Yoga For Seniors

Yoga For Seniors

Yoga Functional Strength For Seniors

When looking at senior living in Atlanta, Orchard at Brookhaven invites you to take a closer look at why this community is special. One reason is because we have a holistic approach to well-being which includes making your life work for you.

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 how many times have you heard someone say they injured their back carrying groceries? Or tweaked their knee walking up the stairs?

Injuries from routine activity happens more often than people would like to admit. Especially if I am living with a chronic condition and more weak or vulnerable than I used to be. 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 Brookhaven.

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, agiler 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 multitude of sources clearly shows 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 the 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. Orchard at Brookhaven will offer senior yoga classes for residents and the local Atlanta community.

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, or to find out more about the senior yoga classes, please contact us.