Due to the remarkable physical and mental benefits, yoga has been practiced for centuries by people of all ages.

The most common benefits of yoga might be improved flexibility and body awareness but, yoga has been proven to show positive results for the health of major organs in our bodies.

Anything that can maintain your overall health so you remain active and fit can be recognized as anti-aging. That’s why yoga is an effective anti-aging tool due to its capability of relieving aging symptoms.

As you age, you face a vast range of health problems such as problems with flexibility, strength, speed, and endurance.

But you don’t have to worry because we bring you the best anti-aging yoga exercises to keep you young and healthy.

Read More: The Best Yoga Poses for Beginners

Contribution of Yoga Towards Anti-Aging

It is a fact that you can’t stop the aging process of your body, you can only take steps to stay healthy as you age. This process is known as healthy aging.

Let’s have a look at the factors which make yoga an effective tool for anti-aging.

Improve Balance

Yoga is one of the best ways to improve your balance as its poses involve both your body and mind.

The ability to balance is determined through the coordination of mind and body. As the different exercises in yoga improve coordination, it eventually helps in maintaining balance as you age.

Balance is improved most effectively through practicing transitions in yoga when you are fully attentive while practicing different poses in yoga, it allows you to properly keep your body aligned with the line of gravity.

Vinyasa yoga is one of those forms of yoga that is based on moving from one asana to the next with a natural flow.

To perform vinyasa yoga, you need to maintain balance throughout the session which makes it extremely beneficial for improving balance and coordination.

Enhances Flexibility

Your age can be determined through the flexibility of your spine. As you age, your joints and muscles start to lose flexibility as it’s a natural process.

There are several reasons behind it that include loss of water in our tissues, increase of stiffness, and loss of elasticity in muscle tendons.

But you don’t have to stress over it because yoga is here for your rescue. Practicing yoga will not only help you in maintaining flexibility as you age but, you can also regain your lost flexibility through yoga.

Through different poses in yoga, you create spaces in your body, especially in your spine.

By doing this, you can improve nerve conduction to all muscles in your body so that you are able to perform daily tasks with ease.

Proper Breathing Techniques

A major problem that is associated with aging is that your lungs start to lose their capacity due to which you feel difficulty in breathing mostly after a little hard work.

When you are doing yoga, you focus on maintaining heavy breathing throughout. It involves inhaling rapidly and exhaling softly.

Due to this an increased amount of oxygen is supplied to all the cells in your lungs and this increases the capacity of your lungs.

If you are heavily breathing through your nose during yoga, this increases the production of nitric oxide in your body.

Nitric Oxide (NO) provides oxygen to your bloodstream. It is beneficial for enhancing your memory and learning, reducing the risk of heart diseases, and regulating blood pressure.

You lose immunity as you age due to which you can easily fall sick but, through breathing exercises, you boost your overall immune system.

In yoga, breathing exercises are commonly known as pranayama breathing. It also has the benefits of improving your sleep quality and helps you to think clearly.

Overall Strength of Body

The strength of your body is something that will be used to combat weakness and frailty as you age. A strong body has the ability to protect your bones and joints from injury.

When we talk about strength, only physical strength is not important. The physiological and emotional strength should never be ignored because it also plays a crucial role in healthy aging.

Yoga is beneficial for both, the physical state of your body as well as your mental health. It’s quite easy to fall prey to depression and anxiety as we age.

To combat these problems and to keep you in good shape yoga comes in handy. Ashtanga yoga is the type of yoga that is mostly used for improving the strength of your body.

Yoga requires high levels of flexibility; you can’t practice it just in your PJs and tee. For effectively practicing yoga and maximizing its benefits you need all-inclusive yoga gear.

Healthy and Glowing Skin

The most prominent feature that shows your aging process is your skin. With time your skin starts to get wrinkles, fine lines and becomes saggy.

You can’t fully stop your skin from getting old, but you can use effective methods to minimize the appearance of aging signs.

Yoga has the ability to reduce the signs of stress, relaxing clenched jaws, and minimize the appearance of wrinkles.

It also helps in maintaining the elasticity and glow of the skin. As it enhances the flow of blood, your body can flush out the toxins easily.

Yoga also delivers beneficial nutrients to skin cells that fight the damage caused by free radicals and helps to rejuvenate your skin.

Most beginner's yoga poses can help you in maintaining glowing skin as you age but, the most beneficial one is Bikram yoga which is commonly known as hot yoga.

Best Yoga Poses (Asanas) for Musculoskeletal

As we age, our body starts to have different musculoskeletal issues, some of them may be adverse and need medical treatment while most of them can be easily resolved through yoga.

Due to the aging process, our muscles lose their tenderness and become rigid. And because of this, they can be torn easily.

The density of bones begins to decline as a person crosses the age of 35. This issue is most common in women after menopause.

These issues can grow into bigger problems if timely measures are not taken. And, to combat these issues yoga is one of the best choices you have got.

Below are some yoga poses that you can practice to maintain healthy bones and muscles.

Tree Pose Yoga (Vrksasana)

This is a great yoga position to strengthen your muscles and bones, in addition to this, it also improves your balance and stability.

Practicing tree pose is beneficial for stability in the pelvic region. When you are standing in this pose you effectively engage all the muscles in the lower body and eventually strengthen the lower body region.

 

How To Do It

1. Start in a standing position by setting both your feet firmly on the mat.

2. Bend your right leg at the knee, the sole of the bent leg will be resting against the left leg of your inner thigh.

3. Now, clasp your hands together and raise them above your head level.

4. Your head, shoulders, pelvis, and left foot will be aligned vertically.

5. Hold this pose for 1 minute and repeat with the other leg.

6. Make sure that you maintain deep breathing throughout the pose.

Warrior Pose II Yoga (Virabhadrasana II)

Warrior pose II is one of the basic yoga poses that every beginner can perform. Despite being a basic pose, it can offer a variety of benefits.

It opens the muscles of your chest, butts, and back. Maintaining this pose encourages blood circulation in major muscle groups of your body and thus improves mobility.

 

How to Do It

1. Start by standing straight on the mat.

2. Turn your right foot slightly to right and the left foot out to the left at 90 degrees.

3. Exhale and bend your left knee toward the left ankle, your shin should be perpendicular to the floor.

4. Stretch your arms against your shoulder blade, parallel to the floor. Don’t lean your torso over the left thigh, both sides of your torso should be equally long.

5. Stay in this position for about 45-60 sec.

Locust Pose Yoga (Salabhasana)

The locust pose is related to the cobra pose in yoga, it helps in stretching the majority of muscles in your upper and lower body.

This pose is based on the lengthening of your spine, in addition to this, it can be effective for the muscles of hips, back, chest, arms, and legs.

Due to routine everyday activities such as sitting for prolonged periods, your muscles can lose their mobility.

The locust pose helps in improving your flexibility as well as strengthening the muscles of your body.

How To Do It

•  Lie with your belly on the mat.

• Keep your arms at your sides with palms facing the mat.

• Stretch out and lift your legs and arms behind you.

• Keep your head up, roll your shoulders backward and open your chest.

• Keep this position for 4-5 breaths.

Boat Pose Yoga (Paripurna Navasana)

A strong core is not only important for going shirtless on a beach, it has high importance for maintaining stability as you grow old.

When you have a strong core, you can effectively stabilize your entire body. You will have an improved balance and a better posture if you possess good core strength.

The boat pose is an effective exercise that you can perform to develop your core muscles.

How to Do It

• Start by sitting on a mat with your legs stretched in front of you and hands-on sides.

• Raise your legs, keep a slight bend in your knees.

• Push your upper torso away from your legs.

• You will be making a ‘V’ position by doing this.

• Hold this position for 30 secs to 1 min

 

Effective Yoga Poses (Asanas) for Glowing and Healthy Skin

As we have discussed before that as you age, the most prominent factor that gives you an older look is saggy and wrinkled skin.

If you get that old look on your face, you are more likely to lose your confidence and self-esteem.

When you are in your 40s and start to feel that your skin is aging faster, you could end up feeling old as well.

There might be a lot of serums and creams that you could use for maintaining younger-looking skin but we will be discussing some of the best yoga poses to help you maintain that glowing skin.

Treat yourself with top-of-the-line yoga apparel to feel good and boost your confidence while practicing yoga, click here to buy.

Camel Pose Yoga (Ustrasana)

This yoga position is useful to improve the circulation of blood towards your face and head. Due to the increased flow of blood, it helps in releasing toxins from your body.

Another benefit of this pose is the strengthening of abdominal muscles. Hair fall could be a problem as you age, the camel pose is also beneficial for encouraging hair growth.

How to Do It

•  Kneel on the mat with knees hip-width apart and thighs perpendicular to the floor.

• Your hands should be on your buttocks, fingers should be pointing downwards.

• Start arching your back inwards, keep leaning back and hold your heels with your hands.

• Hold this pose for 30 sec to 1 min.

The Fish Pose Yoga (Matsyasana)

This pose is beneficial for maintaining healthy skin as it has beneficial impacts on the thyroid and pituitary glands.

These glands can help to normalize your hormone levels and which in turn gives you glowing skin.

How To Do It

•  Lie with your back on the mat.

• Slightly lift your pelvis and slide your hands below your hips, rest your hips on your hands.

• Now, press your forearms and elbows against the floor to lift your upper torso and head.

• Your knees should be slightly bent.

• Press your head towards your back, you should not rest the weight of your head on the neck.

• The weight on your neck should be minimal.

• Keep this position for 20 to 30 seconds and maintain smooth breathing.

Also Read: Yoga for Weight Loss: 6 Best Asanas to Help You Lose Belly Fat

 

The Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

The cobra pose is one of the most effective asanas for relieving stress in your body. It reduces the appearance of stress on your face and helps you to gain glowing skin.

How to Do It

• Lie down flat with your belly on the mat, stretch your legs back with your toes out on the floor.

• Press your feet and thighs firmly into the floor.

• Press your palms into the floor and straighten to lift your chest off the floor.

• You should only lift till your navel region, the pelvic region should be in contact with the mat.

• Hold this pose for 15 to 20 seconds and breathe softly.

Benefits of Yoga for Mental Health in Old Age

Every day, we hear the stories of the escalating levels of depression and anxiety in people all over the world.

As you grow old you are more likely to be frustrated and have anxious feelings. To deal with such problems, yoga steps in.

Let’s have a look at some mental health benefits of yoga

Improves Concentration and Memory

If you are facing problems with memory and you forget small things in your daily life then giving yoga a try can help you regain that ability to remember things effectively.

Yoga can also be beneficial if you are having a hard time concentrating on any task. You will be able to get things done in less time without getting distracted.

Have a Young Brain

This is another great benefit of yoga especially for the elderly. Practicing yoga helps you in having a more resilient brain and keeps it oxygenated.

It will help you to stay calm and face any problems without losing your cool or getting frustrated.

Fights Stress and Depression

You don’t need any pills to fall asleep or anti-depressant pills to deal with stress. Yoga is proven to have an anti-depressant effect and can control the release of stress hormones i.e. cortisol.

Elderly people commonly face the problem of falling asleep and waking up several times in the middle of the night.

Yoga improves the secretion of melatonin, which is the sleep hormone. So, it helps in promoting sleep quality.

Helps to Think Positively

Positive thoughts have great value in your life, they impact your social and professional life.

As you age, you might have a lot of negative thoughts in your mind that will have a bad impact on your life.

Yoga cleanses all that negativity from your mind, you are freed from all those unwanted bad thoughts and have a positive outlook towards life.

Takeaway

Yoga is a magic pill that you can take to age healthily. It’s a fact that you can’t stop your body from growing old, but you can practice yoga to stay young even in old age.

However, if you are suffering from pain or inflammation in your joints then you should consult your physician before starting yoga.

 

It’s better that you start practicing yoga at an early age so you can enjoy its benefits throughout your life.

 

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