Chapter 1

Yoga for Every Body

Life’s one constant is change, and our bodies are a prime example of this continuous flux. Our physical form changes dramatically during our life span: from infancy through childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood; as we grow and mature, gain and lose weight, try on different hairstyles and fashions, experience illness and injury, and—hopefully—return to health. Our bodies also change subtly from day to day (and sometimes moment to moment) depending on many variables, including what we eat, how we sleep, and if we’re under stress.

Ideally, yoga practice helps us assess where we are in this changing landscape by bringing awareness to the mind-body connection that allows us to recognize what is true about our physical, mental, and emotional state in any given moment. On the deepest level, yoga also helps unite us with the one unchanging aspect of our experience, which is often referred to as spirit.

The only thing you need to be able to do to practice yoga is breathe.

Acknowledging the reality of impermanence—the recognition that constant change is a fact of human existence—is a central teaching of the yogic tradition. Honoring this truth, that everything changes, leads to the understanding that becoming attached to something—even the need to practice a yoga posture in a specific way—can lead to suffering. This is a central reason why our Relax into Yoga posture practice includes a continuum of choices for each pose, so you can adjust the posture to meet you where you are in each practice session—as your body changes day to day and year to year. Yoga also encourages us to cultivate equanimity in the face of changing circumstances, a practice that builds flexibility not only of the joints and muscles but of attitude and outlook.

Movement as Anti-aging Medicine

In general, as people grow older, the heart and blood vessels become stiffer, systems become slower to react and recover, bones weaken, and muscle mass declines. But while aging is inevitable, infirmity is not. One of the best ways to maintain vitality and slow down age-related decline is to keep moving.

But unfortunately, a common reaction to many of life’s changes—including getting older—is to stop moving. Typically, this creates a vicious cycle: inactivity leads to deconditioning, which makes movement painful, so you move even less, which makes you stiffer and more deconditioned (and often heavier), which makes movement hurt worse (see figure 1.1). In fact, much of the pain and disability attributed to aging—and to age-related ailments like arthritis—is often actually a result of disuse.

Staying active is one of the best ways to achieve optimum physical and mental health,27 and yoga’s emphasis on adapting the practice to your unique needs in this moment makes it an ideal form of movement for older adults and people with health challenges. It’s our belief and experience that every body, regardless of age or physical limitations, can practice yoga and gain significant benefits. Aches, pains, and other health problems are not reasons to avoid yoga. On the contrary, the reality that yoga may help relieve, prevent, and sometimes even eliminate many discomforts can be a strong motivator for doing a regular, appropriate yoga practice. And it’s never too late to start. Particularly for those in midlife and beyond, the movement, mindfulness, and breath awareness central to yoga practice are powerful tools to boost health, enhance well-being, and age well.

Figure 1.1 Vicious cycle of inactivity

“If exercise could be packed into a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation,” summed up the late gerontologist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Dr. Robert Butler, who was the first director of the National Institute on Aging.28 This exercise is particularly important with age. “How we live,” Butler wrote in his guide to aging well, The Longevity Prescription , “determines a great deal about the pace at which we age.”29

Movement habits can have a strong effect on the quality of life for people in midlife and beyond. Where and how older adults spend their final years—either vital and living independently or frail in a nursing home—may be greatly influenced by their physical activity habits throughout their lifetime and in their later years. “Current evidence clearly indicates that participation in a regular exercise program is an effective way to reduce and/or prevent a number of the functional declines associated with aging,” according to the American College of Sports Medicine’s statement on exercise and the older adult.30

The benefits of regular, moderate physical activity include everything from boosting health of the heart, lungs, muscles, and bones to managing stress, improving mood, and preventing or delaying many diseases and disabilities.31 Brain health may also get a boost from being active, as emerging research suggests exercise may play a role in reducing risk for Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive decline.32 “The health improvements with physical activity are often greater than many drugs,” notes the UK’s Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in a 2015 report urging physicians to promote the “miracle cure” of exercise. “The effect is seen with small amounts of physical activity: 30 minutes, 5 times a week.”33

In fact, for older adults, increases in physical activity may be as important as quitting smoking for reducing the risk of death.34 But the sad reality is that less than half (49 percent) of all adults meet the public health recommendations for aerobic exercise, and just one in five (20 percent) gets the recommended amount of aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.35 And among adults sixty-five and older, just 12 percent of men and 9 percent of women get the recommended amount of aerobic and strengthening exercise.36

Yet it doesn’t take much to meet these physical-activity guidelines for adults sixty-five and older:

A common reaction to many of life’s changes—including getting older—is to stop moving. Yet one of the best ways to maintain vitality and slow down age-related decline is to keep moving.

Yoga practice clearly meets many of these guidelines. The government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies yoga as a moderate-intensity activity38 and recommends the practice as a way to strengthen muscles and boost balance.39

Safely practiced, yoga can help combat the relentless pull of gravity on muscles and bones, and the wear and tear caused by decades of use. “Age and gravity are the tartar of our skeletal system, [and] yoga is like postural dental floss,” says Matthew J. Taylor, a physical therapist in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a past president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.40 Just as we brush our teeth daily, he recommends doing two 5-minute yoga practices a day. Even a brief, daily practice can help older adults learn—and be able to maintain—good posture, he says, which can enhance comfort, balance, respiratory function, and mood.

While yoga meets—or exceeds—the public health mandate for regular movement, the practice offers much more than physical exercise. In addition to the well-recognized posture practice, yoga’s toolbox also includes breathing and meditation practices, which can influence emotional states, as well as guiding principles designed to counter toxic emotions such as anger and hostility. When practiced with one or more other people, yoga may also help relieve loneliness and isolation, which can be detrimental to health. The noncompetitive, supportive, welcoming nature of the practice makes yoga an ideal vehicle for physical, mental, and spiritual health benefits.

Partnering with Your Health Care Provider

For most people, it’s much riskier to be sedentary than to exercise—as long as the activity is appropriate for you. So if you’re in good health, you may not need to consult your doctor about starting the Relax into Yoga program. But if you have any health issues and/or questions, it’s wise to talk with your physician and/or physical therapist to make sure the practice is safe and appropriate for you.

To enhance your safety, we encourage you to answer these questions:

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it is advisable to tell your doctor that you are planning to start a yoga practice consisting of gentle movements and breathing practices designed to enhance relaxation, boost strength and balance, and improve flexibility and function. Since some physicians don’t know much about yoga (and may think it involves standing on your head) you might even show him or her this book and ask if there are specific movements or practices that you should modify or avoid.