Once you have reached your senior years, it just seems like everything you once did becomes so much more difficult, and it’s not getting any easier. Where you once led an active lifestyle, now you seem to be doing everything in slow motion. You can’t even do the exercises you did just a few years ago.
However, that may be because you are trying to attempt aerobics or core strengthening exercises you once found easy to do. Have you thought about taking up yoga for seniors? It’s slow and methodical and once you get the stretches down, everything else falls into place. In fact, you just might find that you get the same benefits but in a more focused way of doing so. Here are just three of the benefits you will find that yoga for seniors has to offer.
1. Reduced the Risk of Depression
One of the things that the case managers at senior residences are always trying to combat is depression that seems to be prevalent among some seniors. They no longer live the active lifestyle they once lived, and it is difficult to get together with friends who are still alive and well mostly because of distance. For this reason, case managers often suggest yoga because it is said to be a mood enhancer due to a combination of deep breathing exercises along with slow, methodical movement.
In fact, this senior living La Jolla facility in Southern California encourages their residents to begin with simple yoga stretching and breathing exercises to get their spirits lifted. Not only will you be working that body, but you will find that it is a great way to stay socially active with your peers. Yoga classes are a great way to keep a social life going strong because of that active senior participation.
2. Stress Reduction
For the same reasons that yoga helps to lift depression in seniors, it has proven to be just as effective at helping to reduce levels of stress in the mind and body. People are mistaken when they think that seniors, having retired, are not faced with the same levels of stress. It should be noted that stress is no less an issue than it was in all their younger years. Some doctors even prescribe yoga instead of medication because it is so helpful in many other ways besides being an effective stress reducer. Did you know that this kind of exercise is even effective at naturally lowering the high blood pressure that comes along with stress? Well, it is!
3. Improves Balance and Flexibility
Those same slow and methodical movements that help to counter sleeplessness and stress can also offer greatly improved balance and flexibility. All those various positions and stretches really do improve levels of flexibility and you just might find that it is no longer an issue picking up papers or other debris that landed on the floor. Many seniors say that after just a few short classes, they are finally able to bend from the waist, actually able to touch their toes. What an accomplishment that is!
If you feel that you need to begin doing something to counteract the ravages time is doing to that once youthful body, yoga just might be the solution you are looking for. Just imagine all the fun you’ll have!