Welcome to the Yoga for Seniors community -- a network of yoga teachers dedicated to making yoga practices available and appropriate for older adults. With seniors age 65 and older representing the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. population, the basic tools of yoga -- such as relaxation breathing and gentle postures -- offer a powerful, yet low-cost and accessible means to enhance quality of life and to ease the suffering caused by many of the ailments common to seniors including arthritis, chronic pain and heart disease.
Our mission is to advance the art and science of adapting
the yoga practice to older bodies, minds and spirits.
In service of this vision, we have developed a Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors teacher training program designed to help yoga instructors work safely and effectively with older adults. Held annually since 2007 at Duke Integrative Medicine -- part of the Duke University Health System in Durham, North Carolina -- this pioneering program combines the best of modern, evidence-based medicine with the ancient wisdom, experience and tradition of Yogic teachings.
Under the mentorship of program directors Kimberly Carson and Carol Krucoff, participants in this training do a Yoga for Seniors Research Project that explores an aging-related issue of their own choosing (such as insomnia, depression or incontinence). Each student develops and teaches a yoga class in their home community that addresses the special needs of older adults with the selected health issue. While these projects are not required to meet the rigorous standards of formal medical studies, they have proven to be invaluable learning experiences -- for both teachers and students -- and suggest the broad potential for yoga's effectiveness as a complementary therapy for a wide variety of conditions affecting older adults.
