Practical Reasons to Practice Yoga After Age 50

And it doesn’t involve becoming a pretzel…

50 is about the age when your body begins to rebel. My body started to rebel at age 39, but I’ve always been an overachiever… Suddenly you have aches and pains that you never had before. You might be having trouble sleeping, and your anxiety is suddenly off the charts. WTAF is happening?

As you age, your ability to repair yourself, while still functional, wanes. You have less growth hormone, which starts declining around age 30, so injuries or basic repair takes longer. An injury that took a week to heal when you were 20, now can take months or even a year.

All of your physical habits, like leaning on one arm while driving, carrying things (or people) on one hip, or your general one-side dominance, starts to catch up with you. Suddenly your back hurts out of nowhere, just because you slept funny or sneezed.

Sleep is when the body heals itself, so if you aren’t sleeping well, you aren’t repairing well. Plus, with poor sleep you are are less able to cope with daily stress and anxiety goes up. Is this starting to sound familiar?

Yoga might help

Yoga is a physical, mental, and emotional practice that has been shown to improve sleep, lower anxiety, and improve musculoskeletal function. This study by the NIH shows that practicing yoga regularly improves sleep quality and length, and improves your quality of life over all.

Practicing yoga is a way to cross-train for life. By building strength, increasing mobility, and improving balance, yoga helps prevent injury by putting the body in a better overall state. When you can move better, you feel better.

Yoga is non-competitive and encourages you to listen to your body. When you pay attention to how you feel, you can better gauge your strengths and limitations and act accordingly. Many of the injuries from my 20s were due to pushing myself to compete with those around me, rather than paying attention to the signals my body was giving me.

The body has much more wisdom than the ego, although the ego tends to be louder voice in your head. When you move your body intentionally and with control, you lessen your chance of injury. Yoga allows you to notice what stories you are telling yourself (you’re lazy, you’re not good enough, you’re so stupid) and to shift to what is actually true (you need rest, you are enough just as you are).

How Yoga Helps

Practicing yoga poses on the mat supports both the body and the mind. The physical aspect of yoga builds both muscle and bone strength. You lose both muscle and bone as you age, so if you want to live autonomously for as long as possible, keeping up your muscle and bone strength matters. Small things, like lifting the laundry basket, going up and down stairs, or getting up off of a toilet become much harder as you lose muscle and bone. Yoga keeps you strong so that you can continue to do these things for the long term.

Balance also fades as you age. Use it or lose it. While you don’t necessarily need to stand in Tree pose all day long, when walking, going up and down stairs, or getting in and out of a car, balance matters. Yoga trains you to find balance standing on one leg, or shifting your weight from one foot to the other. There are also poses that encourage balancing on your hands, your pelvis, or having your feet in a straight line. Challenging your balance on the mat in different ways helps you find balance off the mat.

But what does this have to do with sleep and anxiety?

As you practice yoga, your breath is intentional. Breathwork/Pranayama, in combination with the poses, calms your nervous system, helping you feel grounded and centered. When you balance on one leg, you can’t be worrying about your to-do list. Not falling over is your priority.

The more you relax into a pose, the easier that pose is to do, even the strenuous ones. Learning to stay calm when the body is challenged is another useful tool to take with you off the mat. Feeling calm creates better sleep, so this is a common “side effect” of practicing yoga.

Finding the right yoga for you

The beautiful thing about yoga is there is no one-size-fits-all way to practice. There are many styles available, from Vinyasa and Ashtanga, which are more dynamic and athletic, to gentler and quieter practices like Svaroopa, and Yin. There are many styles out there, both in person and online.

Finding the right teacher and the right style for you might take some time. Talk to people around you who practice yoga. If you don’t know anyone, look online at local or online studios. Try a few classes and see what suits you best!

Things to look for:

• Think about your goals. Do you want to challenge your body physically? Practice yoga in a chair? Do you want to move slowly? These types of questions will help direct you to the right style of yoga.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Everyone had their first day on the yoga mat. Ask the studio questions about beginner classes, getting support from teachers, what style of yoga they teach, and what that entails.
• Take advantage of free trials. Take as many classes as possible during the trial period to get a sense of the teachers and studio.
• Talk to the teacher ahead of time and let them know about any injuries you are working with, or that you are new. They should give you extra support if you need it, and guide you with modifications. If they don’t look up from their mat during the class, that’s a red flag.
• Listen to your body. If something doesn’t feel good, don’t do it, no matter what the teacher says. You are the only one who knows how something feels. Vague, diffuse sensations are fine, but sharp pain means stop what you are doing. Don’t be afraid to rest or take a break. No one is judging you but you. Other students are focused on their own mat and their own body, they don’t care what you do with yours.

Coming in December

Join me online for Holiday Burnout Solution, 15 minute online yoga classes that can be taken live or on demand. I’ll be teaching Slow Flow Yoga, Mindful Core, and Stretch & Breathe on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays during the first 3 weeks of December to give you time for yourself when you feel like there’s no time.

Click the graphic for more information or to sign up!