Getting old presents a person with wisdom, maturity, experience, and enlightened perspectives. But it also carries life-threatening ailments such as diabetes, amnesia or Alzheimer’s, joint pain, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, etc. Growing older brings many health challenges which can be tackled with the benefits of yoga. Yoga especially restorative yoga can help to deal gracefully with all these old age-related problems. It offers a variety of physical and psychological benefits with the right eating habits. Here are the 7 amazing health benefits of yoga for old age people.
1) For better mental healing and stress free life
Yoga promotes deep relaxation in the body of senior citizens with relaxing yoga poses and mindful meditative practices. Breathing exercises facilitate the inner organs with oxygen which revitalizes the energy levels and refreshes the mood. Pranayamas, shuddhi kriyas, asanas like savasana, sukhasanas or padmasana, pashchimottanasana gives a good stretch and relaxation to the whole body. The self-healed newly revitalized and re-energized body gives them strength, endurance, and boost to cope with the high energy levels of the other younger members of the family.
2) More mental alertness
Old age people tend to feel dizzy and it is difficult for them to retain balance and stability due to bad body posture. Yoga is known to correct the body posture, give strength to your core, and thus ultimately is highly beneficial in improving body balance and preventing any uncertain fall. Yoga asanas like cobra pose, mountain pose strengthen the critical abdomen muscles, legs to retain a good balance.
3) To keep the pain and aches away
The gentler stretching in yoga improves the flexibility of senior citizen’s muscles and stimulates joint movement. It certainly helps to target a specific part of the body. For example, a child’s pose is beneficial in giving relaxation to the tight neck muscles, triangle pose opens the hip muscles, or chair pose strengthens the knee joints.
4) Keeps blood pressure in control
One of the best benefits of yoga includes improved cardiovascular health. Regular practice of yoga along with dietary restrictions can keep the blood pressure in control in aging people. It reduces the risk of stroke or heart attack, keeps the all-vital parameters in range.
5) Cleaning the lungs
Yoga improves the breathing capacity of adults. With the advancing age, adults tend to lose their endurance capacity, get exerted easily, limitations and restrictions are put on respiration. Yoga and pranayama is the most effective solution to keep your lungs and respiratory system at the top condition at any age. Chest opening sequences in yoga, alternate nostril stokes, anulom vilom, and many such breathing exercises are highly beneficial in increasing lung capacity.
6) To keep Alzheimer’s away
Forgetfulness, weak memory, decreased awareness level, slow reflexes are the most difficult conditions to deal with the growing age. Still, it is not a big deal for a regular yoga practitioner. Yoga is highly beneficial in improving concentration, focus, boosting brain power, increasing awareness level, and stimulating the nervous system. That is why yoga is recommended from young children, students to old age people.
7) To control the mood swings
Irritation is a common condition while getting old. Sudden change in mood, constantly feeling low, stress and anxiety are very common conditions experienced by older people. Yoga maintains the health of the nervous system, induces mindful behavior. Practicing yoga together at yoga classes under expert yoga trainers along with the other same age people, or making new friends through the yoga class medium, or practicing it at home, certainly makes the older people friendly and approachable. It also improves their relationships with their spouse and other younger family members.
Summary
Age is just a number when your all-vital organs and abilities are not affected by any external factors, all your health parameters are in good condition, your strength, endurance, and flexibility are intact. Yoga is the best solution to making sure all these conditions are fulfilled. Yoga is practiced since ancient times by our ancestors for longevity and good health condition. Consult our expert yoga teachers to know more about the yoga benefits and special precautions to be taken by older people to prevent any injuries while performing yoga.