10 Best Reasons Older Adults Need to Practice Yoga and the Soft Martial Arts

Today, millions of older Americans are experiencing a higher quality of

life by taking an active and positive approach to their personal wellness.

They are enjoying improved health and successful living by becoming

self-educated, personally responsible and proactive. The most

successful are those who adopt a whole-person wellness model,

addressing the needs of the body, mind, and spirit.

Most people know about the research that shows that regular exercise

provides a wide range of health benefits and, perhaps most importantly,

can preserve function and independence. Fewer realize that their

choice of exercise activity can produce another host of unexpected

benefits. By choosing mind/body exercises, such as yoga or soft martial

arts (like Chi Gung and T'ai Chi), older adults can unleash even greater

health and vitality.

Yoga and Chi Gung (as well as all other soft arts) are ideal choices for

older adults because they positively affect the whole person: body,

intellect, emotions, and spirit. They increase vital energy while

strengthening and soothing the body, focusing the mind, and nurturing

the spirit.

The ten best reasons older adults need a mind/body practice are:

Body - Caring for the body improves health, preserves your

ability to function and preserves independence. Yoga and Chi Gung

offer powerful protection from falls - a major threat to older adults!

1. Strengthen Muscles and Bones... Yoga especially builds

muscle strength and bone mass. The vital weight-bearing postures of

yoga stimulate the bones to retain calcium. In yoga, both the upper and

lower body receive the benefits of bearing weight, unlike walking or

running.

2. Improved Heart and Respiratory Health... Chi Gung and

the soft martial arts have been shown in studies to improve circulation,

heart health, and respiratory function. Yoga breathing exercises are very

powerful tools to increase respiratory function, breath capacity and

physical energy. Both increase vitality and sense of well-being.

3. Increased Flexibility... Yoga and Chi Gung both increase

overall flexibility, contributing to improved everyday functioning and

mobility, and protection from falls. Despite popular notions, you do not

need to be flexible to practice yoga. The idea is to practice at your

current level with patience and compassion, gently becoming more

pliable.

4. Better Posture... Good posture calls upon our new strength

and flexibility to keep our spine healthy and strong. Healthy body

posture supports digestive and respiratory functions as well. Poor

posture in combination with osteoporosis leads to stress fractures.

5. Improved Balance... Balance gives older adults the

confidence to move freely and to engage in physical activities. One of

the most important parts of a senior fitness program is balance training.

Seniors who exercise and practice balance activities, like those found in

yoga and Chi Gung, can avert the devastating effects of a fall - the

second leading cause of accidental death for seniors. Balance is an

intangible force that many people take for granted.

6. Increased Energy... Yoga and Chi Gung are, in essence,

ancient renewal and balancing systems for our vital energy. More than

the sum of their parts, these practices gently revitalize the body. The

term "Chi" itself means "energy", and "Chi Gung" literally means "energy

work".

Mind - Challenging the mind is crucial to staving off diseases

like Alzheimer's. Be sure to stimulate your intellectual dimension

through learning new information and exploring topics that require

judgment and decision-making. The physical aspects of a mind-body

practice lead directly to a mental sense of rootedness, stability and

balance.

7. Intellectual Stimulation... Learning a mind-body exercise is

like learning a new language with its own vocabulary and rules. It takes

focused attention. It is a practice...a journey of exploration. Yoga and

the soft martial arts also invite us to explore a way of thinking that may

be very unfamiliar to us.

8. Emotional Support... The philosophies infusing yoga and

Chi Gung encourage us to be mindful of the present moment, to be

aware and grateful of all around us, and to let go of our attachments of

how we think things should be. This positive outlook leads to a sense of

calm and well-being.

Spirit - A new study shows that once people retire, they adopt a

new sense of time and their place in the world as their values and

beliefs begin to change. Adding a spiritual dimension to your exercise

activities offers additional wellness benefits. In addition to yoga and Chi

Gung, consider nature walks and 'mindful' strength training and

meditation in all forms.

9. Connecting with the Big Picture... A mindfulness practice

is a direct way to practice connecting with a truth larger than ourselves.

Practicing becoming quiet and receptive allows our inner wisdom to be

heard. Older adults have indicated a desire to search for "the meaning

of life". Practitioners of yoga and the soft arts create a deep sense of

richness and unity in their lives.

10. Inner Exploration... Central to the spiritual dimensions of

the older adult is the desire to explore the inner self. Beyond the

physical exercises of yoga and Chi Gung, they challenge us to look

deeply at ourselves, to "be" with ourselves. We learn to celebrate our

strengths and forgive our weaknesses while practicing patience and

focused concentration.

Copyright 2005 Karen B. Cohen All Rights Reserved.

Karen B. Cohen C.L.C. RYT500 is a wellness coach and master yoga instructor, writer and speaker, residing in a college town in rural Virginia.

Karen leads people to their own limitless supply of creativity and vitality so that they can express their talent and abilities fully in the world. She incorporates her expertise in mind-body techniques to work with a wide spectrum of clients. Karen offered the first senior exercise classes in her region in 1992 and currently teaches yoga and Chi Gung to older adults at Kendal retirement community (http://www.Kendal.org) in Lexington, Virginia. Karen is available nationally and internationally for seminars, workshops and individual coaching and training. She can be reached at Karen@RockbridgeMag or at her blogs http://RockbridgeCoaching.blogspot.com and http://KarenCohenYoga.blogspot.com

Budokon - Yoga Meets Martial Arts

What is Budokon? It is the coming together of yoga and martial arts. Created in 2000 by fitness instructor Cameron Shayne, the word Budokon is Japanese for "Way of the Spiritual Warrior" and Shayne is the embodiment of his creation. Budokon isn't just the hyped-about new workout that has celebrities praising his name, but is more about accuracy and style while being true to your mind and soul and tending to your body's health needs. Shayne states that Budokon is really a "living art," going on to say that it involves your complete being, "It is your waking and your sleeping, your walking and your sitting, your living and your dying." Shayne claims that he isn't selling anything with Budokon and that there are no gimmicks, there is only something he calls "The Way."

Although "The Way" sounds like an association to a religion or another structured teaching, Shayne emphasizes that it is simply a zen way of approaching your life and is not meant to be taken as enlightenment. There's a unique philosophy attached to the practice of Budokon as a way of connecting spirituality to the physical and mental stages of the art, but it mostly concentrates on the individual and letting go of attachments and being authentic to yourself above all else.

There's three steps to bringing Budokon into your life. First, study the practices and do them regularly, maintaining a fluid motion within your body and an open communication with your spirit. Second, learn the ten cultivations of Budokon and investigate the food criteria in order to reach the highest level of success so as to completely bring balance to your life. The cultivations are simple and range from the simple and direct, to the more complicated. Food stipulations are also straightforward and painless to follow by advising against eating or drinking a lot before training and sticking with light foods, maintaining a diet of leafy vegetables during the day, consuming meat sparingly in your food regimen, staying away from rich foods, and trying to eat only natural sweeteners like honey and stevia, among others.

Thirdly, the final step to attaining full Budokon is to keep a rhythm moving from the relaxing yogic poses to fast moving cardio kicks to the seated meditation as the final section of a class.

As you would expect the practices are acquired over time and newcomers aren't obliged to be graceful immediately. Try out a class or two and challenge your body to work outside of its comfort zone. It sounds like fun regardless of whether or not the rest of the Budokon lifestyle suits you. Budokon may end up being one more fad work out trend that celebrities will wear out soon, but it appears to be gaining strength in the meantime. If it

Makes you feel good and helps to make your body look like you could be a starlet's body double, more power to founder Cameron Shayne and the refreshing style called Budokon.

John Lord is a sports enthusiast and free lance writer on many aspects of health, especially as they relate to sports and fitness. John uses a comprehensive supplementation program to effectively boost his own athletic performance. He is passionate about promoting a drug-free healthy lifestyle including organic products and natural supplements. John is a frequent contributor to a variety of health-oriented websites including http://www.the-best-sports-nutrition.com and http://www.hghratings.com.