strength poses. Required props include a chair, bolster, two yoga blocks, a strap, five blankets, and an eye cover. A bonus full-length class on functional movement and strength training for yogis from the Somatic Self-Care series is included with enrollment.

The class uses a chair as a stable and versatile prop, teaching you how to adapt common yoga poses so you can practice with clarity, creativity, and compassion. Mary Richards guides students through functional movement patterns, balance work, and strength building that support joint health and everyday mobility.

Specific outcomes include cultivating stability, strength, and lower-body mobility; improving joint health and dynamic balance; gently reducing pain, tension, and stiffness; and reconnecting with breath and embodied presence. The curriculum blends anatomical insight with accessible sequencing, drawing on Mary Richards’ background in yoga therapy and functional movement alongside Lizzie Lasater’s work in Restorative Yoga and movement science.