Healthy Mind, Body And Soul In The Silver Years With Yoga

By | November 28, 2014

Yoga is the preferred solution for almost all sorts of physical and mental ailments today. Yoga can be called a passive form of exercise, which does not include rigorous exercises and lifting heavy weights in order to stay fit. With certain postures that targets various nerve-points and muscles in the body, several latent problems that plague older people such as arthritis, spondilitis, joint pain and gout can be cured, and if not cured, at least reduced and controlled with the help of yoga. As the world moves towards a stage where staying healthy is becoming a nuisance and a hard feat to achieve, yoga has emerged as the foremost solution when it comes to mental and physical wellness. This is especially needed by people belonging to the older age group, and with the right instructor, miracles can be achieved.

Things To Keep In Mind When Teaching Yoga To Seniors

The approach of teaching yoga to elderly people should be very different from the approach that is adopted when dealing with a class full of healthy middle-aged people or young adults. Although there are a lot of people who are still very fit even in their 60’s, and are able to perform postures that require great physical strength and control, that is not the case for most of the senior citizens. Therefore, the wrong yogic postures can be disastrous. However, with a trained instructor and the right exercises, a lot of diseases that they might be suffering from can be cured.

There are some postures, or asana that should be avoided when practicing yoga for seniors in Adelaide, even if that means not doing some of the most basic yogic postures that almost all yoga classes are seemingly incomplete without. A lot of seniors suffer from a problem that is commonly known as osteoporosis, which makes the bones brittle. Some common postures such as bending forward and backward and twisting so that the spine bends, can prove to be disastrous for them. A lot of postures in yoga involve bending parts of the body that senior citizens are unable to move, so those asanas should be strictly avoided. Another thing that has to be kept in mind while teaching yoga to seniors is that they are easily distracted, and unable to concentrate for long. It is best exercises that require long periods of silence and meditation and closing eyes needs to be avoided, otherwise, it is likely that will fall asleep.

Yoga Workshops For Senior Citizens

Introducing the benefits of yoga to senior citizens is a privilege because for them, it is more holistic approach to overall wellness. The young and the youthful practice yoga in order to maintain their lifestyles, and improve upon their physical appearance, however, senior citizens are more likely to look forward to the peace and the mental strength that yoga imparts to all the practitioners. Organizing senior yoga workshops can benefit both the instructor and the senior citizens whose exposure to yoga, although brief, can prove to be greatly rewarding. They can be asked to do simple breathing exercises, which is both relaxing and beneficial. Simple exercises that do not involve too much movement can go miles when trying to improve the physical and mental conditions of elderly people.