9 Ways Yoga Makes You Younger

NOTE: I am not a yoga teacher. But I do know my way around a yoga mat. The following is based on my own experience with yoga over the past six years.

9. You Can Handle the Stress
(Did you say it like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men?)

Photo by adria.richards

Stress is killing us. But there’s an easy solution, right? Just chill. Sure, that works. Like when you’re about to make an important presentation at work. You should have spent more time preparing last night, but instead you treated yourself to a movie. The only chill you’re likely to feel is the one running up your spine.

Clearly, some stressful situations are our own fault. But others are beyond our control. The new puppy had an accident on the carpet this morning. By the time you cleaned it up, you were late getting on the road. So, you got stuck in traffic, and were late getting to the office. Your boss checks his watch and shakes his head when he sees you come in the door.

But a stressful incident here and there is not usually what kills you. It’s the 24/7 pressure on your arteries and heart that’s going to get you.

Photo by judepics

So, how does yoga help reduce stress? Through slow, methodical breathing while in various poses. What’s the big deal? Couldn’t you just take a few deep breaths a day and get the same result? No. Although, that might be an improvement over what you’re currently doing.

There’s something about being in odd and awkward positions while breathing in the special yoga way (Pranayama) that makes the difference. Yoga actually helps increase lung capacity. Some even believe it can replace all other forms of exercise.

8. Resistance is NOT Futile
You don’t have to let your body go to pot. Resist—literally.

Yoga employs isometric training, which stresses the muscles in a static position. Instead of moving a heavy object, as in weight lifting, Isometric exercises involve trying to move an immovable object.

Photo by Olivier Lejade

7. As Young As You Feel
Want to be younger? Then feel younger. Soon after I turned 52, I woke up with a terrible pain the middle of my back. I wasn’t sure what I had done to cause it, so I just took a couple of Ibuprofen and didn’t think much about it. But then it started happening several days a week. Then every day.

My doctor said the pain was caused by arthritis. ARTHRITIS? No, Doc, you don’t understand—I’m too young to have arthritis. He said he was sorry, but that’s what it was. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t expect to be hit with arthritis until my seventies or eighties. Not in my early fifties.

I had been working out with weights since my mid-forties. And I guess I thought it would help me avoid a lot of the health problems other people my age were experiencing. But apparently my workouts had done nothing to keep arthritis away.

So, I decided to give yoga a try, thinking that all that stretching might help. I honestly knew very little about it when I bought my first beginner yoga book and began to work at it. Then I watched a yoga DVD. Within a couple of months my morning back pain began to disappear. I was thrilled. After a couple more months it was completely gone!

Photo by Kristin Pfannkuchen

At the time of this writing it has been over six years since I started yoga. My morning pain in the back has never returned. Does this make me feel younger? You’d better believe it.

Another example of how yoga has made me feel younger is that my knees used to crack and pop when I walked down stairs. That’s gone too.

How much younger do I feel? Well, not young enough to try dunking the basketball like I did in high school. But if I had to give a number I’d probably say 20 years. Would you like to feel twenty years younger? Don’t say “Yes” if you’re 25.

6. Mind Over Fatter
Yoga aids in weight loss and maintenance, but not in the way you might think. It’s not generally a big calorie burner. Although, some types of yoga, like Ashtanga or Power Yoga, can get pretty intense and burn a lot of calories.

Photo by judepics

For me, the affect has been more mental. But that’s what I need the most. Because the more I exercise, the hungrier I get. I end up spinning my wheels, achieving no weight loss.

It really comes down to will power, and how to make it stronger. Can you resist that Big Mac or chocolate cake or Margarita? Just the sight of it, the aroma, may cause you to go out of your mind with desire. But, oh how you’ll regret it afterwards. With the taste of it still fresh in your mouth, you’ll tell yourself that at least you’ve learned your lesson. You won’t give in next time. Who are you kidding?

But yoga can change the way you look at food. It can help you make good choices.

Suppose your car is dirty. It hasn’t been washed in weeks. You can either take the shortcut down a muddy road or go the long way around to avoid the mud puddles. You’re in a big hurry. What will you do?

Now picture the same situation, with one exception: your car has just been washed, waxed, and detailed. Which road will you take?

It’s like that with yoga. Once you’ve been improving your body with yoga for a while—once you start to feel younger, stronger and leaner, you’ll think twice about sloshing through the mud (chocolate cake). Not that you can never have chocolate cake again. But you’ll make better decisions.

Photo by enfad

5. Wave Goodbye to the Flab
Maybe you’re already on an exercise program. You might work out with weights or jog or whatever. So, you figure you don’t need yoga.

Humor me for a moment. Take the Flab Test: Raise your hand and wave it from side to side. Look under your arm—below the bicep. Is there flab under there? Is it waving right along with your hand?

I hate flab. Who doesn’t? One time when I was in my early thirties I took up jogging. I was into it big time. I read that a serious runner should weigh only two pounds per inch of height. So, I worked and worked until I had lost 30 pounds. That was nuts! I’m 6-foot-4, yet I had dropped to 167 pounds. I couldn’t even sit in a metal chair without being in pain. I was literally skin and bones.

But you know what? I still had flab. I lost the fat and, unfortunately, a lot of muscle. But the flab was still there. In fact, I had much more flab than before I lost the weight. Stupid flab. Weight loss doesn’t get rid of it. But yoga does!

How in the world does yoga get rid of flab?

Photo by stephcarter

Our skin is attached to something called fascia. (Actually, there are several types of fasciae in our body.) Yoga gently stretches and rejuvenates the underlying fascia, making it more pliable and springy. It stretches, but springs back into place. Isn’t that what you’d like to see happening with your double chin(s)?

You won’t see the improvement overnight. It will take months to notice a real difference. But you’ll be amazed when see your new yoga body beginning to take shape before your very eyes.

So, wave goodbye to your flab.

4. Good to the Core
Why do so many people have back problems? A common misconception is that as we get older our backs get weaker, causing us more and more pain. We begin to slump over. Must be a weakness in the spine, right? Wrong.

The support for your upper body is provided by your core, not your spine. Yoga builds your core, making it easy to stand tall and relieve the pressure on your spinal column.

And which looks younger: a slumped over body, or one that stands tall and erect? It feels younger too.

Photo by stephcarter

3. Better Than a Spoonful of Sugar
You probably won’t need as much medicine because you won’t get sick as often. You might even be able to reduce or eliminate some prescriptions. (Obviously you need to consult your doctor before making any changes to your medications.)

How is this possible? It’s about fascia again, which not only connects the skin to the body, but also covers and runs throughout the organs. It’s everywhere.

It is believed that yoga stretches and invigorates these fasciae and improves their health—thus improving the health of your organs, which promotes your overall well-being. I use the term “it is believed” because modern medicine is only recently beginning to study yoga seriously.

2. Be Limber, Not Timber
Every year our bodies get stiffer. But they don’t have to. You can keep yourself limber. And with yoga, you stretch and strengthen your ligaments, tendons, and cartilage too—not just the major muscles.

You don’t want to fall victim to this scenario: somebody calls your name, you twist around and wrench your knee. Now you may need surgery and physical therapy. Ouch.

Photo by Teecycle Tim

1. Trade Your Gut for a Yoga Butt
Not only will yoga tighten your stomach—you’ll get rid of that saggy butt.

What? You don’t have a saggy butt? Not even a little? Are you sure?

Take the Saggy Butt Test: While standing naked, take a pencil, hold it parallel to the floor and place it between a butt check and the top of your thigh. Can you hold the pencil there, hands free? Or does it drop to the floor.

If the pencil fell to the floor (assuming you didn’t cheat) you passed! If not, well, sorry—you’ve got a saggy butt.

But take heart—yoga can give you a firm, unsaggy butt. People will not only be happy to see you coming—they’ll be happy to watch you go.

How about you? Have you ever tried it? Are you ready to find a yoga instructor?