New Yoga for People Over 50 A Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners image
New Yoga for People Over 50 A Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners Francina, Suza Edition: 1997 Publisher: Health Communications, Incorporated Number of Pages: 286 ISBN10: 1558744533 ISBN13: 9781558744530 Dimensions: 6.75" w x 9.25" l x 0.75" h Weight: 1.23 lbs. Binding: Trade Paper Language: English List Price: 13.95

Description

Many seniors are searching for ways to improve their quality of life and remain active as they enter midlife and later years. Nationwide, people are recognizing yoga for its ability to slow down and reverse the aging process. A complete health system, yoga not only restores vitality to the body, but also expands the mind and soul. Yoga transforms the years after 50 from a time of deterioration to ...Many seniors are searching for ways to improve their quality of life and remain active as they enter midlife and later years. Nationwide, people are recognizing yoga for its ability to slow down and reverse the aging process. A complete health system, yoga not only restores vitality to the body, but also expands the mind and soul. Yoga transforms the years after 50 from a time of deterioration to one of increased perspective and illumination. In The New Yoga for People Over 50, readers will learn how the health of the spine and posture affect every sustem of the body, and how yoga positions and breathing exercises benefit the circulatory system, the heart and other vital organs, relieve menopausal symptoms, and remove stiffness and inertia from the body. In this comprehensive guide, Iyengar yoga expert Suza Francina describes and illustrates how to begin and maintain a yoga program through personal stories and over 100 easy-to-follow instructional photos of older teachers and students.Through photos of older teachers & students, this book describes how older beginners can adapt the practice of yoga to their special needs. A unique section on the benefits of yoga in addressing health problems commonly associated with aging is also included.In this comprehensive guide readers will learn how to begin and maintain a yoga program. Discover the fountain of youth in the New Yoga for People Over 50.Iyengar yoga expert Suza Francina describes and illustrates how older beginners can adapt the practice of yoga to their special needs. Through photos of older teachers and students, this comprehensive guide demonstrates how to progress from gentle floor and chair stretching exercises to vital weight-bearing, standing and inverted postures.Chapter One Our Changing View of Aging: How Expectations Determine Outcome We need to change our idea of what aging is. If I know my biological potential is 130 years, then I dont consider myself middle-aged until Im 65. . . . One of the great principles of mind/body medicine is that expectancies determine outcome. If you expect to remain strong in old age, you will. #151Deepak Chopra M.D., Ageless Body, Timeless Mind As a society and as individuals, we can expect that our notions of aging will continue to change dramatically in the years ahead. Leading pioneers in the field of mind/body medicine such as Deepak Chopra, M.D., an endocrinologist, bestselling author and internationally recognized authority on how our consciousness affects our health, urge us to consider the power that our beliefs about aging have over us. The latest research shows that how we age has more to do with our belief system and mindset about aging than any other factor. In the last several decades, gerontologists have proved that remaining active throughout life halts the loss of muscle and skeletal tissue. The news is spreading among older people that they should continue all the activities they enjoyed in earlier years#151walking, hiking, bicycling, gardening, golf, tennis, karate, swimming, dancing, yoga#151you name it. Not long ago, a wild, 100-year-old daredevil named S.L. Potter, defying age, common sense and the fears of his physician and children, made his first bungee jump from a 210-foot tower. Further evidence that we are redefining what is appropriate in old age were photographs in the news of two of Americas oldest sisters, Sarah and Elizabeth Delany, then ages 102 and 104#151one practicing Shoulderstand, the other stretching in a yoga pose with one foot behind her head. What happens when we change our old expectations about aging? Gerontologists from Tufts University found out when they put a group of the frailest nursing home residents, ages 87 to 96, on a weight-training regimen. Traditionally doctors believed that this type of elderly person belonged in bed, in a rocker or wheelchair out on the porch or in front of the television. Exercise would exhaust or kill these fragile people. Instead, they thrived. Within eight weeks muscle tone improved by 300 percent. Coordination and balance improved as well. Most important, these elderly peoples confidence in being active returned. Some of them who had not been able to walk unassisted could now get up and go to the bathroom by themselves#151an act of reclaimed dignity and independence that cannot be underestimated. With Yoga, the Body RemainsOpen and Flexible The accepted view of the aging process has been one of stiffening, rigidity and closing down. Without proper exercise, the body contracts and we lose height, strength and flexibility. As a result, our natural free range of motion is restricted so daily activities become difficult and in some cases impossible. Yoga exercises reverse the aging process by moving each joint in the body through its full range of motion#151stretching, strengthening and balancing each part. Most popular forms of weight bearing exercise contract muscles and tighten the musculoskeletal system, adding to the stiffness that normally settles into the body with the passage of time. In our youth-oriented culture, obsessed with thinness, we tighten the muscles to make the body look firmer. What is much more important, however, especially as we grow older, is opening and expanding the body so that the aging process is tempered. Insurance companies, gerontologists, cardiologists, senior exercise physiologists and other health care professionals interested in preventing chronic illness and disability in the older population are becoming increasingly interested in what yoga has to offer older people. < (more) (less)

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