10 Best Reasons Older Adults Need to Practice Yoga and the Soft Martial Arts

by: Karen B. Cohen

Today, millions of older Americans are experiencing a higher quality of life by taking an active and positive approach to their personal wellness. They are enjoying improved health and successful living by becoming self-educated, personally responsible and proactive. The most successful are those who adopt a whole-person wellness model, addressing the needs of the body, mind, and spirit.

Most people know about the research that shows that regular exercise provides a wide range of health benefits and, perhaps most importantly, can preserve function and independence. Fewer realize that their choice of exercise activity can produce another host of unexpected benefits. By choosing mind/body exercises, such as yoga or soft martial arts (like Chi Gung and T’ai Chi), older adults can unleash even greater health and vitality.

Yoga and Chi Gung (as well as all other soft arts) are ideal choices for older adults because they positively affect the whole person: body, intellect, emotions, and spirit. They increase vital energy while strengthening and soothing the body, focusing the mind, and nurturing the spirit.

The ten best reasons older adults need a mind/body practice are:

Body – Caring for the body improves health, preserves your ability to function and preserves independence. Yoga and Chi Gung offer powerful protection from falls – a major threat to older adults!

1. Strengthen Muscles and Bones: Yoga especially builds muscle strength and bone mass. The vital weight-bearing postures of yoga stimulate the bones to retain calcium. In yoga, both the upper and lower body receive the benefits of bearing weight, unlike walking or running.

2. Improved Heart and Respiratory Health: Chi Gung and the soft martial arts have been shown in studies to improve circulation, heart health, and respiratory function. Yoga breathing exercises are very powerful tools to increase respiratory function, breath capacity and physical energy. Both increase vitality and sense of well-being.

3. Increased Flexibility: Yoga and Chi Gung both increase overall flexibility, contributing to improved everyday functioning and mobility, and protection from falls. Despite popular notions, you do not need to be flexible to practice yoga. The idea is to practice at your current level with patience and compassion, gently becoming more pliable.

4. Better Posture: Good posture calls upon our new strength and flexibility to keep our spine healthy and strong. Healthy body posture supports digestive and respiratory functions as well. Poor posture in combination with osteoporosis leads to stress fractures.

5. Improved Balance: Balance gives older adults the confidence to move freely and to engage in physical activities. One of the most important parts of a senior fitness program is balance training. Seniors who exercise and practice balance activities, like those found in yoga and Chi Gung, can avert the devastating effects of a fall – the second leading cause of accidental death for seniors. Balance is an intangible force that many people take for granted.

6. Increased Energy: Yoga and Chi Gung are, in essence, ancient renewal and balancing systems for our vital energy. More than the sum of their parts, these practices gently revitalize the body. The term “Chi” itself means “energy”, and “Chi Gung” literally means “energy work”.

Mind - Challenging the mind is crucial to staving off diseases like Alzheimer’s. Be sure to stimulate your intellectual dimension through learning new information and exploring topics that require judgment and decision-making. The physical aspects of a mind-body practice lead directly to a mental sense of rootedness, stability and balance.

7. Intellectual Stimulation: Learning a mind-body exercise is like learning a new language with its own vocabulary and rules. It takes focused attention. It is a practice…a journey of exploration. Yoga and the soft martial arts also invite us to explore a way of thinking that may be very unfamiliar to us.

8. Emotional Support: The philosophies infusing yoga and Chi Gung encourage us to be mindful of the present moment, to be aware and grateful of all around us, and to let go of our attachments of how we think things should be. This positive outlook leads to a sense of calm and well-being.

Spirit - A new study shows that once people retire, they adopt a new sense of time and their place in the world as their values and beliefs begin to change. Adding a spiritual dimension to your exercise activities offers additional wellness benefits. In addition to yoga and Chi Gung, consider nature walks and ‘mindful’ strength training and meditation in all forms.

9. Connecting with the Big Picture: A mindfulness practice is a direct way to practice connecting with a truth larger than ourselves. Practicing becoming quiet and receptive allows our inner wisdom to be heard. Older adults have indicated a desire to search for “the meaning of life”. Practitioners of yoga and the soft arts create a deep sense of richness and unity in their lives.

10. Inner Exploration: Central to the spiritual dimensions of the older adult is the desire to explore the inner self. Beyond the physical exercises of yoga and Chi Gung, they challenge us to look deeply at ourselves, to “be” with ourselves. We learn to celebrate our strengths and forgive our weaknesses while practicing patience and focused concentration.

Copyright 2005 Karen B. Cohen All Rights Reserved Karen B. Cohen C.L.C. RYT500 is a wellness coach and master yoga instructor, writer and speaker, residing in a college town in rural Virginia. Karen leads people to their own limitless supply of creativity and vitality so that they can express their talent and abilities fully in the world. She incorporates her expertise in mind-body techniques to work with a wide spectrum of clients. Karen provides seminars, workshops as well as individual coaching and training nationally and internationally. For more information go to KarenCohenYoga.blogspot.com and RockbridgeCoaching.blogspot.com.

Editor's info: Mary Desaulniers Ph.D. A retired teacher, Mary founded "Great Body at 50", a website that offers solutions to weight management through mind and body work which includes discovering the creative energy behind the hunger. www.GreatBodyat50.com GreatBodyat50.blogspot.com

Weight Loss Programs

Whether it has physical or psychological causes, obesity greatly increases your risk for several long term diseases and early death. People who are 40% over weight are twice as likely to die prematurely as the average person. Over weight man are more likely to die of cancer of the prostate.

Overweight women are more likely to die of cancer of the breast, and uterus. Over weight men and women are more likely to die of colon and rectal cancer, gallbladder disease, gall stones, and gout. Treatment usually includes a combination of diet and exercise and sometimes medicine, in severe cases, surgery is used. But the main stay is diet and exercise. The best approach to weigh loss is common sense. To lose weight, you need to take in fewer calories than you burn. Incorporating exercise into your daily life and eating a diet of mostly healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and grains chosen for variety, balance and moderation will help you maintain a healthy weight. Fad diets and weight loss programs promising rapid weight loss and dramatic results are prevalent but not effective. To be effective the weight loss program should meet the following criteria: Safety - Make sure the food include all the recommended daily allowances for vitamins, minerals, and protein.

The weight loss diet should be low in calories only, not in essential food. Slow and steady weight loss - Expect to lose about 1 or 2 pounds a week. Be patient. For you to lose 1 pound of fat you need to burn up (or not take in) 3,500 calories. In order to lose just 1 pound per week, therefore, you need to burn up (or not take in) 500 calories every day. Doctor approved - If you plan to lose more than 20 pounds, if you have other health problems, or if you are taking any medicines, talk to your doctor first. They can help you evaluate a program and tailor it to your needs. Always consult your doctor before using any type of liquid formula diet, they can be dangerous. Maintenance Program - All good diets should include a maintenance program that helps you keep the weight off. This program should include behavior modification, physical activity, and a reasonable and nutritious dietary program. No hidden costs - All commercial weight loss programs should willingly provide a detailed statement of the fees and costs of all services and items, such as dietary supplements or required purchase of foods. Exercise is also an essential component of a weight loss program. The effective calorie burning form of exercise is aerobic, such as jogging, fast walking, or singles tennis. To be safe and effective, any weight loss program must take the long term approach. Thoroughly investigate programs that promise instant dramatic weight loss. In morbidly obese people who have been unable to lose enough with any conventional treatment, surgery on the stomach and intestines is sometimes performed to diminish the amount of nutrients and calories that are absorbed. Surgery leads to long term weight loss but 1 of 100 dies from the surgery. Others develop anemia and vitamins and mineral deficiencies, which can usually be corrected with treatment. Some people my feels weak and light headed and have loose bowl movements after most meals.