Yoga and Aging: Increasing your “Healthspan”
Author: Jayne Sieverding
Our bodies are designed to function well within certain constraints. Those constraints are optimal when young. But as we age our bodies weaken and issues will ultimately arise, getting in the way of us enjoying our lives. Basically, getting old sucks. Yoga practice addresses many of those basic health constraints such as circulation, joint health and oxygen efficiency. Will practicing yoga increase your lifespan? Maybe or maybe not. But consistent yoga practice can increase your “healthspan”; the length of time you have in life when your health is not debilitating.
#1 BREATH: The number one factor in yoga is the breath. I heard semi-famous yoga teacher Seane Corne say that she would rather see a student sit in the corner with perfect posture and perfect breath rather than do complicated poses/asanas with imperfect breath. Her comment really stuck with me. Breath comes first. That is why I start most of my classes with some simple breath work. We need to practice breathing. While that may sound ridiculous to some, it’s true. As we age, our breathing efficiency weakens. We breathe more shallow and forward. Ujayi breath practice allows us to fill the lungs slowly and fully and with consciousness. We are aware of the breath and how it is affecting us. We can exercise and strengthen our respiratory system.
#2 POSTURE: The number two factor is posture. If you saw simple silhouettes of two people of the same gender, height and weight, how would you determine their relative ages? Our faces, skin and hair all change as we age, but we also slowly change our posture, rounding the upper shoulders, dropping the chin, and losing strength in our abdominal muscles which causes our lower back to tilt and sag. Yoga practice works to align our skeletal structure and therein our posture. Tadasana (Mountain pose) is the fundamental standing pose and although it appears to be “simple”, it needs to be refined and practiced. With practice, eventually you may fully feel your posture, become aware of asymmetries that you never knew existed before, or maybe even find that you are not bearing weight evenly on the four corners of your feet. And good posture should improve other ailments, such as back, hip and knee issues. If one knee is bearing more weight than the other, then through time it may be more susceptible to injury.
#3 JOINTS: Joint health is something most people don’t think about. We pay lots of attention to our joints once they are injured, but how do you keep your joints healthy in the first place? Yoga practice provides stimulation and increased blood circulation for connective tissues and muscles around your joints and also works on range of motion. If done correctly, yoga practice should improve and maintain joint health. But the key word here is correctly. When asking a lot from your joints, especially older joints, it is critical to have your posture correct in order to avoid injuries and maximize strength. This is probably most important for the shoulders where a simple misalignment while repeatedly doing plank/chatarunga could lead to a shoulder injury very quickly. If you practice in a place with mirrors, use them. Take a peek in the mirror and check on your body alignment. Listen to your instructor. If you already have a joint injury, then obviously you need to be careful, but don’t baby them too much. Your joints are living tissue and do have healing ability. Allow them to function as they were intended and designed for, but with care. Keep your healthy joints healthy and your problem joints moving.
#4 MUSCLE STRENGTH: Strength and health go hand in hand. Yoga practice in general does not focus on a specific muscle, such as triceps or biceps, but the practice works in harmony to build overall strength. And a strong body is able to fend off injuries and illnesses, which are more common with age. The strength aspects of yoga attract many younger people to the practice who want to do “Power core yoga”, but students of any age will build strength within many yoga styles. Think of balance work, standing poses, planks, and inversions. When you practice think about how the specific pose you are doing is affecting your body. Go into a Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2) stance and become aware of how it is strengthening your core and other major muscles. When warmed up, challenge yourself to go deeper into poses and feel the strength of your body and your breath.
#5 FLEXIBILITY: Many people find their way to yoga because they wish to improve their flexibility. But flexibility in itself is not at the top of the list for warding off the effects of age. Being able to touch your toes, but not having proper breath, posture, healthy joints and core strength, won’t help you very much. But it is still important. Inflexibility can exacerbate poor circulation which weakens our immune system causing more frequent infections, etc. And stretching just feels good! During and after working on a stretching type of pose, general verbal affirmations of “Mmmmm” and “Ahhh” can usually be heard throughout the room and many times from me. While I can’t remember exactly how stretching felt when I was younger, I believe that it feels more enjoyable now. My muscles are older and weaker and they gratefully receive the increased oxygen that comes with the movement. And happy muscles usually mean healthy muscles which can function more fully and for more years.
So I’ve described five ways in which yoga practice will increase your “healthspan”. There are probably many others that could be added, including more around meditation and ayurvedic medicine, but these are my basic top five and in priority order. However, all of them need to work together to have the most effect. A well balanced yoga practice should be designed to do just that. Namaste.