Lifelong Yoga: Maximizing Your Balance, Flexibility, and Core Strength in Your 50s, 60s, and Beyond

by Sage Rountree, Alexandra DeSiato, Roy Williams (Foreword by)

Overview

An accessible illustrated guide for practicing yoga as you age, featuring simple poses and routines for balance, core strength, hip flexibility, and recovery

With over 125 instructive photos and sequences to keep you active into your 50s, 60s, and beyond


Yoga gives active people vital tools for healthy aging: strength, flexibility, balance, and focus. In this one-of-a-kind book, the authors explain how common activities for aging active people (running, swimming, golf, gardening, travel, caring for grandchildren) can be better supported with yoga.

Inside you’ll find easy, doable poses and routines that help keep older people fit and injury-free. Other key topics include:

·Core and leg strength for stability and healthy aging, needed for autonomous living and enjoyable movement
·A practical approach to flexibility
·Balance and how it translates to staying safer during activity and avoiding falls
·Ways to incorporate yoga in daily routines to receive benefits with minimal time commitment
·Meditation, mindfulness, breathing practices, and the physical practice of yoga can help with both mental flexibility and relaxation
 
Each sequence is introduced with a brief overview of the benefits of the movements along with modifications and options suited to individual requirements.

From the practical to the philosophical, Lifelong Yoga is a user-friendly handbook for staying active and healthy in a changing body over the course of a long life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623171438
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,106,192
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

SAGE ROUNTREE is a preeminent yoga authority for athletes, a yoga teacher trainer, and an endurance sports coach with certifications from USA Triathlon, USA Cycling, and the Road Runners' Club of America. She has written numerous books and articles for athletes, including The Athlete's Guide to Yoga and The Runner's Guide to Yoga, and is a regular contributor to Yoga Journal and
Runner's World. Her website is sagerountree.com.

ALEXANDRA DESIATO is a seasoned teacher of yoga and an expert Pilates instructor who has taught several athletic teams at the University of North Carolina, including the football team, men's basketball team, and women's rowing team. She is a regular contributor to YOGANONYMOUS and Wanderlust. Her website is alexandradesiato.com.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword xv

Part I Overview 1

Chapter 1 How Yoga Helps 3

Chapter 2 Age-Related Changes 15

Chapter 3 A Lifetime in the Studio 23

Part II Solving Problems with Yoga 33

Chapter 4 Become Fall-Proof: Building Better Balance in Space 35

Chapter 5 Cultivate Deep Resilience: Core Strength 51

Chapter 6 Keep It Loose: Hip Flexibility 73

Part III Putting it Together 87

Chapter 7 Yoga in Your Day 89

Chapter 8 Yoga Through The Days 115

Part IV Playing the Long Game 119

Chapter 9 Yoga Through the Decades 121

Chapter 10 Easing Toward the End 127

Notes 131

Index 133

About the Models 139

About the Authors 141

Editorial Reviews

06/19/2017
Trainers Rountree and Desiato deliver a pragmatic, straightforward, and useful take on using yoga to alleviate the effects of aging. The well-organized book consists of five parts and begins with a brief overview of how yoga can help build balance and flexibility (both mental and physical). Part one also gives an overview of age-related ailments and ways yoga might help, different styles of classes, and methods of communicating effectively with instructors. In part two, the authors discuss balance poses and offer modifications geared to various fitness levels. Fundamentals such as balance, core strength, and hip flexibility are covered with multiple poses. Part three puts the poses all together into short sequences and describes ways to incorporate yoga into a daily routine. The sequences offered are surprisingly specific in their intended uses—some to precede a day of holiday cooking or a long drive, others to follow an intense workout or an emotional day. Part four touches on end-of-life issues, accepting “things as they are,” moving toward acceptance of death, and letting go of fear. This is a practical guide for people who want to begin a yoga practice outside the classroom or supplement one they’ve already begun. (July)

Publishers Weekly

In this wise, compassionate, and skillfully written book, Sage Rountree and Alexandra DeSiato draw upon their decades-long experience as athletes and yoginis to offer guidance into how your practice will and should change as you age. With poetic insights from yogic philosophy, Lifelong Yoga is much more just than a posture book—it’s a blueprint for healthy aging.”
—Carol Krucoff, C-IAYT, E-RYT, yoga therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine and coauthor of Relax into Yoga for Seniors
 
“Sage and Alexandra have made an important contribution to the yoga literature with their splendid Lifelong Yoga. A strong, active asana practice, with mindful awareness of alignment and breath, is a powerful ally for enhancing longevity and maintaining balance, agility, suppleness, strength, and vital health.”
—Beryl Bender Birch, author of Power Yoga and Boomer Yoga and director/founder of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute and the Give Back Yoga Foundation 

“Sage Rountree and Alexandra DeSiato offer a friendly introduction to yoga. You will improve your flexibility and your balance. You will learn breathing and relaxation techniques. Practice Lifelong Yoga and feel better, whether you’re playing golf or playing with the grandkids.”
—from the foreword by Roy Williams, University of North Carolina men’s basketball coach

“I’ve been an athlete for forty-two years. Since turning fifty, I feel my limiters are lack of ability to recover, joint stiffness, impaired range of movement, chronic repetitive injury, and fatigue. Yoga is the answer for me now more than ever! Sage’s gentle but specific approach points me in the direction of improving all of these challenges. But most importantly, she has shown me how to relax, something highly competitive athletes have difficulty truly achieving.”
—Kristin Villopoto, 2016 USAT Athlete of the Year
 
“Part Two of Lifelong Yoga, Solving Problems with Yoga, is especially helpful for me as I’m always looking for ways to proactively address the tweaks and twinges that come with intense training by improving balance, core strength, and stability, especially now that age fifty is just around the corner. In doing so I’ve been able to continue to swim, bike, and run at a high level, but also feel good in my daily life activities, especially the ones that require lifting, bending, and balance. Thanks to Sage and Alexandra for another great resource for athletes and nonathletes alike.”
—JoAnna Younts, founder of Kids Tri NC and two-time finisher of the Ironman World Championship
 
“I’ve worked with Sage and Alexandra many years now and seen their work with other folks firsthand. They have a great way of applying their years of combined experience to help people bring out the best in themselves. You will not only be able to work harder, you will work smarter and more safely as well.”
—Donnie Barnes, Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race finisher

From the Publisher