Getting Down to the Floor and Back Up with Chair Support

Which guide is this?

This is an independent explanation of Getting down to and up from the floor safely, hosted by Torbay and South Devon NHS. The booklet credits Dr Sheena Gawler for text and Helen Skelton for illustrations. Most pages identify Later Life Training V2 2018. It teaches staged floor transfers, rather than a yoga class or a promise that kneeling suits everyone.

The source requires consultation with a therapist or exercise instructor. Without a supervised session, check suitability with a healthcare professional first. This article cannot provide an individual assessment. After an actual fall, pain, injury, or inability to rise calls for appropriate help under NHS falls guidance, rather than an obligation to complete these movements.

Prepare the chair and the return route

The booklet uses a sturdy chair with arms on a carpeted area with enough space to lie down. Wear comfortable clothing and supportive footwear. Begin facing the chair, a few steps away. The chair receives weight through your arms; it is more than a place to touch with your fingertips.

Step forward with your stronger leg and place both hands securely on the arms or well onto the seat. Distribute weight evenly over the chair so it does not tip. This is the starting arrangement for lowering and returning. If the chair moves, your wrists cannot support you, or your knees cannot contact the floor, stop at this stage and ask for guidance.

Lowering: one knee, both knees, then both hands

1. Keep both hands supported on the chair. Bend the front knee as the back knee slowly lowers to the floor. In the source’s second stage, you return from here before progressing further.
2. Only after the return is established, bring the other knee to the floor. Both knees are now down while both hands remain on the chair.
3. Move one hand from the chair to the floor, followed by the other. You now have hands-and-knees support. The hands change support one at a time.

Identify the contacts rather than copying a final kneeling image: one foot and one knee; both knees with hands on the chair; then both hands and knees on the floor.

From hands and knees to side sitting and side lying

Lower your bottom gently to the floor, into side sitting with the legs to one side. The source image is not a cross-legged seat. Then gradually lower the trunk into side lying. The booklet treats these as separate fifth and sixth stages, each with its own return.

Side lying is the endpoint of this transfer guide. It is not automatically entry to a supine yoga pose. Do not replace the supported side-sitting stage by dropping backward simply because an instruction says to lie down.

Return along the same route

1. From side lying, bring the knees toward the chest and use your arms to lift your chest back into side sitting.
2. With hands about shoulder-width apart, move weight toward the arms and lift your bottom back over the knees into hands-and-knees support.
3. Reverse the lowering route, returning the hands to the chair one at a time until both knees are down and both hands supported on the chair.
4. Bring the stronger leg forward first with its foot on the floor. Keep arm support through the chair and push up through that leg to return to standing.

This is not a requirement to complete the whole chain at once. The booklet teaches returning from every stage. If you have established only the one-knee stage, review its descent and return. Getting down does not by itself establish that you can get back up.

Four details to check against the original drawings

• PDF pages 6–7: the stronger leg leads; the front knee also bends as the rear knee lowers.
• Pages 8–9: the second knee reaches the floor before the hands move down one at a time.
• Page 10: returning from side sitting involves weight toward the arms before the bottom moves back over the knees.
• Page 11: arms support the return from side lying; this is not a straight-leg sit-up.

These are stages from one identified guide, not a class assembled with other yoga poses. No daily repetition target is added. Stop with pain; persistent problems need appropriate advice. The seated Cat–Cow guide remains a separate chair-based learning option.