Guest Post by Joniel Suezo
Yoga is something that can offer a huge range of benefits. It can help you improve your strength, balance and posture, improve your muscle tone, and can also help you combat stress and sleep better. Yoga can start with easy movements that are relaxing and invigorating and progress to more challenging poses making it a satisfying activity that allows you to see your progress quickly.
There are dozens of styles of yoga to match and complement your current level of experience or fitness. This fact makes yoga a great choice for seniors who are looking for a good health practice. Of course with any activity one must be cautious, especially if you are an older person. Here is our advice on how to get started in regular yoga practice as an older adult:
Get an Instructor - at Least at First
You may be able to find DVDs or online video yoga workouts that look easy enough to follow, or even try and learn it from books or from things like the Wii Fit! However, as a beginner you will benefit greatly from having one-on-one attention to gain personalized instruction about the proper form which is right for you. Without skillful instruction you could risk injuring yourself. You may want to do this by attending a class or having private sessions with a yoga trainer, but either way, do not attempt to do any new poses on your own or using videos as guidance until you've had them shown to you properly. After that, videos and apps can be a good way to structure your home yoga workouts if you want them.
Make Sure You Are Safe
If you are beginning a home practice, make sure to have safeguards in place in case you fall or injure yourself. The best way to do this is to get a health monitoring alert system, which will make sure you get help if you run into any trouble. Avoid potentially risky poses but it is best to know you'll get help if you accidentally fall and can't get up. Details on Bay Alarm Medical, which is one of your options, can be found here.
Set Some Goals
It is best to know what you want to get out of your yoga. If you want to build a routine where you include some yoga every day, then it is good to think about when you want to do this, and set yourself goals to make room for your yoga workout each day. If you want to use yoga to improve an aspect of your physical health, for instance to get more toned muscles, to alleviate pain, or to increase flexibility, then it is also worth thinking about these objectives as they can inform what kind of yoga poses and stretches are best for you to focus on, and how much you should be doing.
So, if you are ready to get started, why not look for a yoga teacher in your area today, and begin your journey?