Aging Well With Yoga: 3 Ways Yoga Keeps Your Body Ready for Life’s Adventures
The truth is we are all getting older every day. Aging never pauses, never stops. No matter how much advertisers try to tell us we can stop aging with this cream, that supplement, this exercise, we can’t extend our lives forever.
What we can extend is our healthspan & yoga is the tool to help.
Usually what people mean when they say they want to live forever is they want to keep exploring and living life how they want with no limitations from their bodies or minds getting in the way. This amount of healthy time people strive for is defined as healthspan. This is different, but hopefully similar to our lifespan which is our biological age. Both our healthspan and lifespan affect our decisions as we move through life. Ask yourself,
“If you didn’t know how old you were,
would your behaviour and attitude toward life change?
Realistically we all have days when all aging seems to bring us is aches, pains, changing looks and despair. As we grow older it’s common to gain worry of pain, concern over balance stumbles, and fear of loss of movement ability resulting in loss of independence. Does growing older have to come with this inevitable decline?
No it doesn’t!
How we age is not set in stone. We have the power to influence how fast or slow we age. We have the ability to help our healthspan match our lifespan. Being active, staying hydrated, and eating fresh food all help to keep your body free of aches and pains, allowing you to keep living life the way you choose.
Yoga is an activity that contributes to healthy aging. It keeps our bodies moving in all directions leading to less stiffness and increased mobility. Yoga aids us maintain our balance, strength and flexibility so we can keep up our active lives. If Netflix or Covid isolation has us into a sedentary stage of life yoga can lead our bodies back into activity & agility safely.
I challenge you to take control over your own aging. Be part of the movement that is smashing the stereotypes of what getting older needs to look and feel like. Does this take time and work?
Yes it does. I can’t lie about that.
Some days you will not want to do your yoga practice, eat that vegetable or drink that water. But if you begin a consistent practice of just one of these things you will begin to feel stronger and healthier. Your motivation will get easier to find for the next health habit you choose to add.
Your payoff for consistent work on your body and mind is an improved health span. That’s more years with good health than bad, allowing you to do the activities you want to do, visiting the people and places you enjoy and more mornings and nights with a body that feels refreshed and ready for the day and eases gently into sleep.
Yoga is a wonderful activity with many different styles and teachers. With a little time and curiosity you will find a class experience that matches what you need. Yoga reminds our bodies of all the directions they move while bringing fluidity back into our joints, tissues and muscles. This is the key to reducing stiffness and pain in your day to day life.
When was the last time you reached up over your head? Maybe to grab your seasonal decorations or get your bike out of storage? If you do not lift your arms up very often your body will begin to find this movement very painful. This is what is happening when many people begin to think they are hopelessly aging.
But there is something you can do! Daily movement can feel better again. With a regular yoga or movement practice your body will have less pain while getting stronger, stretchier. Keep reading to discover five ways yoga can help keep your body feeling agile, flexible and strong!
1) Yoga Builds Muscle Mass & Strength
Body weight exercises like yoga, calisthenics and functional fitness help our bodies build strong bones and keep our muscles strong. Strength isn’t just for bodybuilders. It is required for grocery shopping, snow shoveling, summer vacation hikes, moving furniture and all other kinds of life activities.
Who wants to be laid up in bed after helping a friend move their stuff? Being helpful to your friends and family should make us feel good not only in our minds but also in our bodies. Maintaining a strong upper and lower body gives you the freedom to do those activities you enjoy and complete the chores of life that need to be done.
Strengthening Pose Tips
To keep your body primed for those demands of daily chores and fun adventures you want to keep your body constantly challenged on a moderate level. It’s better to build a little every day, than be a weekend warrior and exhaust your body.
Poses to try for full body Strengthening: Downdog, Warrior 2 and Plank help you maintain and build balanced full body strength.
2) Yoga Maintains and Improves Flexibility
Have you heard the phrase move it or lose it? There is a lot of truth to this statement. Frozen Shoulder syndrome is an example of what can happen when you stop moving your shoulder in it’s full range. Similar conditions can happen to all your body areas when you stop moving. Which can be pretty easy in our time of technology induced entertainment.
The good news is that once something is lost we can find it again. Although it is much easier to be preventative in our actions we can also work toward regaining lost range of motion. Building flexibility allows our bodies to be more fluid and loose. Reaching for that spoon that fell between the fridge and counter, putting on our shoes and reaching for things on the top storage shelf all will become easier with more flexibility.
Flexibility Pose Tips
When stretching keep your stretching range of motion at about 70% of your full range. Stretch too far, too fast and you will lose all your progress! Your body needs to feel safe while stretching to allow you to increase your flexibility over time.
Poses to Try for Flexibility: Lunges, Side Bends and Eagle Arms all help us improve and maintain the flexibility we use in daily life.
3) Yoga Keeps You Balanced and Upright
Have you ever watched a child spin in circles…. faster and faster… usually laughing… and while they maybe a bit wobbly ,they don’t fall over?! Maybe you remember doing it yourself. (I do.. and the dizziness that did follow!) While you may no longer want to spin in circles I am guessing you do want to keep your balance. Falling is not fun at any age.
Our balance doesn’t have to decline to the point of fear as we age. Yoga balance poses are proven to help maintain and even improve our balance. They can help us learn to stay upright when stumbling off a street curb, trip over a misplaced toy, or slip on a patch of ice. Whenever we test our balance we increase our response time and build the proprioception we need for improving how we respond to a balance challenge the next time. Practicing your balance consistently will give you the confidence to explore unfamiliar terrains like new hikes, walking in those fancy celebration shoes or do home renos on a ladder.
Balancing Poses Tips
To build safety and security in your balance practice start with a wall or a chair close by. Go slow and let your nervous system learn that you are okay to be calm and confident in balance. As your confidence grows you can add in movement, eye gaze challenges, and binds to keep the challenge bar moving forward!
Poses for Balance Improvement: Warrior Three and its variations of airplane and spiral give you lots of arm movement to play with as your confidence grows. Tree pose is an excellent balance pose to start with using a chair or wall for security.
Inspired to Learn More on Aging Well?
If you are interested in learning more about how to age well check out this interesting and inspiring documentary from the Nature of Things where David Suzuki tests his own body on how well he is aging while learning changes he can make to keep up with the life he chooses to live. I found this very fascinating and inspiring. It is well worth 52 minutes of your time!
Healthspan is a growing area of study and I am excited for how yoga and movement fits in. I know it will be a lot of dedication and hardwork to keep my healthspan up but I believe this work is worth it!
How do you keep your healthspan up?
Is mindset or physical activity a part of your healthy aging plan?
How about creativity?
I look forward to sharing more about health habits and healthspan in the future. Put your requests for new blogs below!
Until next time!
~Sarah
