Chair

Feet together, knees bent, hips back, arms overhead. A held squat that wakes the quads, glutes and ankles standing up.

· 2 min read

yoga · quad · glute · ankle · standing

The lesson

  1. 1

    Sit back, don't sink down

    Feet together or hip-width. Bend your knees and send your hips backwards, as if there were a seat behind you — the weight travels back, not straight down.

  2. 2

    Find your heels

    You should be able to lift your toes off the floor and stay balanced. If you can't, your hips haven't travelled back far enough.

  3. 3

    Arms up alongside your ears

    Reach forward and up, palms facing each other, shoulders sliding down away from your ears. Hands at your chest is fine if your shoulders don't like it overhead.

  4. 4

    Long from tailbone to crown

    Let your tailbone drop and keep your ribs over your hips, so your low back stays long instead of arching to hold the chest up.

  5. 5

    The test

    Your thighs and glutes should be working and your breath should still be steady enough to count. If your low back is what's shouting, come up a few inches and drop the tailbone again.

Chair

How to do it

Stand with the feet together or hip-width apart, whichever is steadier. Bend the knees and send the hips back and down, as though lowering onto a seat set behind you. The weight rides in the heels — you should be able to lift the toes and still balance. Let the tailbone drop so the low back stays long, keep the ribs over the hips, and reach both arms forward and up alongside the ears, palms facing each other. Shoulders slide down away from the ears. Hold, breathing steadily, then press through the heels to stand.

Why it's good for runners

Chair is a held squat you do standing up, and it asks the quads, glutes and calves to work in the range a run is about to use, without any impact and without a single rep. Coming before a run, that matters more than the stretch: a held contraction wakes those muscles up and gets blood into them, which is what a warm-up is actually for. The ankle position is a quiet bonus — sitting back with the heels down loads the ankle into dorsiflexion under bodyweight, the range that lets you roll through a footstrike instead of falling off the front of it.

Common mistakes

Don't let the weight drift into the toes and the heels lift — that turns it into a knee-forward squat and takes the glutes out. Don't arch the low back to keep the chest up; drop the tailbone first and let the chest be wherever that allows. And don't chase depth — a shallow Chair with a long spine beats a deep one held together by the low back.

Related

Yoga poses

Warrior III

Balanced on one leg, torso and lifted leg forming one horizontal line. The single-leg hinge running is built on.

Yoga poses

Warrior I

Split stance with the back heel planted and turned in, hips square to the front, arms overhead. Hip flexor and calf on stretch under load.

Yoga poses

Warrior II

Wide stance, front knee bent over the ankle, hips and chest facing the long edge of the mat, arms reaching front and back.

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