How To Have a Yoga Body When You Are Over 50
If you are looking for tips on how to get 6 pack abs or ripped arms and legs, I’m sorry but you will not get that here.
Many people start practicing yoga in hopes of getting a “yoga body.” But what is a yoga body? In truth, a yoga body is a body that practices yoga. Period. I truly dislike the term when it refers to being a skinny, young, white woman. Yoga is for all bodies, regardless of sex, race, size, or ability, and everyone’s body can be a yoga body. All it needs to do is practice yoga.
Social media, and society at large, has painted a picture for everyone to fit a certain look to be acceptable, worthy, and loveable. We see these images on screen all the time: the body with virtually no fat, defined muscles, and generally “perfect.” There’s a lot of outside pressure to look like that, and when you don’t, it’s easy to feel bad about yourself.
But here’s the thing.
Those bodies aren’t real. There’s Photoshop, CGI, AI, and all sorts of filters and ways to adjust the picture that you see. Actors and models spend hours in the gym to achieve that look, because that is their job. They don’t look like that all the time. It’s not sustainable when you have other responsibilities, like a (non-actor) job and family. It’s also miserable eating nothing but steamed chicken and vegetables all the time, nor is it healthy long term.
Yoga helps you discover what is real
Yoga moves you toward the truth about who you are as a person, and how you mind works. Practicing poses on the mat is a conduit for you to discover more about yourself. What stories does your mind tell you when you are challenged? How does your breath change when you feel stress? What can you control?
Yoga helps you find yourself, underneath all of the shoulds:
Instead of “I should have a 30 year old’s body, even though I’m over 50,” yoga teaches “I am over 50 and I am just as I should be. I will work with the body that I have.”
Rather than “I should be able to do that pose, even though I’ve never tried before,” yoga encourages “I will do the best I can with the body that I have. It’s okay to be a beginner.”
Instead of “I’m a failure because I can’t stand on one leg for more than a second,” yoga supports the idea that “I am enough just as I am. Some days balance is good, other days it isn’t. With practice there will be more balancing days.”
The stories and “shoulds” that we tell ourselves often hold us back and keep us miserable. They make us feel like less than we are. We are not “too old” or “too fat” or “too weak” or too {fill in the blank}, we are as we are. The more we love ourselves and treat ourselves with kindness and compassion, the more likely we are to treat our body better.
The true yoga body practices yoga
Having a yoga body means having a body and practicing yoga with it. What’s beautiful about practicing yoga is that what you do with your body affects your mind. Through practicing poses on the mat you get both physically and mentally stronger. You find balance, both on one leg and in your thoughts. Your body gains mobility and you become flexible with your thoughts and responses to tough situations.
What you practice on the mat you take with you off the mat.
The shape of your body will change when you practice yoga, but the shape of your body will change no matter what you do with it, for better or worse. More importantly, yoga affects how your body feels.
If you are over 50, achiness and stiffness in the morning are “normal,” but unpleasant. Yoga helps your body move fluidly and feel at ease so that the stiffness doesn’t affect your daily activities. Physical habits, like slouching or leaning to one side while you drive, become problematic over time. Your body integrates those positions into your posture and you start to feel pain.
Yoga is a balanced practice, where whatever you do on the right side you will repeat on the left side. Over time this balanced practice affects how your body moves and feels. It will be easier to pick up your grandchild without hurting your back. You will find it easier to get up out of a chair, or go up and down the stairs without gripping the rail.
I’ve been practicing yoga since I was 23, and at 53 I feel better than many people my age. While I don’t look or feel like I did when I was 23, I accept my 53 year old body as it is. I feel comfortable in my skin, I move with ease through my day, and have no pain. When I am stiff and achy in the morning, my yoga practice makes that go away quickly.
My yoga body might look different from other yoga bodies, and that’s the way it should be. Human beings are beautiful because we come in so many shapes and sizes. I am strong, mobile, and can balance on one leg (or on my head) with stability and ease. I have come to love myself as I am, even as I age. In fact, I am kinder and compassionate with myself, much more than when I was 23. Yoga gave me all of that, and I am so grateful.
Join me on the mat!
Purple Room Yoga is an online yoga studio for active adults over 50 who want to stay active and feel the best they can! I offer classes for all levels of experience, plus courses, retreats, community, and more. Classes are online, live or on demand. Click the button below to see the full schedule of classes!
Support for beginners!
I teach Beginner Yoga online on Mondays at 9am EST and Wednesdays at 9:30am EST. This 45 minute slow flow yoga class helps you understand the poses in your body, offering modifications and support as you go. Feel free to ask questions before or after class, live over Zoom. Sign up for Beginner Yoga by clicking the above Class Schedule button. Click the button below for a 10 Day Free Trial!
If you want even more beginner support, I offer an online course, Yoga Basics Over 50. In this course I break down 25 yoga poses, with both video guidance and detailed written descriptions, to help you understand these yoga poses in the body that you have. You get lifetime access to this course, plus a one-on-one Zoom session with me to ask questions, and get individualized attention. Click the button below for more information.
