Gentle Yoga classes offers many benefits to seniors or those with mobility concerns. “It has been wonderful to watch our seniors build a sense of community, improve their health, improve flexibility and balance, and build strength. Additionally, seniors can experience higher rates of depression and anxiety. If you’re a senior, yoga can be a game changer for your health,” says Alicia Barrett, owner at Tuladhara Yoga.
Safety should be the number one priority in any physical exercise including yoga. Yoga, like any exercise, can come with risks, so being led by a certified experienced instructor is critical. It is also important to be cleared by your doctor to practice yoga.
Benefits of practicing yoga as a senior include:
Yoga improves flexibility and joint health
Flexibility and joint mobility is not about reaching your toes, but about creating a suppleness in the body that will prevent injury and strain over time. When you are flexible, you are less likely to get injured doing basics tasks like bending over to pick something up.
Yoga improves balance and stability
A lack of balance is the number one reason seniors give at Tuladhara Yoga for wanting to try yoga. Certain yoga poses, such as tree pose, are beneficial and can improve balance, which leads to less falls and better focus and stability.
Yoga can improve respiration
Yoga and exercise can improve respiration. Breathing exercises in particular can help improve lung capacity.
Yoga can help reduce depression and anxiety
Yoga classes, especially those geared toward seniors, are calm, relaxing and restorative. Yoga involves focusing on the breath and slow movements, which can help trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, bringing us into the “rest and digest” phase of stress relief.
Going to yoga class is fun and can build a sense of community
Sometimes we forget that as we age, we lose our friends and loved ones and therefore a sense of belonging and community. A yoga class is a great way to make new friends, stay connected, laugh and have fun with others.