Understanding Chair Posture

Buddha Bose, Chair, 1938

Gouri Shankar Mukerji, Chair, 1963

Chair Posture, also called Awkward Posture or Utkatasana, is a fundamental position for the body. It is safe for beginners and challenging for experienced yogis. It has been misunderstood in the past several years, turning into a sort of squatting backbend that avoids many important elements of the position. 

THE SPINE
The spine in chair pose should be straight and as upright as possible. To the left you will see pictures of 3 yogis in this tradition:  Buddha Bose (top left) in 1939, Gouri Shankar Mukerji (middle left) in 1963, Bikram Choudhury (below) in the 70s. Look at their spines. They are straight (with the naturally curved shape of the spine), and quite tall. None of them are leaning forward, sticking their butt out behind them or arching their back to lift their chest and shoulders.

It is also interesting to note in the picture of Choudhury (bottom) - the woman on the right side of the picture is doing the posture incorrectly, with butt out and lower back arched. Notice how different her posture looks from Bikram's (Bikram is 2nd from the right in the picture), and also how unstable and unintegrated it is. This is how many are teaching the posture now.

THE FEET
Bose (top left) and Mukerji (middle left) have their legs and feet together, with their toes slightly wider than their heels. Choudhury (below) has legs slightly apart and toes wider than heels. 

This is different from how so many teach the position today, encouraging the knees and heels to be apart the width of the hips, and the toes to be turned slightly inward.

Bikram Choudhury (2nd from the right), Chair, 1970s

WHAT HAS BEEN LOST
​Somehow this posture has turned into "legs apart, toes in, butt back, back arched (photo on the right)," all of which are contrary to the way the posture was practiced by these accomplished Ghosh students.

The culprit is sticking the hips/butt back to simulate depth in the posture. Sticking the hips back bends the knees, but it forces the upper body to lean forward to counterbalance. Then, to correct for the significant forward lean, the modern practitioner arches the spine to try to bring the shoulders back over the hips. 

Modern chair pose. Legs apart, toes in, butt back, back arched.

Executing the posture in this way disengages both the gluteus maximus (butt) muscles and the abdominal muscles. These two huge muscle groups generally suffer from our western lifestyles, with so much sitting in chairs. It makes sense that they are weak, and the posture has altered to compensate for our weakness.

HOW TO CHANGE
To execute the posture properly, as has been done from Bose to Choudhury, the glutes and abs must engage to tilt the pelvis backward. This flattens the spine. The weight shifts back significantly, which means that the ankles must bend to push the knees forward. Notice the position of the knees of Bose, Mukerji and Choudhury. They are all significantly forward of the ankles.

Learning to practice Chair Posture this way can be challenging, especially when we've done it incorrectly for so long. Start very slowly. Bend the knees only slightly, and push them forward. Instead of focusing on your hips going back, bend your knees and push them forward. Whenever you feel your upper body leaning forward, straighten your legs a little bit, stand up, and again push your knees forward. Avoid letting the spine arch. Keep the back flat. You will notice that your abdominal muscles need to be quite tight.

Practicing this way will integrate the muscles of your pelvis and spine, strengthen your ankles and improve your balance significantly.