When I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in my late 60’s, my doctor recommended that I give yoga a try in order to improve my overall health and physical fitness. Despite the suggestion, I steered clear for a number of years, because I had reservations about it being the right activity for me, especially because of my age and physical limitations. After putting it off for a while, I had another visit to my San Jose doctor and admitted that I hadn’t tried yoga when he asked me about how things were going. In order to address my reservations, he gave me a list of the most common myths about yoga for seniors, and from there I was confident that yoga would be safe for me, and I really couldn’t come up with anymore excuses not to try!

• Fiction: yoga isn’t suitable for seniors. Fact: yoga benefits seniors in a large number of ways, and some of the founding yoga masters that practice are older adults – one is even 90!
• Fiction: yoga requires a high level of flexibility. Fact: yoga can be adapted for people of all ages, and physical fitness levels
• Fiction: yoga will result in injury for older adult. Fact: when under the supervision of a yoga instructor who typically works with older adults, seniors will receive only benefits to their muscular strength and overall physical fitness
• Fiction: seniors with existing medical conditions shouldn’t try yoga. Fact: yoga can actually help seniors to manage and improve cardiovascular health, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, Type 2 Diabetes and more

Sources:

1. AARP

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