A 45-Minute Lunchtime Class in a Meeting Room
Human Resources has booked you for four Wednesday lunchtime sessions, 12:30-1:15 pm, in a carpeted meeting room. Twenty-eight employees have signed up. Half have never done yoga; several are in formal trousers or sarees; there are no mats (carpet only), two chairs per desk row, a wall at one end, and a whiteboard. One participant, a 41-year-old accountant, mentions she had ACL reconstruction four months ago and is still attending physiotherapy; another has carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists and wears night splints. The HR contact says only that they want "something for stress". There is no music system and no changing room.
1. Write the 45-minute plan with timings and justify the balance of components.
Read the worked answer
0-3 min - Arrival and framing. Shoes off at the door, seated on chairs, say what the session is (movement, breath, short rest) and what it is not (no mats, no changing, no chanting required, no hands-on adjustments unless invited). Set the "stop if it hurts" rule and the two options statement.
3-8 min - Seated joint mobilisation and breath awareness on chairs: neck, shoulders, wrists (gentle), ankles, plus 5 slow breaths with a longer exhale. Purpose: downshift before movement; nobody has to get on the floor in office clothes.
8-25 min - Standing sequence, all with the chair or wall as support: tadasana and side bend, chair-supported utkatasana, warrior II with hands on hips to spare wrists, trikonasana with hand on a chair back, standing cat-cow, gentle balance. Purpose: postural muscles of the thoracic and hip regions - the areas that nine hours of sitting shortens - and a mild cardiovascular load without sweating through work clothes.
25-31 min - Chair-based forward fold, gentle seated twist, hip flexor stretch at the wall. Purpose: counter the standing work and address hip flexors and thoracic rotation.
31-37 min - Pranayama: 4 in / 6 out for 10 rounds, seated, eyes closed or soft. This is the explicit stress-management component and it is what they can actually use at a desk.
37-43 min - Savasana on the carpet (or seated if preferred) with a rolled jacket under the knees; 5-6 minutes, cued body by body.
43-45 min - Close: one takeaway practice, a reminder of next week, and an invitation to speak privately about any condition.
2. How do you manage the ACL reconstruction and the carpal tunnel within a whole-group class, without turning it into a physiotherapy session?
Read the worked answer
ACL (4 months post-op): she is still in physiotherapy, so my job is not to rehabilitate her, it is to keep her inside safe ranges and avoid re-injury. Avoid deep twisting on a fixed leg, no kneeling on the operated knee without padding, no end-range lunging, no fast direction changes, no balance work on that leg without the chair beside her. Keep her in a pain-free range of knee flexion, encourage her to keep quadriceps engaged in standing poses, and tell her that if her physiotherapist has given specific limits (or an extension/hyperextension restriction), those limits win over anything I say. Ask her privately before the first class what her physio has cleared and note it.
Carpal tunnel (bilateral): avoid weight bearing through the wrists - no hands-and-knees, no plank, no downward dog on the hands. Substitute forearms or fists on the chair seat, hands on hips, or hands on the wall with the wrists neutral. Gentle wrist mobility is fine, sustained end-range wrist flexion/extension is not, and she should remove splints only if comfortable doing so. Grip strength may be reduced, so nothing that depends on gripping.
Whole-group delivery: announce general options at every pose ("hands on hips or on the chair back - whatever your wrists and knees prefer"), never name the conditions, and do not do hands-on adjustments at all in this setting. Offer a two-minute private chat after the first session to both, and put a line in the sign-up sheet inviting disclosure of injuries, pregnancy or health conditions.
3. HR has asked for "something for stress". How do you evaluate whether the sessions are doing that, and what do you change if attendance drops by week three?
Read the worked answer
Evaluation should be simple and honest. With four sessions, do not pretend to run an outcome study. Use: (a) a two-question anonymous slip at the end of sessions 1 and 4 - perceived stress now 1-10, and one word for how they feel; (b) attendance and drop-out pattern; (c) two or three short verbal check-ins at week two ("what did you notice after the first session?"). If you want a validated measure, a single-item stress or wellbeing scale is defensible; a home-made "wellbeing score" is not. Do not claim to treat anxiety or depression.
If attendance drops at week three, the likely causes in this setting are: length and timing (45 minutes in a workday means people skip when work peaks), sweat and clothing (they cannot change), floor work on carpet in formal clothes, and content that does not visibly deliver anything. In order of priority:
- Shrink the commitment: offer a 25-minute core version of the same class and tell them that leaving for a meeting is acceptable.
- Cut the floor: keep everything seated on chairs or standing so clothing is never a barrier.
- Make the takeaway explicit: end every session with one concrete 60-second practice (the 4-in/6-out breath) they can do at the desk, and repeat it every week so it sticks.
- Ask the leavers: find out from two people who stopped why - do not guess.
- Reset with HR: agree what success looks like (turnout, take-up of the takeaway) before session four, not after.