Yoga for All Ages

When To Practice Yoga?

There is a growing number of people who gain interest in yoga but some of them are quite adamant thinking that they are either too old or too young for yoga. However, yoga experts would insist that you can practically engage in yoga practice regardless of your age and still reap benefits from it.

When people hear the word 'yoga', they immediately associate it with complicated and demanding poses that are either too difficult for young children or too challenging for older individuals. It is important to note that there are a variety of yoga techniques available and so are different branches of yoga catered to various age groups. Hence, you must seek the advice of a qualified yoga instructor near your area if you are interested and they can suggest techniques that you can use depending on your goals and age group.

Guidelines for Kids Yoga:

I have gone over the guidelines and benefits of kids yoga in the article, Yoga for Kids Guidelines and Benefits, but am going to include this information in this article as well, so you can access it all in one place.

1. Children under 6 you can do up to 1 minute / exercise.  The total time for the kids yoga session can be up to 15 minutes.
2. Children 6 and above can do up to 1 1/2 minutes / exercise and the kids yoga session can last up to 25 minutes.
3. Encourage the child to do the pose correctly, along with the breathing, but don’t force perfection.  Use lots of positive reinforcement to help the child learn and improve.
4. Take frequent little breaks in between, during which encourage meditation and being still.  Breaks after strenuous exercises is a must.
5. Always demonstrate the posture or exercise, rather than try to just explain it.  Use this technique even when trying to correct their poses.
6. Encourage the children to practice with their eyes closed when so indicated by the exercise.  This will teach them the profound art of looking and feeling what is happening within them.
7. Remember even kids need to warm-up before doing vigorous yoga.
8. Kids tummies should also not be full when doing yoga.
9. Never compare the children with each other.
10. Start them off with joining you towards the end of your yoga practice.  This is one of the best ways to inspire kids to start yoga.

Benefits of Childrens Yoga:

1. Builds their confidence and self-esteem.
2. Improves their powers of concentration and focus.
3. Develops their brain and intellect.
4. Excellent for their bodies and health. Promotes balance, flexibility, coordination and strength.
5. Helps them cope with stress and difficult emotions.
6. Develops their creativity and imagination.
7. Sharpens and expands their awareness.
8. Helps them develop calmness.

Tips to Help Teach Children Yoga:

The most important things to remember with kids yoga is to keep it fun, keep it open and keep it simple.  Below you will find a collection of kids yoga poses, demonstrated by my son Shivum when he was about four and a half.  The poses are for you to use in designing your yoga sets for the children.

There are many fun ways to encourage the children to learn and do yoga and here a few ideas for doing this.  Let your creative juices flow, I am certain many more good ideas will come to you as well.

• Imaginative stories are some of the best ways to teach yoga to kids.  A trip through the jungle, etc, are a perfect way to incorporate doing the poses as you journey onwards.  Do cobra, bear, tree mountain, etc, as you come across these in your story.
• Follow the leader is another great way to get kids to be creative and do the yoga poses.  You can lead and do your favorite poses, and then the kids can lead turn by turn doing theirs.
• Yoga shows are great too and kids love nothing more than having your attention as they can put on a show of all the yoga they have learned.     

  Yoga for Teenage Girls

  According to research from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty’s 2005 Global Study, “Beyond Stereotypes: Rebuilding the Foundation of Beauty Beliefs,” 70% of teenage girls who feel bad about their looks respond by withdrawing from life. They avoid school, cancel doctor visits and feel afraid to speak up in class.

  More than 90% of girls want to change at least one aspect of their appearance, with most of them picking body weight. Almost 25% would consider plastic surgery to fix perceived flaws, and 13% admit to having an eating disorder. “I believe that poor body image is fairly widespread,” says Elissa Gittes, MD, an adolescent-medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. “The media evokes ideals to girls which are often unattainable and unhealthy.”

  As wellness professionals, you have an opportunity to help teenage girls develop a healthier body image and a greater sense of self-esteem. One of the best ways to do that? Yoga.

  How Does Yoga Help?
  “The practice of yoga (or Pilates), where the mind-body connection is promoted, is a creative and potentially successful way for girls to develop a positive body image,” says Gittes.

  Practicing yoga helps teens develop the body-mind connection that Gittes refers to. This connection not only improves body image but also promotes better posture and even alleviates stress.

  But is practicing yoga any different from, say, playing on the lacrosse team? Experts say many sports do not foster body-mind awareness in the way that yoga does. “With sports like lacrosse, teens get that adrenaline rush from the cheering crowds. But with yoga, it’s not the crowd cheering that makes you feel good about yourself. You, alone, are responsible for feeling good about yourself,” says Mary Kaye Chryssicas, RYT, and author of Breathe: Yoga for Teens (DK Children 2007). “And sometimes competing and always wanting to be the best is draining and anxiety-producing; so yoga just brings relief.”

  Increases Flexibility
  “During adolescence, there are growth spurts. The bones tend to grow fast, and the muscles stay a little tighter. This makes it difficult to maintain flexibility in adolescence. The emphasis that yoga puts on flexibility can really help with that problem,” says Kevin Walter, MD, pediatric sports medicine specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

  We don’t usually think of teens having muscle tightness, but it’s a real issue for adolescents. Tight muscles can lead to tension headaches and various body aches and pains, says Walter. Increasing flexibility alleviates some of these health issues. As an added bonus, increased flexibility helps prevent sports-related injuries.

  Promotes Better Posture
  “A lot of the alignment principles of yoga, like drawing your navel to your spine and lifting from the crown of your head, make you engage in proper posture,” says Chryssicas. She points out that many teens become “hunched over” from carrying heavy backpacks and spending massive amounts of time on computers (not just for social networking, but also for homework). Slumped shoulders and poor posture project a poor body image.

  When others pick up on this nonverbal message, they tend to respond accordingly. “In my classes with teens, I talk a lot about posture and the way you present yourself. [A healthy] mindset translates into a positive body image,” says Chryssicas.

  Improves Body Image While Decreasing Self-Consciousness
  It’s no secret that maintaining a positive body image can be quite a challenge for adolescent girls, who are going through extraordinary physical changes and learning to cope with hormonal fluctuations. “This is a time when girls can feel ‘disembodied,’” says Kim Weeks, RYT, founder of Boundless Yoga in Washington, DC. “They feel pressure to have the perfect body and the perfect face.”

  Beth Shaw, founder and president of YogaFit Training Systems Worldwide Inc., in Torrance, California, says getting in touch with their bodies through yoga just helps girls feel better. “And that manifests itself out in the world. It becomes a positive cycle,” she says.

  For some girls—unless they’re athletes—becoming proficient at yoga represents the first time they’ve experienced their own body strength. For most of these girls, that’s an eye-opening sensation. “You start to realize that it’s a body you can make strong, and you realize the awesome power of it,” says Chryssicas. “That tends to decrease the self-consciousness that teens feel about their bodies.”

  Reduces Stress 
  The rhythmic breathing and stretching involved in yoga offer teens a natural way to find relief from daily stressors. “One of the basic tenets of yoga is proper breathing,” says Weeks. “When girls are instructed to breathe, they notice how it feels. Breathing in, then letting it go. You’ll find that they start to relax.”

  Deep breathing is a common stress-relieving technique, useful for quieting the mind, promoting good sleep and calming the nerves. Yoga just takes this concept several steps further. “The breathing involved in yoga helps with the general overall feeling of well-being,” says Shaw.
  During her teen yoga classes, Chryssicas makes a point of discussing the sources of stress and how it affects different parts of the body. “Initially, [girls] have no idea how being excluded at lunch or doing poorly on a test or walking down a crowded hallway can be stressful. It takes a toll on their body and mind. The body tenses up, and the mind acts paranoid or shuts down. Yoga breaks down barriers and helps teens cope,” she says. Chryssicas also talks her teens through poses and explains how each one helps reduce stress, improve balance or strengthen the body. Teens seem to respond well to yoga, she says, when they understand how it helps them.    

  
  

  

  Teen Yoga

  The puberty stage is probably the most pressure-filled and anxious years that an individual has to go through in their lifetime. Hence, parents and teens alike are facing a difficult challenge when it comes to dealing with various causes of stress in a teenager's life. Aside from the physical changes caused by hormonal changes that their body has to go through, the social aspect is probably the most challenging part. The pressure from trying to fit into groups and forming one's own identity can be stressful and a teenager has to deal with this on a daily basis. 
  
  Therefore, there is a growing number of yoga classes specifically offered for teens. The different approaches used in yoga practice will help them build confidence with the physical, mental, and social aspects of their life. Also, these teenagers typically lead an active lifestyle (like kids) so they can really benefit from yoga exercises recommended for them.                                                         .            

• Yoga for Older Adults

  Its accessibility has contributed to the increased popularity of yoga. Unknown to many, however, is that in the ancient Indian texts of yoga, they have pointed out to the age of 50 as the most ideal age for practicing yoga. This might come as a surprise to many who thought that the complex poses and exercises in yoga is impossible for older adults to practice. 
  
  However, there is a deeper aspect to practicing yoga amongst older individuals. Ancient teachings of yoga stipulate that people's perspectives in life change as they continue to age. Hence, the older a person is, the more wisdom s/he has. This wisdom then serves as a good foundation in practicing yoga.