Yoga Benefits For Seniors
Orchard at Athens provides a holistic approach to well-being, which includes making your life work for you. One of the exercises that provides functional benefits for seniors is yoga. In this article we’ll discuss the topic in more detail.
What Does Making Life Work For You Mean?
Making your life work for you means:
- Finding the right fit in living accommodations
- Offering opportunities for education
- Spirituality
- Community outreach projects
- Social events
- Exercise
The Role of Exercise
Exercise is vitally important for a healthy life.
We all know injuries can happen in the gym, but most often with the elderly, these injuries happen executing daily activities such as carrying groceries.
Injuries from routine activity happens more often than people would like to admit, especially when living with a chronic condition. Your muscle mass and strength will decrease 30 – 50% between the ages of 30 and 80.
That means the average person starts losing the ability to perform everyday functions when they hit middle age. This is why functional strength training has become such a hot topic and will be built into the activities of daily living for residents living at Orchard of Athens.
What is Functional Strength?
Functional strength training is defined as: “Training that attempts to mimic the specific physiological demands of real-life activities.”
Functional training such as resistance exercises and body weight movements can help you become stronger, more flexible, agile and better equipped to handle day-to-day feats of strength and athleticism that are often overlooked. Plus, it can help you become less injury-prone.
A common misconception is that you may be too old for strength training. But clinical data from a variety of sources clearly show the benefits of improving one’s functional fitness level, particularly for older adults.
Benefits of Functional Strength Training
Functional strength training is something all adults could really benefit from, and it’s never too late to reap the benefits.
- A study of 87 adults aged 65-93 years published in the American Journal of Health Promotion showed that functional ability improved for functionally limited elderly people who participated in a 16-week structured exercise program consisting of thirteen different strength training exercises using a Thera-Band resistance band.
- In another study, researchers tested the effects of 12 weeks of resistance training on isometric strength, explosive power, and selected functional abilities of healthy women aged 75 and over, they saw statistically significant improvements in 4 out of 5 exercises measured.
One of the best programs for functional strength is yoga.
Yoga Benefits
Yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years. Yoga does more than burn calories and tone muscles. It’s a total mind-body workout that combines strengthening and stretching poses with deep breathing and meditation or relaxation.
There are more than 100 different forms of yoga. Some are fast-paced and intense. Others are gentle and relaxing.
Types of Yoga
Examples of different yoga forms include:
- Hatha. The form most often associated with yoga, it combines a series of basic movements with breathing.
- Vinyasa. A series of poses that flow smoothly into one another.
- Power. A faster, higher-intensity practice that builds muscle.
- Ashtanga. A series of poses, combined with a special breathing technique.
- Bikram. Also known as “hot yoga,” it’s a series of 26 challenging poses performed in a room heated to a high temperature.
- Iyengar. A type of yoga that uses props like blocks, straps, and chairs to help you move your body into the proper alignment
For more information and the holistic approach to well-being and living, please contact us.
