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welcome to Mountain-Pacific's Healthy Living for Life a weekly series that
gives you the information education and expert insight you need to become an
active participant in today's ever changing health care climate. Here now is
today's program host. Exercise and being active is important at any age, but as
we get older, fitness plays a big role in staying strong and keeping our
independence. No matter how in shape you are right now, yoga is a great way to
improve balance, flexibility and heart health, with minimal impact on your body.
Welcome to Healthy Living for Life, a show dedicated to helping you do just
that. I'm your host Janet Whitmoyer. Today we'll show you some yoga positions you
can do at any fitness level. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Healthy Living for Life.
Our guest today is Anna Bradley, a certified yoga instructor who will be
showing us how yoga can improve balance, flexibility and heart health. Anna was
previously on our show explaining the benefits of yoga and meditation. Thanks,
Anna, for being here with us again. My pleasure.
Okay, so today can you tell us how yoga can help us from aging and/or aging in a
healthy way? Yeah, you know we can talk about this from a lot of different
angles, but a good place to start is with our balance. As we age, our ability to
balance well is impacted, and if we can maintain that sense of balance, we can
also avoid falls and injury. Okay, so how does balance actually affect the aging
process? So not many people know this, but actually the composition of our muscle
fibers actually changes a little bit as we age, and so it has nothing to do with
our lifestyle. It happens to all of us, but that change makes our reaction time
a little bit slower and when our balance changes, we have trouble
correcting it as quickly as we used to. Our sense of where we are in space, which
is called proprioception, also weakens as we age, and so our peripheral nervous
system, which is the part of our nervous system that sends message from our
central nervous system to the rest of our body, slows down
and so our reaction times are slower, and it also, you know, reduces our ability to
feel and can mean that we overcompensate when we feel like our balance
is challenged. So I'll talk about later how our arteries and our heart muscles
stiffen, and that stiffening actually occurs throughout the body through all
of our joints and muscles, and that has an impact as well. Okay so if all of this
happens naturally, how can you help us? Yeah, you know, the stimulation of our
nerve endings and increasing our blood flow is really key, as the nerve endings
become encapsulated and tighter muscle and connective tissue and get a little
less sensitive, making sure that our blood flow and making sure we're
stimulating those nerve endings is gonna do a really great job. And we can play
with that stimulation by using our balance in a safe way during our
practice. A big problem with balance is that we fear falling, and so if we can
practice in a safe way, then we can play with that a little bit better. Okay, so
can you show us some ways that we can help improve our balance and so that we
aren't falling in a in a hurtful way. Yeah, so let's go ahead and start off.
Let's come to the edge of our chairs. Okay, and I'm actually gonna encourage
you to take your shoes off, if you don't mind. Okay. I was just gonna
ask is there a reason why, because we see this all the time with yoga. Why [do] people
take their shoes and socks off? Yeah, so one of the reasons especially since
we're talking about balance today, and we're talking about stimulating those
nerve endings. There are actually, our soles of our feet are one of the most
nerve-rich places in our body. There are 100,000 to 200,000 nerve endings
exterocepters in the bottom of our feet and so it's really important that we keep
those lively. They get dulled over time, especially with the padding of our socks
and our shoes, and so taking some opportunities to have bare feet and
really grounding them down. What I like to do is actually to plant the ball of
my foot at my big toe and then roll to the pinky edge all the way down the
blade of the foot to the heel, and I do that with each one to really make sure
that I'm grounded on all four corners of the feet, and my arch is a little lifted.
Okay. And you know, some people, I think, have some trouble placing their feet
flat on the ground just doing your best really activating spreading through the
toes. Okay. And then
we're gonna start off here by just kind of doing a centering moment. So another
way that yoga helps our balance is by teaching us to stay in the present
moment. The last time I was here, we talked about how yoga was a mindfulness
practice, and mindfulness is really just paying attention on purpose to the
present moment without judgment. And so if we're being more aware of our
surroundings, our balance will improve. Okay. And so grounding those feet down,
letting the hands be soft on the legs, and just taking a big breath in through
the nose and out through the mouth. This time as you inhale, start all the way at
the belly. Feel the ribs expand. Feel the chest lift, and exhale all of it. Let's do
that again, inhaling, belly rises, ribs expand, chest
lifts and exhaling. So we're practicing using using the whole lung here. Okay. The
next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna actually come to standing. We're
gonna play with a pose called tree pose. I'm gonna come over here. Okay. Janet, if you
would just stand in between the chairs. So chairs can be a really nice prop,
especially for our balance, and so with tree pose, you can just let your hand
rest on one of the chairs. Okay. And we're just gonna base your left foot and let
the toes of your right foot come to the floor and your heel to the inside of
your ankle. Yep! So we're turning the leg out a little bit. Perfect. And then you
can stay right there. If you're starting to feel a little bit more balanced, if
you feel really steady, you can pull the heel up the leg so the foot is actually
off the floor. Yep, sole of the foot against the inside of the shin, and so we
work to keep either the heel below or... either heel below or toes above the knee,
so we're not actually pushing on that knee joint. Okay.
And then if you're feeling comfortable, you can take your hands off the chair,
you can place them together at the heart, you could even reach them up overhead.
but the chair is there for you to feel safe. Okay.
So far so good! Good. And go ahead and come down, and we'll move on to something
else. Ideally with all of these poses, you do
them on both sides, so later do that on the other side so you don't fall over later.
Okay. Okay, the next thing that we're gonna do is just play with coming up
onto the balls of your feet as far as you're comfortable and then back down,
and so people can lift just an inch, they can lift two inches, you can roll all the
way onto the balls of your feet, or you can come all the way back down. So
again to where you're comfortable. Do that a couple more times. Nice. And now as
you come to the balls of your feet, breathe in, and as you relax back down,
breathe out. Inhale, breathe in. Exhale, breathe out, remembering that at any time,
if you feel unsafe, you can use the chair for support. This time, inhale and
reach your right arm overhead, and let it come down. Left arm can reach up. There we
go, so we're starting to engage the brain a little bit. Yeah. Coming down, and then
if you're comfortable, both arms can reach. Good, and back down. At any point,
using the chair for support. And we're about out of time for this segment, but
we will be back. We'll continue this conversation after these messages.
Welcome back. We're here with Anna Bradley, who is teaching us yoga today. So
Anna, in addition to improving balance, what else can yoga do to help us age
more healthily? So another great topic is heart health, which is really
important. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in America, so as
we as we age, aging itself isn't a risk factor, but as we get older lots of other
factors have more time to come together to increase our risk of cardiovascular
disease. So the way we eat, the way we exercise, all of that stuff starts to
come together, how how we sleep as we age, all of those behaviors and those trends
start to come together, and so there are some physiological things that happen. I
mentioned in the last segment how our arteries harden the walls of our heart
can start to stiffen and our heart muscle itself can start to stiffen and
so the more that we can improve that circulation and work with that heart
muscle, the better. Okay so can yoga actually reverse some of these aging
processes? So we're not gonna reverse anything, unfortunately. We do, we do
continue to age, but what we can do is we can age in a healthy way. Okay. And so we
can continue we can continue to stimulate our bodies, we can... yoga has
actually been shown to stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system, which is
our rest and digest system Okay. And so that helps us reduce our chronic stress
levels, that helps us lower our blood pressure, we're reducing work flow for the
heart. And then yoga has also been shown to improve the heart's actual electrical
conduction, which actually helps the heart's rhythm stabilize and
there's a whole bunch of other stuff, you know, yoga we talked about it being a
mindfulness exercise and compassion, when we practice compassion towards ourselves
and others, has been shown to release a hormone or a chemical in the body called
oxytocin, and oxytocin actually reduces inflammation in the body, and
inflammation is a key cause of clogged arteries. It's not just thickening
arterial walls, it's actually inflammation as well. Okay, so can you
show me some things that will help us release the oxytocin? Yeah, absolutely.
So the first thing that we're gonna do is dynamic stretching. Okay. So go ahead
and take a wide stance, one foot forward one foot back, and you're actually gonna
be on the ball of your back foot for me. Okay. Go ahead and come lift up until
you're on the ball of the foot and your heel is actually over the ball the foot. Perfect. Okay. Yeah, and then know that you can always shorten the stance you can
lengthen it and you can actually also widen the distance between the feet as
well, so it's more like you're standing on train tracks instead of a tightrope.
Okay. And then all that we're gonna do here, this is a dynamic movement. We're
gonna inhale, we're gonna straighten your front leg, and we're gonna exhale, and
we're gonna bend into it, making sure the knee doesn't go past the ankle. Inhaling
to lengthen, and exhaling to bend. And you can increase the intensity by stepping
the feet further apart, so if you feel comfortable, then you can now inhale to
straighten and exhale to come back in. Okay. Okay, so practicing dynamic
movements like that is gonna help us increase the workload on the heart and
increase our blood circulation. Okay. Another one is going to be static
movements. So again, do that on the other side later, so you're not all uneven. Okay.
Go ahead and step the feet together. Okay. And switch to the other leg, give your
front leg a break, and we're gonna come into warrior three. Just go ahead and
start to lift your left leg up, keeping the hips level to the ground just as far
as feels comfortable, and you can actually keep the toes on the ground, if
that feels better. Okay. And you can start to lift it higher as you start to reach
your body forward, so you're trying to keep your body in one straight line,
just challenging your balance, just moving as far as you feel comfortable.
Nice. Okay. See if you can drop that hip down a little bit, square to the floor.
Nice. And then maybe staying for like five or ten breaths here, just big breath
in through the nose and out through the mouth. Let's go ahead and just take one
more, and out through the mouth. Let's go ahead and come down. Okay. We've got one
more static pose that we're gonna show. Let's turn this chair around. We're gonna
come into chair pose, actually using a chair. Go ahead and sit edge of the chair.
A lot of times people feel like they have to actually stay in the chair.
That's really not true. We should try to get out of the chair as often as we can.
Okay. It can be a good place to start. Right. And so what we're gonna do, go
ahead and put your hands on your thighs and start to put weight into your feet.
Your crown of your head is going to reach
where the wall and ceiling come together. Kay. And as you start to put weight in
your feet, start to stand up a little bit. You might even lift your hips from your
chair. I want to put my hand on the chair. I know. Let's just try it. Okay. Yeah, there you go.
Okay, but that's it, though. Trying little those little waves, and it's
harder than people think, putting some weight in your feet and lifting up. Like that? Yep,
like that. Okay. Okay, and over time we sustain that position. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'll
practice that and let you know when I sustain that position. Thank you! Okay, how much
time do we have? We have about a minute and a half left. Okay, great, so why don't
you go ahead and stand up, and step off to the side. This is one that I
demonstrated for you guys the last time that I was here. Okay, so now we just talked about
how to increase workload on the heart gently. Okay. Now we're actually going to
think about how we decrease workload on the heart. Okay. Decrease, and so what we're
going to do is we're actually going to come into that legs up the wall position
again, and you can use a chair. You can also use a wall in your house, and you
just come flat on your back. You just hang out here. This is I love
being in this position. Yeah. It's really relaxing, and what it does is it helps
our circulation. It helps our blood get to our brain a little more easily. So now
we're starting to reduce pressure on the heart. Okay. And just giving it a break,
and that's good for it, too. Okay. So just resting like this is a great yoga pose. Just resting is really good.
Awesome! Yeah. Love it. And then I'm just going to show us really quickly how to
get up from here. Okay.. I'm just gonna really gently ease myself away from the
chair. I'm just gonna place my knees off to the side and roll over like you're a
baby about to crawl. Oops! Sorry about that. Okay, and then you stand up. You can
use the chair, place a hand down and come all the way back up. So intentional
movement, not just jumping up, is important. Yes. Thank you, yes, so important.
Okay, great All right, well, we'll be right back with
more with Anna right after the break. Stay tuned.
Welcome back. Anna Bradley is still with us, and before I transfer back to her, I
do want to share with all of you that I was practicing the chair pose over the
break, and I can do it. So if I can do it, you can do it. So, did I get it? That's it! Good.
Okay. And we're gonna talk about this more, but I think it's important for
people to know that these are, this is a skill, this is a practice. Right. I tell my
students all the time this is yoga practice, not yoga perfect, right? Okay.
Yeah, they just try on our way to different places and every day it's
gonna be different, without judgement, with compassion is key. I like that. So
what's next on our yoga lesson for today? So today, the last thing I want to talk
about is flexibility. Okay. So there's a lot of components to flexibility, right?
We can be flexible in our minds, and we can be flexible in our bodies, and the
same thing goes with heart health and balance, right? We can be balanced
physically and mentally. We can be healthy in our heart emotionally and
physically, and so, you know, I think that, again giving ourselves an opportunity to
practice these things in a safe environment helps us in more ways than
then we think of right away. It's more than just a physical exercise.
Okay, well, and that makes sense to me, but what happens to our flexibility as
we get older? I'm guessing we become less flexible? Yeah, we do. It's, it's
similar to how we've been talking about already. We have changes in our joints. We
also have changes in our tendons and our ligaments that make our joints feel more
constricted or restricted in movement. The cartilage that cushions our joints
also breaks down, which can cause things like arthritis or inflammation, can be
painful, and then we're also learning more and more about something that we
call connective tissue or fascia, which is the substance that wraps around all
of our muscles and our organs throughout our body, and our yoga practice actually
helps us keep that lubricated. It keeps it from getting too sticky and clumped
together, which helps us maintain our flexibility. Okay, so do you have some
yoga moves that you could share with us? We'll see, I'll attempt to do these to see
if it will help with that. So yep, absolutely. So the first thing we're
gonna do, is we're gonna find that space again at the edge of our chairs. Okay.
Ground those feet down. Okay. And then since we're talking about flexibility,
you know, it's really important about a concept that we call minimum
edge, and so, moving to the minimum place where you start to feel movement and
then deciding from there where to go as opposed to just going straight to the
finish line. Okay. I think a lot of times people think that we either do it all
completely or we don't do it at all, and that's really not true. There's a lot of
in-between, and so going to that first place where you start to feel it and
then deciding if you want to go a little deeper or if you want to come out of a
pose or change something is where we start to discern what's good for us and
what's not. And so the first thing we're gonna do is work with the six degrees of
flexibility in the spine, and so we're actually gonna go ahead and leave our
left hand. Go ahead and either hold it on to the side of the chair or actually
underneath the chair .You can also come through the arm, whatever is most
comfortable. Okay. And then we're just gonna reach the
right arm up and start to drop it over. The tendency here is gonna be drop the
right shoulder down to protect the heart. See if you can lift it up and drop it
back. Okay? And again just to the point that's comfortable. That might be a
really imperceptible movement, you feel like. It might just be here. It might be
further but just see what you can do. And then you'll drop that down and try that
on the other side. We're doing lateral bending on both sides with our spine. Is
it to keep your back straight and move, instead of moving my whole side like that? So we're
keeping our hips grounded down. Okay, okay, yeah. But if you do, if you have something
like SI joint pain, then let the pelvis lift up with you a little bit. Okay, perfect. And then go
ahead and come down, and then we can twist. We can use the chair, let the left
hand come to the left knee, right hand to the chair arm or to the side of the
chair. That one feels good. Yeah. And again each of these, you don't have to hold for
like 30 seconds in each one, but you know five or ten breaths and each of these
positions, just big breaths in through the nose and out through the nose or
mouth, whatever's most comfortable. Let's try that on the other side, and actually,
you know, I should say starting at center, inhale first, get a nice long spine. Sit
up straight and then rotate through the rib cage.
Nice, and then let's go ahead and come back. The next movement that we're gonna
do, so we did lateral bending and then we did twisting. And now we're just gonna do
flexion and extension with the spine, and so go ahead and take the arms in front
like you're holding a beach ball. Okay. And with an inhale, pull the fingers
apart, pull the heart through the arms. You're okay, and maybe lift the gaze and
it feels good in the neck. And then as you exhale, start to bring
the fingertips back together, maybe press through the backs of the hands to the
opposite wall, chucking, tucking chin to chest,
so we're arching in the back. Inhale and pull the heart through the arms, and
exhale to round. Then you can do that maybe one more time, inhaling to open and
exhaling to round, really pushing through the backs of those hands to get a nice
stretch across the shoulder girdle, and then the hands can come back down. Okay,
we have about a minute and a half left. Do you have anything else to show me? I do.
So we're gonna move into a pigeon pose, and what I want to do first--well, let's
demonstrate it with and without the chair, actually. Okay. So to come into a pigeon pose while
seated, we're actually gonna take your right ankle there and cross it over your
left knee. Okay. Okay, and how does that feel in the knee? Good. Okay, good. That's a
good sign. Okay. So any heat in the joint, any tingling... Okay. We don't, you know, we
want to come out of a position. That's not good. Okay. So go ahead and press
through the ball of the foot here, and then let the toes draw back, kind of
like you're wearing high heels. If anyone doesn't know what it feels like to wear
high heels, just think about Barbie feet or-- Barbie
feet, okay. Or borrow a pair from somebody in town. Okay. And then go ahead and drop
that down, and again, you would do this on both sides. Okay. But just in case, that
can be a really hard position to get into. You're really lucky that that was
so easy for you. Okay. Go ahead and just bring the leg up, making sure that the
shin is fully supported on the chair. Okay. And then, I don't know how well the
camera can see this, but your knee is actually kind of suspended in air from the chair.
Yes. And so taking a blanket or a couch pillow to support that joint, and so
right now I'm just using my fist. Okay. But putting something there so that you
can support the support the skeleton so that the muscles can relax,
really, is what we're doing. Okay. Same idea. You're still feeling it in the hip?
Yep. Alright, that's it. Okay, and that's about all the time we have left.
Awesome. Perfect. Great job. Okay, well Anna, I'd like to thank you for sharing your
knowledge and your demonstration with us, and for you at home I'd like to thank
you for watching. Remember, it's never too late to make exercise part of your daily
routine, and yoga may be a great place to start.
Until next time, stay fit, stay well, and stay healthy for life, with Healthy
Living for Life. We'll see you next week.
Healthy Living for Life is brought to you by Mountain-Pacific Quality Health.
We'd love to hear from you. If you have suggestions for future programs, visit
our website at mpqhf.org or call us at 406-443-4020. You can also catch us on
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thanks to Fire Tower Coffee House and Roasters.
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