Friday Q&A: Can Yoga Really Help Me?

Fallen Tree by Brad Gibson

Q: I have been getting the emails for some time and find them very interesting but have a question that has been nagging me for some time. I have been practicing yoga for years and have been teaching yoga for 10 years. I am now 63 and in the last 3 yrs despite my daily practice and veggie diet feel that my body has been deteriorating, i.e., increased aches and pains, worse in the morning, increased loss in vitality and recurring viruses, etc. I know I am getting old but I have always had faith in my yoga until the last year or so. Do you think yoga can really help with these problems in the way it claims to once we get older?

A: This question is what prompted Baxter to write his post What to Expect from Your Yoga Practice on Tuesday. But I thought it worth posting the original question for two reasons. The first reason is that this is not the first time we’ve received a question from someone who is having serious problems but whose description of their situation is too vague for us to provide a specific helpful answer. What we typically do in these cases is to suggest that the person be examined by a medical doctor to get a specific diagnoses. Only when there is a specific diagnosis is it possible for us to recommend specific yoga remedies. That's something for you all to keep in mind if you are having unexplained aches and pains, loss in vitality, recurring viruses, or any other troubling symptoms.

The second reason is that it may be be that you, as was the case with the person who asked the above question, have indeed been examined and nothing specific has been found wrong with you. In this case, it seems to me (and Shari and Baxter agree with me on this) that if someone has been medically checked out and they are perfectly healthy, but their yoga practice is be causing them to be tired and/or in pain all the time, it is probably a good idea for them to change their practice. While most folks out there don't exercise enough, there definitely are a few who overdo yoga! So it might be time to do different types of poses and/or sequences, at least for a while. This might mean a gentler practice, a practice from a yoga tradition different than the one you usually study, a break from standing poses or the poses that are painful for you, or studying with a new teacher. Or it might be good to take time off from active asana, focusing for a time on restoratives and relaxation until your body recovers. Sometimes a temporary break from yoga asana is even necessary (I've been there myself). I strongly recommend a private consultation with a teacher you respect—even if you are a teacher yourself—who can look at you with fresh eyes and make some recommendations for changing your practice. You'll probably have to experiment for a while to find out what's best for you, but I've personally found that a period of experimentation can be very fruitful for deepening your understanding of yoga.

And what about the answer to the specific question: Do you think yoga can really help with these problems in the way it claims to once we get older? I can say with complete confidence that all four of here at Yoga for Healthy Aging (and that includes, besides me, a medical doctor, a medical researcher, and a physical therapist) all do believe that yoga can help with these problems. That’s why we started this blog!

—Nina