Silver Age Yoga

Silver Age Yoga is a unique yoga discipline designed for seniors that combines hatha yoga and principles of gerontology. The program was developed by seasoned yoga instructors in cooperation with scientists—many of them yoga practitioners—from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD); the Stein Institute for Research on Aging, a department of UCSD; and physicians affiliated with Scripps Health San Diego.
Founded in 2003, the nationally recognized program is designed to empower seniors to take charge of their own health by addressing typical age-related health issues, such as arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes and depression. Meditation is used to address stress, while postures address flexibility, balance, strength and joint mobility.

Fitness professionals who want to work with this population need to understand the needs of seniors. While every discipline of yoga is based on the traditional hatha postures, the application and teaching of the postures vary from one discipline to the next (Iyengar, ashtanga, Anusara, Indra Devi, etc.). Silver Age Yoga differs from other styles in that it takes into consideration the limitations of the participants. For example, the same downward-facing dog that is performed on the floor in all other major yoga styles becomes a standing posture supported by a chair, wall, rail, etc. in Silver Age Yoga. This type of adaptation is evident throughout the entire portfolio of over a hundred postures.

Silver Age Yoga has earned substantial recognition and various awards since its inception. The innovative program received the Public Health Champion Award from the County of San Diego in 2008 and the Healthcare and Aging Award from the American Society on Aging, in collaboration with Pfizer, in 2007. IDEA will honor Frank and Serpil Iszak, founders of Silver Age Yoga, with the Inner IDEA 2008 Inspiration Award at this year’s Inner IDEA® Conference, which will take place September 11–14, 2008, in Palm Springs, California.

Close to 200 yoga instructors have gone through the training and certification program to share the Silver Age Yoga program with seniors. To learn more poses, breathing and meditation for seniors, attend Frank and Serpil Iszak’s workshop, “Silver Age Yoga,” at the Inner IDEA Conference. The workshop will teach instructors how to operate a Silver Age Yoga program in their own community; how to reach out to low-income seniors; and how to create a profitable and successful program for an underserved population.

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Meditation Lowers Blood Cortisol Levels

Stress triggers many physiological changes in the body through the “fight or flight” response. When stress levels are high, levels of the hormone cortisol released into the bloodstream are also high. Studies confirm that chronic stress is associated with increased fat in the abdominal area, higher concentrations of blood sugar and insulin, higher blood pressure and higher levels of cholesterol—conditions that are associated with metabolic syndrome and that increase the risk of heart disease.

A recent small study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2004; [1032], 211–15) suggests that older women who regularly practice meditation may have a reduced cortisol response to stress—and that the longer a woman has been practicing, the less likely she is to react to stress with high levels of blood cortisol.

Walton and colleagues studied 30 women, 16 who were long-term practitioners of TM and 14 controls, all between the ages of 65 and 92 years. The subjects ingested 75 grams of glucose in order to stress their systems metabolically. Cortisol levels were measured before and after administration of the stressor. The researchers found that cortisol levels rose much higher and with greater speed among the controls than among the meditators. Moreover, the longer a subject had practiced meditation, the lower her cortisol response was. The study authors theorized that this lower cortisol response may reflect improvement of the endocrine system regulation and recommended that more research be conducted.

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