Instructor launches virtual chair yoga membership for older adults
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Instructor launches virtual chair yoga membership for older adults
Rachel Tome, a Warren-based yoga instructor with more than 22 years of experience, is launching a live, virtual chair yoga membership this September aimed at helping older adults build strength, balance, and calm without ever leaving home.
The membership, called Still Strong, will offer weekly live chair yoga classes over Zoom along with a monthly breathing and meditation class rooted in Tome's training through the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. Every class is designed to be done fully seated or standing and holding on to the chair, with no floor work required.
“You don’t need to be flexible. You don’t need to get on the floor,” she said. “You just need to show up, exactly as you are.”
She has taught yoga in the Warren and Jamestown areas for more than two decades, most recently leading in-person classes at the Crary Art Gallery. She began developing a chair-based practice after noticing changes both in her own body and in longtime students, many of whom found floor-based poses increasingly difficult or risky as they aged.
“I realized what we needed wasn’t a harder practice,” she said. “It was a safer one.”
Small studies have found that regular chair yoga practice can improve mobility, reduce fear of falling, and ease stiffness in older adults, including those managing arthritis. Because every pose can be modified and performed while seated, the practice removes common barriers to movement, including fear of injury and difficulty getting up from the floor.
Still Strong is currently open for waitlist signups ahead of its official launch. Early members will receive founding-member pricing. Rachel said she is also open to leading free introductory sessions for local community groups and senior centers.
Those interested in joining the waitlist, or scheduling an introductory session, can visit rachelsyoga.com or contact Tome directly at racheltomeyoga@gmail.com.