September 30, 2009
This month, the Mayo Clinic produced a special report espousing the many benefits of yoga and tai chi. This supplement to the Mayo Clinic Health Letter, dated October 2009 provides a broad overview of the many benefits of the two practices. The report also covers tips for safe yoga, learning the postures, alignment, breathing strategies and ways to meditate.
What I found most confirming in this report is the acknowledgement that yoga is an integrated form of practice that blends breath, aerobic, strength training, core stability, flexibility and balance all into one practice. I believe this is what makes it a safe practice for seniors or anyone trying out yoga for the first time. I highly recommend this report as a broad overview on yoga.
If you don’t currently subscribe to the report, visit the Mayo Clinic website or your public library may subscribe.
September 24, 2009
When you free your foot to move in comfort, your whole body will follow. We know that the foot bone is connected to the ankle bone, connected to the knee bone, hip bone and on and on. By focusing on our feet, and helping to open and align our stance, we can almost guarantee liberation, through the rest of the body.
Below is a practice my senior yoga classes have been using all month to help open and unlock the feet and toes. The practice utilizes a tennis ball followed by a flow sequence. Engage in the practice by releasing only one foot and then return to Tadasana to create sensory awareness before moving on.
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September 13, 2009
In yoga we sometimes encourage clients to connect with their breath through our cueing. “Bring awareness to the breath”, “feel the breath travelling through the body”, “guide your breath to your heart center.” While these may seem easy to understand, truly experiencing the awareness of the breath is much easier when adding a mudra or series of mudras.
A hand mudra is simply a gesture, symbol or seal used to circulate energy, activate an influence in a certain area of the body and help us to connect with our overall physical well-being.
Merudanda Mudra is an excellent mudra series that will enhance the awareness experience as the breath is directed to various parts of the body. As you guide your clients through this mudra sequence, invite them to notice the quality and characteristics of the breath. Encourage them to find the starting point of the breath; that place inside where they feel the breath originate in the body. As you move through the sequence encourage them to continually notice if the breath has arrived in a new place.
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August 19, 2009
Awakening abs in a senior yoga practice can be gentle and safe. Help your clients to understand the importance of keeping the core strong. I like to use the image of a starfish. The starfish radiates all movement from its center. In the human body, the core protects the back, is involved in almost every movement of the body and is the center of our breathing organ, the diaphragm. Keeping this area strong encourages the whole body to function more gracefully.
The following is a safe warm-up sequence that will allow your clients to awaken their abs, without creating undo strain to their spines.
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June 27, 2009
In a recent AARP Bulletin, yoga was praised for its many benefits and recent rise among older adults. AARP cites a recent study stating that 18.4 percent of practitioners are now over 55. What the article doesn’t state is how many are over 80. While it may seem preposterous to start yoga at the age of 80, it’s never too late to bring vitality back to the body, tranquility to the mind and compassion to the soul. I introduce several of my students to you who started yoga for the first time in their 80′s.
Ruth E. - Age 85
“It’s been a year now, and I’m doing things today that I was afraid to do back then-like balance on one foot, reach up high for something, or bend over to pick up an object that has fallen out of reach. I’m stronger and more limber than I’ve been in a long time, and I have more confidence too.”
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June 11, 2009
The spine can move gently in six directions, side to side, lateral side bends and forward and back, known in yoga as the six movements of the spine. We have so many opportunities to create a practice that centers around these six movements, so don’t lose yourself or your clients interest in repetition and sameness.This week try using one-armed Vadrasana as the basis of your movements to sequence your class.
Start out in child’s pose.
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June 7, 2009
Learning to create a chair yoga flow helps your clients learn to flow with life itself. From years of experiential personal practice working with seniors and clients in wheelchairs, a dynamic chair yoga flow helps to invite calmness, ease of movement and relaxation into the practice. And when you coordinate the movement of the flow with the breath you will ultimately engage your clients into a deeper sense of body awareness. Offered here is a chair yoga flow that opens up the entire body – try it out on your next class and let me know how it worked for you.
Seated Mountain
Today think about feeling the poses, the body
Scan the Body – Imagine a light coming in to the crown of the head and take it don’t through the body looking for tension or stress or perhaps a fatigued or tight muscle or joint
Opening centering and breath work
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May 12, 2009
When you find your senior yoga clients already moving into a perceived pose as if it were second nature, it’s time to challenge them with subtle changes that can also challenge their brain. Every time we move our body, our brain initiates its own muscle memory, so allow yoga to actively work the body, the breath and the brain in a well coordinated practice.
Make sure to work both sides of their brain, as well. With the left side of the brain active in coordination of movement, invite the right brain to participate in the practice through the use of visualizations.
Recently, I challenged my class with the following simple supine warm-up. It involves visualization and targeted slow movement coordinated with breath. While it appears simple, test it on your clients and have them observe if they feel the brain working out as actively as the rest of the body.
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May 1, 2009
Build a walking yoga practice with your seniors, get them outdoors and let them experience the impact of their toes, feet, ankles, knees, hips and overall body motion while walking on the uneven earth.
I recently read a wonderful book by Ila and Garrett Sarley, Walking Yoga. There was a quote in this book that I have always felt important no matter what your yoga practice, “Believe nothing about yoga that you don’t directly experience yourself.”
I had been working for almost two years helping my senior yoga students in understanding the importance of sensing what the body was feeling, how the body is connected, how all the muscles work together and the importance of good posture and continued motion of the foot.
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