Yoga for the older person

All those yoga magazines with super flexible, super figured young ladies doing the most beautiful posture work on the cover page. Does it put off the older, fatter, stiffer lady ( or gentleman) from even trying yoga? I can’t help feeling that it does.

Time after time, I say to my friends who are complaining of problems in their backs or knees, why don’t you come to my yoga class. Time after time, I get the reply “I couldn’t do those shapes, I’m not flexible enough, yoga is not for me”

You can lead a horse to the water but you cannot make him drink and I can only suggest yoga, I can’t make them come along to a class and really they would need to come to three classes before they would begin to appreciate that miraculously, slowly, steadily practising hatha yoga gently eases the stiffness and the aches and the pains.

I have ladies in their eighties coming to my class. If you met them in the street, you might reckon they were in their sixties but you would never think they are in their mid-eighties. They walk tall, they have mobility, they have grace and it shows.

So if you are wondering about yoga and are thinking you just aren’t fit or flexible enough; be brave, try out a few classes. You’ll find a teacher who knows how to help you find the benefits of regular yoga practise, be you old, stiff or no longer slim :- ) Yoga blessings to you :- )