Never too late to start a yoga practice.
In his mid-60s, Lawrence Nees noticed a few aches and pains that hadn’t existed before. Getting up from the floor felt harder, too, and it seemed he was less flexible. Mr. Nees’s wife was a longtime yoga student, and when he retired from his job as an art history professor at the University of Delaware, he decided to join her.
Now 72 and a yoga devotee himself, Mr. Nees said his flexibility is better, and so is his balance. “I’ve become a believer,” he explained. “It’s not about getting younger, but it is about slowing the inevitable aging process.”
In adding a regular yoga practice to his repertoire, Mr. Nees joins a large number of seniors who roll out their mats several times a week. Research suggests it might be prudent for people to incorporate a yoga practice as they age, and some studies have even tied it to improvement in metrics that experts use to track cellular aging.
Others revealed positive changes to brain health. For instance, one recent small study found that healthy seniors practicing Hatha yoga for two years performed better than a control group on certain cognitive tasks.
In short, yoga can be beneficial to seniors. But before jumping into a new practice there are a few things to keep in mind.