March Yoga. Are you up for a challenge? Yoga in midlife and beyond.

So this month, we are celebrating my husband’s 60th birthday and after a pretty scary year with his health in 2024, this feels like a significant milestone.

It is odd isn’t it, how our concepts of mid life, older adulthoood, and senior years change the older we get.  It’s always the generation ahead of us isn’t it?  I can remember being about 5 or 6 years old, thinking about the millennium, and working out that I would be the grand old age of 32!  My child self had absolutely no idea how she would ever live to be that great age.

My nearly 60 year old self can’t remember how the years flew by from then until now.  

My 60 year old self doesn’t know why she grunts when she stands up, or why, when she looks in the mirror she sees her Mum’s face looking back.

But one thing is clearer to me now than ever before.  Getting older, moving through midlife to senior, is a privilege. As the comedian would say, the alternative is far worse!   Most generations before us, throughout history have not been blessed with the possibility of an older age, let alone one that is still healthy and active.   

That doesn’t mean that things stay the same.  We don’t keep our 25 year old bodies forever, much as we might like to. And moving to midlife and beyond in way that is healthy, sustainable and keeps us strong takes a little more effort.

We have to accept that our bodies change as we age. Despite the best efforts of advertisers and influencers to convince us otherwise, there really is nothing we can do about that.   Recent scientific research tells us that metabolic aging, changes to our bodies affecting cardio-respiratory function, cell degeneration and replacement for example, significantly speeds up in our mid forties and early sixties.  

Now don’t get me wrong!  I’m not about to give up and reach for the beige cardi (although if you have one, it’s no bad thing either)!  I’ve spent a lifetime basing my self esteem on my fitness, resilience and stamina.  I’ve cycled in the Himalyas, skied in the Rockies, walked thousands of miles, overdosed on Les Mills fitness and generally kept my body pretty busy over the years. (Not to mention the yoga)

So even though I’m almost 60, I’m still up for a challenge.  It’s good for us to carry on pushing our physical boundaries.  The research backs me up too and shows, for example, that older adults can increase strength and muscle mass with regular, focused strength training.

Getting older is inevitable, aging is not!  Ayurveda teaches us that we have a given lifespan. We can’t change that BUT we can choose how we want to use that life, and how well we want to live it.

Whatever age we are, we can

• take exercise that actually builds our muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness.

• Improve our balance and coordination before it becomes difficult for us.

• work in ways that nourish our joints so that they stay active and flexible for the long term.

• learn to regulate our nervous systems through breathing and meditation, reducing the damaging effects of long term stress.

• change our diet and lifestyles in ways that reflect that changing needs of our bodies without compromising our life goals and ambitions.

After all, if aging is the slow journey from wellness to frailty and beyond, the fitter we are to start with, then the further we have to go.

Are you up for the challenge?