Welcome

You've arrived at the premier web site for chair yoga, chair fitness and other forms of adaptive chair exercises. Regardless of your age, level of activity and physical challenge, you will derive wonderful health benefits from practicing and implementing Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™ into your daily exercise routines.




America (and most of the world) is faced with a health crisis.  The U.S. Surgeon General states that 25 percent of all adults (approximately 50 million) are not active at all through some form of exercise or physical activity.  If you number yourself in this sedentary group or your physical fitness activity is limited because of various diseases or other physical conditions, you belong to a large population underserved by our innovative chair yoga fitness and exercise programs.

Chair yoga offers you the ability to improve your health through an amazing form of adaptive exercise.  You are supported by a chair so you can receive yoga’s healing and restorative benefits that have been known for thousands of years.  Yoga relaxes your body and mind, improves your musculoskeletal fitness and flexibility, and elevates your overall health and well-being.


About The Founder – Lakshmi Voelker

Lakshmi Voelker has dedicated her life to creating accessible paths to wellness. With chair yoga, she was able bring adaptive fitness and exercise programs to those who could not benefit from traditional physical activities due to age or limiting physical/mental conditions or one’s environment/location.

She created Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga in 1982 when one of her thirty-something students was stricken with arthritis and could no longer get down on the floor to practice Yoga. In 1999, Lakshmi authored and produced her widely acclaimed "Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™: The Sitting Mountain Series" CD/cassette.

Lakshmi Voelker-Binder, YT, E-RYT 500, KYTA, YA, IAYT is a certified Kripalu Yoga instructor, a member of the Yoga Alliance and International Association of Yoga Therapists, and holder of other certifications.

Following the success of her CD, she then created the first in a series of innovative Chair Yoga Fitness and Exercise DVDs in 2007. She made breakthroughs in two areas: extensive step-by-step instruction of each class and providing multiple levels of flexibility so all poses are accessible. Read more about Lakshmi.

•  Who can benefit?  Find out why chair yoga is the perfect fitness exercise program for all ages, fitness levels and physical conditions.

•  Preview the Introduction to Lakshmi Voelker's new chair yoga fitness and exercise DVD Video.

•  Purchase Lakshmi Voelker’s chair yoga™ DVD Video and CD. Your views of adaptive exercise and physical fitness will never be the same.

Rave Reviews of Chair Yoga, Fitness & Exercise

Roz - 41 years old: Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Roz had MS and wanted to keep her back in shape. She decided to start Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™ as a healing, supporting discipline. Roz learned which breathing exercises would keep her body temperature cool and which asanas (poses) would help support her back muscles and spine and which ones were contraindicated. She continued to practice Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™ and has now added Pilates and other healing and movement modalities with great success and JOY!

Juan - 12 years old: Cerebral Palsy

Juan was always quiet and had never spoken, yet he loved to participate in Lakshmi's chair yoga class to the best of his ability.  Most of his movements were involuntary and when he did move there was a lot of jerking involved.  You could tell he was troubled with the involuntary movements and the constant dripping of saliva.  Juan always had a smile for everyone!  One day Lakshmi was telling the kids a story about the sunflower and the seeds and how the birds loved the seeds and if a seed was lucky enough to get away from the beak of a bird it would grow into a what???  Lakshmi posed this question to everyone, who by that time had all smelled the very big sunflower they were holding.  All of a sudden the answer to Lakshmi's question came from the right of her.  "A FLOWER!" Juan spoke and nearly brought the aides, PT's, and OT's to tears for he had not spoken for a long time.  Everyone believed that the breathing and relaxation techniques that his parents and OT's worked on with him afforded him the opportunity to speak.

View more testimonials and case studies of how Lakshmi's innovative chair yoga program is helping individuals improve their lives.