Centering the Body in Yoga Exercises for Seniors

Series Summary

The tradition of yoga as a means for healthy living and spiritual fitness is more than 5,000 years old, but the last ten years have seen a sharp increase in the number of people learning about its benefits and utilizing its practices. Though the roots of yoga lie in philosophy and meditation, yoga as a form of fitness is extremely useful and beneficial for everyone, especially seniors who want to maintain some flexibility and muscle strength as they age.

In this free video clip series, our expert will demonstrate and explain a wide variety of yoga poses and exercises, including stretches and flexibility routines designed for seniors. Learn how to use the ball to assist with poses, use props to maximize the benefits of the routines, and perfect numerous yoga poses such as the corpse pose, locust and plank pose.

Video Transcript

" Welcome to Expert Village. This is Fran Dukehart. In this clip I am going to talk about centering. So the centering technique can be as simple as using a singing bowl, or being seated in nature as I am right now and being still, allowing the body to relax, you can sit cross-legged, upright without being stiff, or if you prefer you can sit in a comfortable, easy position with your feet firmly on the ground, feeling your shoulders relaxed, your neck long, your breath easy coming in and out through the tip of the nose. There are many different positions for your hands, one is that you will simply rest one hand in top of the other, the thumb will touch. This it can be cue to help you elongate your spine, so that you feel that you are sitting upright, top of your head is reaching outwards, and that your lungs are opened and freely moving. You feel movement in the side ribs, sometimes when we are sitting, we might be in a position that looks something like this. When you are beginning to center, you think about extending the spine, elongating the spine, you feel that energy moving into the lungs, it moves the side ribs outward. That is called the lateral breath. The head, sometimes from sitting at the computer we might have our head extended, or maybe even from driving. When we come to a centering sit, we want to increase the length in the back of the neck. We draw the chin in. We want to think off the top of the head as having a string and that would take feeling of getting the spine tall, the back of the neck long, the space between the ears and the shoulders extended. The idea is that you feel that your torso is getting taller, you notice that the breath is coming completely into the lungs and you allow yourself to rest, letting your thoughts and your ideas come and go, you don’t hold on to them, you don’t push them away. So, this is the first step. It is centering, from my center to your center… Namaste."