Introduction
Older people should incorporate some physical activities in their lives to maintain a healthy lifestyle. As you age, you need to stay active and hence yoga for senior citizens is essential.
With some light exercises and yoga steps, older people will feel active, energetic, and manage their aches and pains better than those who don’t incorporate it into their lifestyles. It helps you to stay independent without relying on others. Yoga is one of the best ways to keep older people active. With practice and right techniques, they can get better at it while improving their mood, flexibility, and balance.
Find below some of the benefits of yoga for senior citizens.
Retirement does not mean that you can take up other activities. It is indeed the best time to develop healthy habits to help you in your free time and learn some new skills. The benefits of yoga for senior citizens include :
Strengthened Bones
Osteoporosis is the weakening of bones and causes them to become brittle. Yoga helps in preventing the onset of osteoporosis. It occurs when a new bone can’t keep up with the decrease in bone mass that occurs as you age.
Improves Sleep
Sleeping is often an issue for adults. Older people who take yoga classes often say that they felt relaxed after taking a yoga class and had a sound sleep.
Reduces Stress
Yoga often helps relax a person and let go of the tension that you’re holding in your body. It helps in relieving you from some hypertension symptoms, which in return reduces the need for medicines. It helps control anxiety, blood pressure, lowers heart rate, and enables you to breathe easily.
Reduces the Risk of Depression
Yoga is known for boosting a person’s mood. The combination of different breathing techniques and meditation improves the overall mood of a person. Since yoga is taken in a class, you can also get a lot of support from your friends and help you stay connected with others, reducing the risk of depression.
Improves Strength and Flexibility
The slow movements of yoga lead to better training and balance. This, in return, reduces the risk of injury since older people tend to get injured because of falling. Since falling is one of the significant causes of damage, you can decrease the chances of getting hurt by regularly practicing yoga.
Eases Aches and Pains
If you have some aches and pains in your body, yoga helps you get relieved. If you have any physical limitations, yoga helps to alleviate them. Older people, especially those who have osteoporosis, will benefit from yoga since it teaches you proper breathing techniques and enables you to deal with any chronic pain.
Best Yoga Types for senior citizens
There are several yoga styles that are best for the elderly. For obvious reasons, old age people cannot perform yoga the same way as a teenager would do.
Find below some common and best yoga practices for senior citizen
Corpse Pose
The corpse pose does not require many challenging stretching that can undoubtedly affect the bones of an old person. The corpse pose is a way to relax the body and mind while laying flat on your back for a couple of minutes. Additionally, the corpse pose incredibly helps senior citizens to acquire better sleep.
Breathing Techniques – Pranayama
Pranayama is the most practiced yoga exercises. It involves doing diverse breathing techniques that help to reduce anxiety, depression, stress, stabilizes blood pressure, and boost energy level. Pranayama involves restoring mental, emotional, and physical health. Therefore, old age people can reap its benefits by practicing these excellent Yogasanas.
There are various breathing techniques and those include:
- Alternate nostril breathing – Nadi Shodhana
- Ocean’s breath – Ujjayi
- Cooling breath – Shiitali Kumbhaka
- Hissing breath – Siitkari Kumbhaka
- Humming breath – Brahmari
- Bellows breath – Bhastrika
- Solar breath – Surya Bhedana
- Lunar breath – Chandra Bhedana
- Active yogic breathing
Is Yoga Appropriate for Senior Citizens?
Seniors can do yoga in most cases. Often, people who have a hectic routine don’t find time for such activities during their adulthood. Hence as you age and retire with a lot of free time on your hand, you can try yoga as you grow older. Often, older people in their retirement get bored and lonely.
Hence, attending a yoga class will benefit you physically and help you make some friends and stay connected to each other, boosting your confidence and enabling you to stay connected to everyone. Additionally, it is common that old age people suffer from different health conditions such as arthritis or muscle weakness. Fortunately, yoga can be of great help to alleviate such issues in older people.
Which Type of Yoga to Start From?
As you look for yoga classes, ensure that you are aware of all yoga poses for beginners. You cannot start challenging yoga right away but need to focus on your strength and health. Try doing some easy poses to ease your muscles and make you relax. First, only practice some breathing techniques and light stretches.
If anything doesn’t feel right, do not continue with that pose and switch to another one. Let your yoga teacher know of any unusual pain or ache in your body to help you correct your posture. You cannot expect to become an expert yogi at certain age since your body will not have the same core resistance and strengths. Hence, it is crucial not to overdo with certain yoga poses.
Conclusion
Yoga is an excellent way to help older people stay active and independent. If you don’t want to rely on anyone once you grow old, you should start practicing yoga. However, if you don’t have time at your young age to try some exercises, it’s never too late, and hence you can try to incorporate a little bit of exercise in your everyday life. While yoga is hugely beneficial, don’t forget to take the necessary precautions and help from those around you when starting yoga.
