While you may receive numerous benefits from any given pose, including strengthening and stretching, your first objective is to enhance the health of your mind, as well as your spine.
But sometimes, for a pose to have the maximum positive impact, you need to choose a modification. It’s always more important what a pose does for your body than what it looks like.Listen to your body
Whether you’re taking a class or practicing alone on your mat, keep in mind that you and you alone are in charge. Any good Yoga teacher will try to keep you safe. But, in the end, only you know what’s going on inside your body at any given moment, so pay attention to how you’re feeling.Modifications may actually make the pose more accessible and pain-free. Please don’t see modifications as doing less.
You should also take note that one side of your body may feel differently than the other. This is understandable, since no human is symmetrical and you’re probably either right- or left-handed, which indicates your dominant side. Moreover, the things your body needs to stay healthy and safe may vary from one day to the next.
To modify or not to modify
I know that some movements or postures may be very easy for you, and you may choose to take a more traditional approach. Not everyone needs to modify every pose. Just don’t be reluctant to modify any pose where needed. You may need to experiment a bit, just to see what feels best for your body. But please remember: “No pain, no gain” doesn’t apply in Yoga. If something hurts, try a modification. If it still hurts, stop. Even some of the seemingly easiest poses still may not be good for your body structure. For example, even the simplest inversion may not benefit you if you have high blood pressure or retinopathy, are pregnant, or suffer from GERD.As with any new physical activity, you should always consult your doctor before attempting any Yoga pose.
Focus on the spine
You may have lost some ease of movement and grown a bit stiffer over time. One sign of this can be seen in your posture.In the extreme, as muscles change, your spine may become less vertical, less straight (see the figure).
The spine becomes less erect.While you will certainly be strengthening some muscles in some poses and stretching and relaxing muscles in other poses, you will ultimately be standing straighter and walking taller as a result of adding Yoga to your routine.
Forgiving limbs
The traditional form of a pose or traditional alignment should not be your most important consideration. If you try to force your body into a posture that you see in a book or on a nearby Yoga mat, you may be setting yourself up for injury.You need to be in a class, with a teacher, that allows you to let Yoga fit your body, to address exactly what you need at the moment. It makes no sense to force your body to fit a particular Yoga class. Remember that the old adage “No pain, no gain” has no place in Yoga.
The key, then, is to adapt Yoga to fit your body. One of the primary ways you are going to accomplish this goal is by employing what I like to call forgiving limbs.Simply stated, the philosophy of forgiving limbs says that you’re always, no matter what the pose, allowed and even encouraged to bend your arms and legs as needed. Bending prevents you from overstretching certain muscles (you can stretch a muscle or strain a muscle doing the same pose, if you’re not thoughtful) and may allow you to keep your spine a bit erect — always a goal.
Yet, when you look at pictures in some Yoga books or magazine covers, everyone seems to have the straightest arms and legs — often imitating the very traditional form of the pose. But you need to be smarter than that. You need to allow the function of the pose to take priority over the form. You need to let Yoga serve you. In some cases, it may not be quite as pretty, but it will always be more effective, safer, even smarter. (And, for the record, I think just as pretty!)
Take, for example, a simple standing forward fold (see the following figure). If you work to get your head toward your knees, giving gravity an opportunity to lengthen your spine and ease your vertebrae apart, it is very likely that your hamstrings (the back of your thighs) will object. However, if you put a nice bend in your knees, you will be able to get your head closer. As a result, you still get the benefit of letting the gravity decompress you — regardless of how much your knees are bent. This is function over form.
Forward fold (traditional and modified).Fascia (or as I like to call it, your leotard)
Science describes fascia as a layer of connective tissue that runs throughout the body, supporting muscles, tendons, and organs. But I actually heard a colleague once refer to it as an internal “leotard.” I like that description.Think of it as a one-piece suit that extends from somewhere in your feet, all the way up to somewhere in your head. It’s important to be aware of this because things that happen in the bottom of your body can actually impact what’s going on at the top.
As just one example, a pain you feel in your neck may be caused by something happening in, say, your ankle. Again, that’s because of your leotard.
Keep in mind that your fascia likes to move and that it may be able to move more freely if you employ the forgiving limbs approach.
Yoga is not a competition
The first time some people began running around the school playground or participating in a spelling bee in the classroom, they experienced an innate desire to stand out, to be better than the next kid. The sense of competition seemed almost instinctive.While you may or may not relate to these experiences, if you did, it’s important to abandon any trace of a competitive nature it comes to Yoga.
Standing on your Yoga mat, something still inside you — inside us all —may want to be better than the next person on the mat. More flexible. More graceful. Stronger.
Perhaps this instinct has been good for you. Maybe the need to excel has served you well throughout your life, in school, in sports, at work. But when it comes to Yoga, it is essential that you learn to let go of that need to be the best. Yoga is not competitive — not even with yourself!
The good news about being 50 and over is that, perhaps, it’s just a bit easier to not let your ego drive your Yoga practice. Comparing yourself to anyone else is a fruitless exercise. In fact, a successful Yoga practice has only two measures, illustrated in the following two questions:
- Are you moving in a way that nurtures your body and spirit?
- Are you avoiding all injury and pain?