Yoga for Active, Older Adults

Photo Credit: Karen Scully

By Karen Scully

I began my yoga practice about 10 years ago with an incredible teacher, Julie Wright. I was in my early 40’s, and had been a runner for many years. I developed calcium deposits on my left thigh which caused great pain after my runs, to the point of crying while trying to go to sleep. When my doctor informed me that I had to stop running, I spent the next year looking for some form of exercise that I could do the rest of my life and would give me the “highs” of running along with the benefits – mainly weight loss. That was also when my doctor informed me I was in my early 40’s and should find a form of exercise I could do for a lifetime.

So I practiced yoga almost daily for about two years. I took mainly power yoga classes, some Bikram, some meditative. I was amazed at how strong and limber a 43 year old could be. Through different injuries that were a result of my job as a personal trainer, I turned to yoga to cure my aches, pains and depression at no longer being the young thing I thought I was. So my yoga experience grew out of a need to find health through exercise and that is what my focus is on – health for all through yoga, but specifically for the “mature adult.”

The one thing I have run into with active older adults is the need for yoga for therapeutic reasons, be it physical or mental. One of the incredible things about practicing yoga is that yoga strengthens all different areas of the body: heart, lungs, muscles, cardiovascular and nervous system. Yoga can also improve our digestive systems, send oxygen to all our different systems to bring them to a healthier state, and helps our psychological well-being. All of these are a like a jewel found in one place for a person needing to remain healthy for life. Another thing I find with active older adults is stress caused by either injury or physical conditions plaguing them, such as diabetes, etc., and the stress leads to depression. It is like a vicious cycle: injury or poor health leads to stress leads to depression leads to stress leads to poor health and so on.

Studies have shown that people who practice yoga recover from surgery faster, reduce symptoms of diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, just to name a few. Why is that? Is it that yoga helps to reduce stress? Is it because the breathing sends healing energy through the body? Is it because their muscles and bones move more easily because of the asanas? Is it because you become more toxin free because of the twisting poses? Does meditation play a part? It’s because of all of these things, which is why yoga is perfect for anyone but specifically for the active older adult. And since no two people are alike – everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and different degrees of health, we have different types of yoga available for everyone.

Let’s begin with breathing, the most important part of a yoga practice. We are taught different types of breathing in yoga to help us in our asana practice and in our meditation. But anyone knows just from having to go in for, say, a big test and slowing their heart by taking deep, slow breaths that you can indeed rule your heartbeats and in turn, rule your blood pressure by slow, deep breathing. We take oxygen into our lungs that is transmitted into our bloodstream and carried to our muscles to increase our ability to exercise and stretch without muscle fatigue. Proper breathing techniques can relax a person immediately and anywhere and we know that because of studies done regarding shifting the balance of the nervous system to the parasympathetic side causing the relaxing to begin almost immediately. We know that relaxing muscles can help chronic pain, most commonly found in older adults from either physical illness or treatments used to help with their illness. So breathing is an essential part of anyone’s yoga practice, and it will be discussed again.

Yoga is a great stress reducer. Stress can come from lots of different things: daily work, issues with income/health, poor muscle alignment, chronic pain. As a matter of fact, arthritis and back pain are the two most common forms of pain, exacerbated by stress, found in older adults. Stress makes our muscles more likely to go into spasm, causing more pain/more stress. Stress can interfere with our deep sleep, essential for health, and common older adults. Lack of sleep increases pain. It is another vicious cycle. A regular yoga practice can help relax muscles, relieve stress and relieve pain.

Older adults also tend to slump, especially in their upper spines, causing muscle fatigue around their upper back and necks, ultimately causing pain. If continued, either due to sitting for hours watching TV or on their computers, or by the beginnings of arthritis or bone loss, their bones can slowly start to fuse in this manner so they can no longer stand straight. That’s why you see lots of older people stooped over from the middle of the back up. That is what happened to my father. Regular use of different asanas to strengthen our upper backs, using something like locust pose or cobra pose, can help strengthen these muscles and relieve the stress in the upper back, in turn relieving the pain.

Yoga also helps a person differentiate between whether they are feeling pain or are suffering. Pain can cause suffering but it is important for a person to know the difference and the difference is mostly a matter of the mind. This is where meditation comes in. Generally an active older adult cannot avoid pain, but they can control how much the “suffer” from pain. Studies have been done to show that long-term meditation can change the “wiring” of the brain in beneficial ways. Meditation activates the left prefrontal cortex which has been associated with greater levels of happiness. Personal happiness has a great deal to do with a person’s pain and suffering from the pain. Also, studies have shown that meditation can help reduce the pain signals from the thalamus to the higher brain centers where our brain interprets pain. Meditation is a huge part of biofeedback which has been shown to greatly help with a person’s pain. And where does our meditation always begin – proper breathing.

Studies have also shown that the vibrations we use, the Oms or the chanting (here we are back to breathing properly) helps to regulate the inhalations and exhalations we do. Regulating our inhalations/exhalations will regulate our involuntary muscle control, such as our heartbeats and blood pressure. Also, chanting helps us to redirect our thinking away from the pain we feel, giving a release, even for a short time, to our brain interpretation of pain, and we can learn to lengthen these periods of not necessarily removal of pain but ceasing to think out pain, thus teaching our bodies to do/think what we wish instead of the other way around. This has been found to be really helpful in older adults dealing with things such as fibromyalgia or even chemotherapy.

Older adults also seem to become depressed more easily than younger adults. Maybe our kids are grown and gone, we are unable to participate in golf or tennis the way we did due to illness or injury, whatever – depression is a huge problem in older adults. Many doctors want to treat depression with anti-anxiety drugs but yoga really leans toward a loftier goal. Yoga wants to quiet a restless mind, put us in touch with our deeper purpose in life, give us an inner source of calm and joy. Does this mean that older adults should not follow their doctor’s instructions and just do yoga? No. But it does mean we can incorporate the two to help a person to become well again, both in body and in spirit. And as we get older, we are less worried about our bodies than we are about our spirit.

If a person is physically able to do the sun salutations, these truly do bring energy into our bodies. Deep inhalations breathe energy into our bodies, and vigorous poses, such as the sun salutations or balance poses actually keep us from thinking about what may be our problems because we are too busy just trying to do the poses. The most important thing for people we work with who we know are suffering from depression is to not worry too much about their alignment (as long as we know they are not hurting themselves) but to just focus on their movement and breath. This keeps their mind focused. While they are focusing on the various movements and breathing, their body is taking in essential energy, stress relief, relaxation to help them combat depression. It works for everyone, no matter what their age but is particularly useful in older adults. Good poses for them are, along with the sun salutations are back bends because sending blood to their brains helps. It is always better to get quickly into the poses with persons who are depressed instead of focusing too much on relaxation or meditation because sometimes they can sink deeper into their depression and dark thoughts. It is also important to remember when you are doing their relaxation or savasana to keep their eyes open because closing their eyes causes them to focus inward and can lead to dark thoughts which are counterproductive to our practice.

We also understand that chanting and other devotional practices associated with yoga can help because they go directly to our emotions, again stimulating the left prefrontal cortex that is associated with calmness, happiness and emotional resiliency. Learning to bypass our bad thoughts and emotions through these practices can help us better deal with the emotional ups and downs of our lives.

Yoga also stresses a mind/body connection that some people think is elusive but yogis believe is essential. A good example of mind/body connection is does our mouth water when we think of apple pie? Does it elicit a good mood – a mood of contentment? On another level, are we so caught up in thinking of our problems that we cannot sleep? Are we so stressed about the difficulties we face as older adults that we develop an ulcer? Our physical bodies can affect our state of mind. We can’t walk as well as we used to so we become depressed. We take a hot bath to relax and relieve stress. Certain backbend poses can elicit a state of happiness in us. We can use different poses in yoga to make ourselves feel a certain way, and we can direct those poses specific to the older adult.

We need to remember to work on proper alignment, being careful to avoid poses that could cause problems with people with osteoporosis such as twists, lateral flexion and spinal flexion. We move gently through our poses incorporating spinal stabilization poses in every class, we feature poses that are comfortable and steady and encourage rest whenever necessary, we are cognizant of problems associated with older adults such as heart or blood pressure problems, and we urge the use of props, including chairs or walls for balance.

I have talked about asanas but I haven’t really covered the benefits of practicing yoga poses. Let’s take Big Toe pose – just a simple folding over of the body and holding your big toes. It, of course, benefits the low back. It also calms our brain to help relieve stress and anxiety, stimulates our liver and kidneys, stretches our hamstrings and calves, strengthens our thighs, improves digestion and helps relieve symptoms of menopause, headaches and insomnia. Next let’s take a look at a high lunge. It focuses on our ankles, calves, thighs, groin, abdomen, chest, shoulders, armpits and neck. It also helps with sciatica, heart problems and blood pressure problems. Warrior I focuses on the same as a high lunge, but also incorporates the lungs. It also strengthens the shoulders, arms and muscles of the back along with strengthening the thighs, calves and ankles. So even though I glossed over the poses a little, it would be exhaustive and take up the whole essay to discuss the benefits of each pose. Every pose strengthens, stretches and relaxes.

The purification we achieve from our twisting asanas help keep our systems working as God intended. As we wring our out visceral organs and the toxins are released into our bloodstreams, we flush them with water. Any twisting asana helps our bodies purify themselves.

Lastly, yoga also teaches us that the more we think something, the more likely we are to do it again. Our habits become deeper with more repetition. So our negative thinking or our self-flagellating inner dialogue may fuel depression. And the more an active older person sits alone or is inactive, the more they fuel their depression. So if we’re going to have a habit in our old age, let it be yoga. Let it be breathing properly, strength through asanas, meditation and purification through yoga. Let it be health in our mature years through yoga.

Karen Scully teaches Power and Hatha Yoga classes in Dallas, Texas.

Yoga Techniques to Prevent Problems that come with Aging

Author: AffiliatePro

It’s no secret that yoga increases flexibility. With practice, you will notice that you can bend and stretch your body in ways you never have before. Yoga teachers say that an individual’s age can be identified with the flexibility of the spine, and not through number of years. Yoga helps you in preventing body’s degeneration. The years have put a strain in your bones with the wrong diet, abuse with work, and wrong posture.

If you’ve gone through these active years without regular exercise, then your body will ultimately collapse. Like a machine, it needs proper care and maintenance. The best way to care for your body and bones is through yoga. This exercise has proven to dramatically increase your health if you do it regularly. There are poses you can do as you age. These are great in preserving your age and maintaining your body because it slows down the aging process by: providing suppleness to your abdominal muscles, flexibility to your spine, eliminating tensions, firming up your skin, improving your posture, and removing your double chin.

First and foremost, keeping your spine healthy is ultimately important, especially if you lead an active life. The stretching and breathing exercises involved in yoga help increase agility and flexibility. There are no age requirements in yoga. Whether you’re a strapping youngster or a meek senior, you can get into the routine and enjoy the benefits.

The secret is to start slowly after consulting with your physician. The warm up exercises that go with it is just as important because it prepares your muscles before it stretches and pushes itself. The moment you feel discomfort, stop and rest. With time and patience you will see that you will soon be doing the difficult poses with ease. If you have avoided exercise but would like to be flexible, it is never too late to begin. Yoga enthusiasts believe that they get into the holistic experience to refresh the mind, body and spirit.

Recent studies reveal that older people who started practicing yoga poses have slowed their aging process and felt better than they ever have. Yoga aims to unite and balance your body’s different components. It is an integrated system for the benefit of the body, mind, and spirit.

If you are really serious about getting into yoga to slow down aging, look into the practice of asanas. The said practice involves breathing exercises and meditation to remove digestive disorders, varicose veins, chronic weaknesses, and other conditions that come when you age.

Regular yoga practice also helps in weight management by making you more aware of your body. You will be trained to respond to your body’s call and get you attuned to your mind.

There are books and websites that talk about your ability to enhance your body and to start on a new healthy lifestyle. With the help of yoga, you will naturally live longer because you are able to influence all the significant determinants of a long life: brain, glands, spine and internal organs. As you grow older, your body will need to take in more oxygen. Each and every cell in your system will be affected due to lack of oxygen. Yoga feeds all those cells that are greatly looking for the oxygen they need. Reinforce your back, stretch out your lung capacity, and make yoga a part of your routine.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1041521_23.html

Basic Relaxation Pose with Legs on a Chair

I recently discovered Basic Relaxation Pose with Legs on a Chair and now I can’t live without it. In my yearnings to learn more and more about the power of restorative yoga, I had some lower back discomfort one day and thumbed through the chapter on poses for lower back pain in Judith Lasater’s book Relax & Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times, and found this pose. I recently bought myself a sandbag and it was the perfect time to try it out.

Basic Relaxation Pose, or Savasana, can be modified to suit anyone’s needs, whether it be with a blanket roll under the legs or head, a small bolster under the knees and ankles, by placing legs up on a chair, or simply lying down and letting yourself completely sink into the earth. I’ve tried them all, and they all have their benefits for however I’m feeling at the time.

How to do Basic Relaxation Pose with Legs on a Chair:

• Lie on the floor in front of a folding metal chair (any other sturdy chair that doesn’t roll will also work) and place the lower half of your legs on the seat of the chair so that your hips and knees are bent. The back and buttocks are resting on the floor.
• Fold the long edge of a firm blanket and place it under your head so that your neck is supported.
• Place a 10-pound sandbag over your lower abdomen.  If you don’t have a sandbag, a 10-pound bag of rice will also work.
• Your breathing may feel a little restrained at first, but as you relax into the pose and tension is released, you’ll notice that the sandbag will feel lighter and you’ll be able to breathe easier, and your lower back will relax also.
• Rest with your arms out to the side, preferably with your palms up. Place an eye pillow over your eyes to block out light and allow yourself to relax completely.
• Allow your lower back to sink into the floor with the weight of the sandbag and let tension and stiffness melt into the floor.
• Take some slow, gentle deep breaths followed by an equally long exhalation. Follow that with your natural breath and repeat the process.
• Stay in this pose for 15-20 minutes for optimal benefit.  You’ll notice that this pose completely relaxes the muscles of the abdomen and lower back and invigorates the legs.

If you’d like to get yourself a sandbag, you can get one at a very reasonable price at Yoga Accessories.com. Click here to visit YogaAccessories.com

Yoga for Digestive Health

No matter what age we are, we need to take care of our digestive health, and that includes practicing yoga everyday to keep our abdomens soft and encourage deep breathing into our core body.  Digestive problems usually plague women as they get older, and we really can’t ignore them. Face it, poor digestion can lead to other illnesses and diseases, such as chronic indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, or irritable bowel syndrome, for example. None of these conditions are pleasant, but we can avoid them if we recognize the symptoms and do something about them before they get worse.

Take me, for example. Over the last couple of years I started experiencing heartburn and was recently diagnosed with Acid Reflux Disease and Esophagitis. My condition affects my digestive health, as I also experience bloating and, um, gas bubbles from time to time. I can’t eat the same foods I used to eat, and I really have to take care not to overindulge or else I’ll suffer the consequences. But there are yoga poses that I do to settle my digestive system and relieve my symptoms.

Photo Credit: Yoga Journal

One pose I really like to do when I’m feeling a little full is Reclining Hero. As I lie back on the floor or supported by a bolster, reclining hero pose not only stimulates my thyroid and parathyroid productivity, normalizes my blood pressure, and calms my nervous system, for example, but it softens my abdomen and eases my digestive upset. This is one of the few poses you can do after you’ve eaten a heavy meal.

So what else can you do to help with digestive disorders?

• Stop being anxious! Those who experience frequent anxiety also experience frequent diarrhea, which is a sign of a viral infection and that your body needs to get rid of toxins. Don’t use over-the-counter remedies as they won’t help you to eliminate toxins. Instead, drink water, and herbal tea laced with chamomile, nettle or alfalfa.
• Don’t hold in your belly! Lots of women think they have to have a flat belly to be happy or beautiful. Hiding your rolls under tight panty hose or jeans will only keep the blood from flowing to your digestive tract and reproductive organs and will cause all kinds of unpleasant digestive disorders.  I never wear tight clothes, mostly because they’re so darn uncomfortable!  Do yourself and your digestive health a favor, and wear loose clothing and enjoy the freedom!
• Exercise regularly, as it will feed energy to an otherwise lethargic digestive system. If you don’t exercise, you’ll compromise your body’s natural ability to cleanse itself, and your body will hold all kinds of bad toxins day in and day out which can lead to disease. Practicing yoga, for example, will stimulate your gastrointestinal system, balance your thyroid gland, make you feel calm, and inspire healing breath, all contributors to a healthy digestive system.

So what else can yoga do for your digestive health?

• Certain poses such as revolved triangle or plough pose, squeeze blood out of your organs and then soak them with new, oxygenated blood, sort of like a “squeeze-and-soak” effect. This helps to freshen and revitalize cells and tissues and enhances your overall physiological makeup.
• If you suffer from digestive problems related to perimenopause or menopause, certain poses can help revitalize your adrenals, thyroid, and liver, soften your abdomen and ease intestinal disorders. Indigestion, acid reflux, or heartburn, common conditions as you get older, can be eased by practicing supported backbends, a kind of cooling pose which will lift your diaphragm and take pressure off your stomach.

Suggested poses for improving digestion:

• Reclining Hero Pose
• Reclining Bound Angle Pose
• Downward-Facing Dog Pose
• Head-on-Knee Pose
• Seated Forward Bend
• Headstand
• Child’s Pose
• Shoulderstand
• Bridge Pose
• Corpse Pose

Yoga can ease menopause symptoms

Child's Pose

Do you wake up in the middle of the night soaking wet?  Do you suffer from hot flashes?  Are you frequently irritable and feel totally unbalanced, ready to break down in tears at the drop of a hat?  If you’re experiencing these and perhaps many other symptoms of menopause, practicing yoga can help. Yogic stretching benefits both body and mind and can balance your hormonal levels which are no doubt causing an unpleasant shift in your emotions during this trying time in your life.

Women in midlife who are going through menopause, or even those in peri-menopause, would fair very well if they embraced a yoga practice, not only to feel better but to ward off increased bone loss and risk for cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.  In an article by Susan M. Lark, M.D. called “Yoga for Menopause,” (Health World Online), she outlines a series of yoga poses specifically geared to help women in menopause.  Dr. Lark stresses that “Practicing yoga stretches regularly in a slow, unhurried fashion will gradually loosen your muscles, ligaments and joints.  You may be surprised how supple you can become over time.” Dr. Lark also stresses that poses should be practiced slowly and deliberately with focus and attention.

Some of Dr. Lark’s recommended yoga poses include the Locust, Wide Angle Pose, Spinal Flex, Pelvic Arch, the Bow, Child’s Pose, The Sponge, Dollar Pose, Tree, and Chest Expander.  If you’d like to learn more from Dr. Lark, click below to get her free reports and other valuable information to help you feel young again.

Yoga benefits seniors in more ways than one

Gone are the days when Granny sat in her rocker and took to knitting sweaters for her great-grandchildren, barely able to get up, let alone walk around the block.  Instead, many older people today are exercising to keep fit and healthy despite their advancing age.  The are enjoying a more pro-active lifestyle, and yoga has become an exercise of choice. And they’re more healthy and vibrantly alive because of it.

Take Pam Horton, age 71, a yoga enthusiast who’s been teaching five yoga classes a week to 20- to- 80-year-olds for the last 35 years in the United Kingdom.  “Yoga can have a tremendous effect on you, whatever age you start,” she says, “but I find I don’t need to do much practice to keep supple, as my awareness of my body posture has become second nature over the years,” says Pam, in an article called “The Yoga Teacher,” (Guardian.co.uk-The Observer, 21 June 2009). “I’m aware of the fragility of health and that it can change without warning. So I always retain a sense of detachment — I’m not pleased with myself if I do a complicated yoga pose, I’m pleased for myself. You’ve never got life cracked.  Yoga teaches you that,” says Pam.

So, what can yoga do for seniors?

• It helps you to function more independently as it improves overall body health;
• It strengthens your muscles and your bones through weight-bearing poses;
• It improves circulation, cardiovascular health and helps you to breathe deeper, which can increase overall well-being;
• It increases flexibility and energy levels and improves posture and balance;
• It helps keep the mind healthy, especially for those who have a family history of Alzheimer’s Disease;
• It provides a full spectrum of mind-body practices that enhance well-being and provide a spiritual connection to your inner self.

To jump start you on your journey, may I recommend Suza Francina’s book “The New Yoga for Healthy Aging:  Living Longer, Living Stronger and Loving Every Day,” a step-by-step guide for the “sixty and beyond” baby boomers who want to start practicing yoga to look and feel great!

Yoga is for older people, too

Yoga better be for older people, too, because I’m not going to stop practicing anytime soon.  Even though I haven’t even reached my 50th birthday yet, it’ll come soon enough and I don’t want to dig myself into a grave just because I’m hitting the big five-O.  It’s my belief that hitting midlife is not a time to think about the things we should have done, it’s a time to embrace life to the fullest, and begin a life with new meaning and vitality. 

I hope to be doing yoga well into my golden years, and I look forward to always living my life as a yogi and empowering others of advanced age to embrace yoga as a part of their lifestyle, too, so that they may live long and happy lives.  I may not be able to do everything that I can do now, but what I want to be is alert, flexible, and healthy, and be able to balance myself on my own two feet without falling.

According to a 2008 study —  ”Yoga in America” – by Yoga Journal, featured in an article called “Older Adults Increasingly Turn to Yoga for Health,” by John Hanc, (AARP Bulletin Today, June 9, 2009), “49 percent of those who practice say they are doing it to improve their overall health.  Most of these people tend to be younger: The study also found that among the estimated 15.8 million Americans who currently practice yoga, 40.6 percent are ages 18 to 34.  But more older adults are now taking their place on the mats alongside them.  According to the study, 18.4 percent of practitioners are now over 55.” 

It’s never too late for women in midlife to start a yoga practice. And you don’t have to step into — and you shouldn’t step right into — a power yoga class meant for 20-somethings.  There are many gentle yoga and restorative classes meant for older people just starting out.  “Whether you’re already active or sedentary, you need to be extremely careful in choosing the type of yoga you become involved in,” says Dixie Stanforth, a lecturer in exercise science at the University of Texas at Austin.  Most times, women find themselves suffering from chronic illnesses or stress-related conditions that prompt them to seek medical attention, and a means to make themselves feel better overall.   “One reason that a great number of older adults are showing up at yoga studios is because their doctors have recommended it,” says John Hanc. Most older people seek yoga as a means to maintain chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, depression, scoliosis, and heart disease, to name a few. The benefits of yoga are far reaching, and age doesn’t matter.

If you’re at midlife and you want to start yoga, may I recommend you get yourself a copy of Pat Shapiro’s Yoga for Women at Midlife and Beyond. It’s an easy read, and the illustrated poses are doable for women at any age.
 
Photo credit:  www.patshapiro.com