Flexibility After Fifty: It's More than Simple Stretching

Beginning at about age 50, our bodies begin a series of changes that, if we don't stay vigilant, can become limiting to our daily activities and our ability to be self-sufficient. Maintaining flexibility and strength as we age is important in keeping an independent lifestyle. The stretching that yoga postures require help to build muscle tone, balance, flexibility, and bone health. These benefits are just for starters.

The postures themselves will help with your flexibility (Adalon, 2018), but there is so much more to yoga beyond the postures that not only help with flexibility but also work to temper the aging process.

Yoga is a lot more than just flexibility. The poses (asana), the breath (pranayama) and meditation all factor into this formula for good health as we age. The postures help to build strength and balance in addition to flexibility. These are all things that we need to maintain as we age. Add the breath and meditation, such as yoga nidra, to this formula and yoga has been shown to combat high blood pressure, increase your ability to relax, limit stress and anxiety and improve overall fitness (Rountree, 2017).

The breath associated with yoga is a second part of this aging gracefully formula. Intentionally, inhaling and exhaling via yoga breathing practices helps to manage chronic diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or asthma. Controlling the breath also helps to center the mind and find some stress relief or help with insomnia. Yoga has been proven to build bone for those with osteopenia and osteoporosis (Fishman & Saltonstall, 2010).

Yoga Nidra: Get Some Sleep

It has been proven in a laboratory setting that Yoga Nidra abates sleep difficulties. If you have insomnia or get less sleep during a full moon (like tonight!), yoga nidra provides a wealth of benefits including lessening the impact of insomnia. (Sharpe, et al., 2020).

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Adalon, O. (2018). Why Flexibility Can Slow Down Aging… Despite Your Age! Retrieved from https://www.level4pt.com/flexibility-can-slow-down-aging/#:~:text=Flexibility%20declines%20as%20the%20years,things%20become%20harder%20to%20do.

Fishman, L.. and Saltonstall, E. (2010) Yoga for Osteoporosis. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Rountree, S. (2017). 15 Anti-aging health benefits of yoga that will make you want to start practicing now. Yoga Journal. https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/15-anti-aging-health-benefits-of-yoga/

Sharpe, E., Lacombe, A., Butler, M.P., Hanes, D., and Bradley, R.; (2020) A closer look at yoga nidra: sleep lab protocol. International Journal of Yoga Therapy. https://doi.org/10.17761/2021-D-20-00004