Partner Yoga Pose: Seated Butterfly Lounge

FitSugar — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Keeping your hips flexible helps prevent injury, and here's a great hip stretch you can do with a partner. It's similar to the Seated Straddle Lounge, but for this one, the person on the bottom is in Butterfly pose with her feet together and her knees out wide.

Music: "Shiva Shambho" by Namaste

To see a detailed description of how to do this hip-opening partner pose

I Think I've Found the Dumbest Design

Julia Walsh — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:10:00 PST

Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra has produced some of the world's most iconic - and beautiful - designs, like Charles and Ray Eames's La Chaise, Sori Yanagi's Butterfly Stool, and George Nelson's Ball Clock. But someone over at the offices of the design giant has been smoking something. In particular, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, who "designed" one of its new products, Chairless.

Described as "a seating device for the modern nomad," the un-genius product is a simple strap that allows a person to sit hands-free with neither a seat nor a backrest. The design was inspired by a similar support system used by the Ayoreo Indians in northern Paraguay, which is tightened around the legs and back. And because no product would be contemporary without personalization options, Chairless is available in four colors and three sizes.

It is my greatest hope that this product is just a conceptual joke. While it's recommended to use Chairless at "lunch in the park, while waiting in a crowded airport, a picnic on a lawn, sitting down at a concert, reading on the beach or on countless other occasions," I certainly couldn't keep a straight face doing so. And if I were to see a friend "lounging" in it at a music festival, some LOL-ing would most definitely ensue. What has the world come to? Are we so high-maintenance that we can't sit on the grass without the help of a $30 product anymore? Whatever happened to spontaneity? How can we have a relaxed lunch in the park on a sunny day when we're concerned about how to even sit down? Tell me if I'm missing something.