Mamie d'Arcy discovered yoga many years ago when her son was in daycare. Now, in a much different stage of life, she’s finding it even more beneficial.
“If I wasn’t doing yoga, I would have trouble getting up off the floor and ... my back would be a constant problem,” says the Newmarket woman. “I feel so good when I come out… it really sets you up for the day.”
D’Arcy finds optimal benefits when she combines regular yoga with walking four days a week and it helps keep her on a healthier diet.
Various forms of movement is considered important as we age. Regular exercises and stretching makes getting up off the ground easier. But it can also help prevent falls and injury.
“We certainly hear from medical professionals how great it is,” says Colin Service, Newmarket’s director of recreation and culture, who says there are plenty of options for those in their older years to stretch their muscles.
The Newmarket Seniors' Meeting Place for those 55 and up boasts more than 1,200 members enjoying a variety of activities, including group fitness classes, badminton and line dancing.
The town’s two fitness facilities also attract older adults, with pickleball, badminton and aqua fitness being particularly popular.
Southlake Health’s cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation program based at the Magna Centre offers another level of fitness for those with cardiovascular diseases. Once they’ve completed the individualized programs, many of those patients – often seniors – continue exercise regimes at the facility.
Having the program at a fitness facility helps to reduce the recurrence of health issues, says Service. Aside from the physical benefits, are the social benefits that arise, which he says are equally important.
D’Arcy’s yoga instructor, Daniele Hart, owner of Heart Journey Yoga & Wellness, says “use it or lose it” is highly relevant when it comes to maintaining flexibility and mobility, as well as reducing pain in the body as we age. Most of her clients, she adds, are seniors looking to increase their flexibility, mobility and strength in addition to improving balance and co-ordination.
“Yoga is both a preventive and remedial measure to assist with the various aches, chronic conditions, and accompanying poor health associated with aging,” she says.
Hart says there are a variety of exercises and yoga moves designed for older adults. She points to chair yoga, which is great for those who would like support. Gentle yoga classes are meant to be accessible.
And there are different kinds of yoga that are particularly well suited to the older crowd.
And then there’s mat work.
“Older folks can do anything on a mat,” she says, suggesting that could be useful for forward and back bends, twists, side bends, prone and supine poses, gentle inversions, and balance poses.
Hart discovered yoga in 2001 a year after a car accident and found relief in her neck and upper back. She later took training programs and ultimately left her corporate job to start Heart Journey Yoga & Wellness in Mount Albert. She is currently completing a therapeutic yoga training program.
Her yoga studio is now based in Newmarket on Leslie Street.
For D’Arcy, the benefits are many.
“Yoga for me is also very much… about the mental benefits,” she says. “You just feel so good when you get out you walk in one way and walk out another.”
