When I began learning yoga in 1970, I was working as a home health care provider for convalescents and the elderly, something I had done since my teens. I befriended and cared for many of the same people until they died. This gave me the opportunity to observe firsthand the mental and physical changes that often occur in the later years. The contrast between the elderly people I cared for and the seemingly ageless yoga practitioners I met was striking. I realized that yoga's preventive and rehabilitative gifts and underlying philosophy could help an aging population and bring balance to our culture's obsession with the superficial trappings of youth.
My years of caring for older people, many of them in wheel chairs, gave me a deeper appreciation of the benefits of yoga and therapeutic exercise. I saw that as with any age group, older people come into a yoga class with various levels of ability and medical histories. Both the frail elderly and late-life yoga students with severe balance problems may initially benefit and gain confidence by practicing modified yoga postures sitting in a chair. However, practicing in this way can be counterproductive to the goal of keeping older students independent and out of a wheelchair. In almost forty years of teaching yoga to older beginners, I've learned that most can practice the same vital weight-bearing postures that are taught in my regular classes. Older students with medical problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, arthritis, and other health concerns common in the later years can practice gentle variations of basic poses at a slower pace and with the support of yoga props.
A Peek into My Yoga Over Sixty Class
It's Monday morning and I'm observing the students in my "Over Fifty" class warming up.
I enjoy watching my long time student, Barbara, age ninety-two, practicing Half Moon Pose with her back against the wall, her bottom hand on the seat of a chair. She recently had a private lesson where we reviewed how to practice Standing Poses with support of a kitchen counter and chair, to help conserve her energy and to allow her to stay in the poses longer. It is empowering for Barbara to practice the same vital weight bearing poses that younger students are practicing in the middle of the room.
The newest person in the class is Bob, a man in his mid sxties with typically tight hamstrings. He is lying down on the floor stretching his legs with a strap around his foot. Bob had a private lesson with me in which he showed me his twenty-minute exercise routine. I explained to him that the exercises he has been doing for the past sixteen years are not removing the stiffness that is settling into his body as he ages. His upper back is rounded from years of desk work and driving, and I place a folded blanket under his head to keep it level while he stretches his legs.
Karen, in her early seventies, has been coming faithfully two or three times a week for ten years. She attends both my classes for older students who need a gentler, slower pace, and my classes for more experienced students of all ages. After warming up with a cycle of Downward and Upward Facing Dog Pose and Handstands at the wall, she relaxes on the backbender, a wooden, whale-shaped piece of furniture. Her fingers easily touch the floor when she stretches her arms overhead. For her the backbender is a nice way to warm up before practicing pushing up from the floor into Upward Facing Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana), a pose we often practice when she attends the more advanced classes.
Susan, also in her mid sixties, began studying with me about three years ago. She has just started kicking up into Handstands on her own. When she first came to yoga she practiced Dog Pose with her hands on a chair, and she laughed when I told her that Handstands were within her reach. For about a year I stood between Susan and the wall when she kicked up, helping her to build strength and confidence. This morning she places a firm yoga bolster upright against the wall to help support her shoulders. Placing her hands near the edge of the bolster, she stretches briefly in Downward Facing Dog, and then kicks up lightly with the same spunk and grace as my seven-year-old niece.
Vivian, age seventy-five, is sitting on the floor with her legs loosely crossed, gently stretching her hips. She has practiced yoga for many years and has used yoga to cope with various health challenges, including cancer. At this time last year her head was bald from chemotherapy treatments and her practice was focused mainly on Restorative Poses to support her immune system and replenish her energy reserves.
Tom is hanging in the lower wall ropes in Downward Facing Dog pose. He is a runner in his sixties, and says he "hates" yoga but his wife makes him come. He admits, with a sly smile, however, that he loves Hanging Dog Pose.
At the moment, students in my classes for older beginners range in age from forty-five to ninety-three. At my studio I offer a gentle, slower paced class designed specifically for older beginners or those with medical problems and physical limitations that require a less strenuous approach. This class features the same basic poses for beginners that I teach in my regular classes for people of all ages.
A typical class will begin with a simple, safe, centering seated pose such as Bound Angle Pose or sitting with the legs loosely crossed, with the majority of students sitting on a high support of two or three firm folded blankets or a bolster.
Newer students will often sit with their back against a wall (in between wall ropes, if available) to help lengthen their spine and open their posture. Bent knee positions are generally followed by straight leg positions such as sitting with the feet wide apart (Seated Wide Angle Pose) also with most students sitting elevated. This is a very challenging pose for newcomers, especially men, and I am careful to also teach this pose lying down with straps around the feet or with the legs on a wall.
The poses I teach almost every class are Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose) as it builds both strength and flexibility in the upper body, stretches the legs and has many of the benefits of inverted poses. Downward Dog is followed by Upward Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanana). These two poses are often practiced with the hands on a chair seat, yoga blocks, or other support. Then we practice Lying Down Poses such as Supta Padagusthasana (Reclining Big Toe Pose) and all the variations, with bolsters and chairs available when students take their legs out to the side.
Standing Poses are practiced with the support of whatever props are available. Older beginners, especially if they have balance problems, arthritis or osteoporosis, can practice Standing Poses with the whole back of the body near a wall, window sill, counter, a sturdy table or other support, and the bottom hand on a block, chair or other height.
New students also gain confidence practicing with the back foot to the wall, holding onto a wall rope and a chair for extra support. Seated Chair Twists often follow Standing Poses.
The more experienced older students in my general classes practice all the basic inverted poses, including Headstand and Shoulderstand, usually with the help of the wall. I expect my students who start in their fifties and sixties (and in some cases older) to gradually develop the strength to practice Full Arm Balance at the wall. The more beginning classes for older students emphasize safe supported inverted poses such as Supported Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani).
Classes end with deep relaxation in Savasana, the corpse pose. For older practitioners this pose has special meaning, as it is helping them to face death, and teaches the art of letting go.
With Yoga, the Body Remains Open and Flexible
The accepted view of the aging process has been one of stiffening, rigidity and closing down. Without proper exercise, the body contracts and we lose height, strength and flexibility. As a result, our natural free range of motion is restricted so daily activities become difficult and in some cases impossible. Yoga exercises reverse the aging process by moving each joint in the body through its full range of motion--stretching, strengthening and balancing each part. Most popular forms of weight bearing exercise contract muscles and tighten the musculoskeletal system, adding to the stiffness that normally settles into the body with the passage of time. In our youth-oriented culture, obsessed with thinness, we tighten the muscles to make the body look firmer. What is much more important, however, especially as we grow older, is opening and expanding the body so that the aging process is tempered.
Yoga and the Spine
Yoga prevents and can even reverse the most visible and obvious symptom of aging--one which cannot be disguised or transformed cosmetically--the shortening and rounding of the spine. In our culture, where people spend many hours of each day engaged in activities that tend to pull the upper body forward, a rounded back, forward head and collapsed chest are so prevalent that we almost consider it normal. By the time people reach 50, poor posture habits are often deeply ingrained, and the spine has begun to degenerate--resulting in loss of height and back and neck problems.
A rounded back leads to a sunken chest which causes shallow breathing and thus contributes to cardiovascular and other health problems. Yoga counteracts and reverses all of this.
Our posture affects the health and well being of every system of the body--not only the neuromuscular system (joints, ligaments, bones, muscles, and nerves) but also the endocrine, nervous, and respiratory systems. Poor posture and the degeneration of the spinal column are the source of numerous physical problems, contributing to illness and fatigue by restricting our breathing and blood and nerve flow to vital organs and interfering with digestion and elimination. Maintaining the health and integrity of the spine is the central theme of yoga. Yoga develops spinal strength and agility, slowing and even reversing the common degenerative changes often found in people over fifty.
Inverted Poses: The Elixir of Life, the Fountain of Youth
Inverted Poses are the backbone of a yoga practice for people over 50. Upside down poses control the metabolism of the body, regulate blood pressure, glucose levels and chemical balance. They bring emotional balance, mental clarity and refresh the entire body. The feeling of increased energy and revitalization in the body and brain that occurs after practicing inversions cannot be overemphasized as we grow older.
Turning the body halfway upside down by bending forward from a standing position increases the circulation to the upper body, including the brain. The revitalizing and relaxing effect of both standing forward bends and Downward Facing Dog Pose (halfway upside down positions) and inverted positions (completely upside down) is related in part to the change in blood flow in the body. Blood circulates around the neck, chest, and head, helping the lungs, throat, and sinuses to become resistant to infection. The endocrine glands in the throat and head (thyroid and parathyroid glands) also benefit from improved circulation.
It is well known among yoga practitioners that the inverted yoga positions slow down and even reverse the common physical changes that come with the passage of time. The gravitational force of Earth is among the most powerful physical influences on human health, and reversing the gravitational pull is probably among the most effective ways of slowing down and even reversing the aging process.
After the age of fifty it becomes increasingly important to reverse the downward pull of gravity on the body. Due to cardiovascular problems (such as arteriosclerosis hardening of the arteries) the blood flow to the brain gradually reduces as one grows older, and by age sixty-five may be a third of what it was at twenty-five years of age. The ravages of senility are apparent in every nursing home in the country. While Western medicine accepts the fact that this is a degenerative disease associated with inadequate circulation to the brain, they have found few effective ways of preventing or treating it. Yoga teaches that the most effective way of increasing blood to the brain is by allowing gravity to do the work for you. Inverted positions, which bring the brain below the level of the heart, permit circulation to the upper body to increase without putting strain on the heart.
When the body is completely inverted, venous blood flows from the legs and abdomen to the heart without strain. According to yoga experts and doctors studying yoga, regular and long-term practice of forward bends, poses like Downward Facing Dog and inversions can reduce arterial blood pressure by helping to reset the pressure-regulating reflexes. (The Headstand helps to increase venous return to the heart, bring the deoxygenated blood toward the heart and relieving pressure in the passive venous system caused by the pooling of blood in the legs during standing.)
During the course of a typical day most people spend sixteen or more hours with the head (brain) above the heart and the legs and pelvic area below the heart. I always advise students who are not yet ready to practice more difficult upside-down positions to practice Supported Legs Up the Wall Pose for at least ten minutes, every day.
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