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Frank Answers About Embodied Aging and Yoga

In a few months I will be eighty years old. Am I old yet?

When people find out my age, they say I look younger than I am. I can’t take the credit for that. It’s my genes. I’ve always looked younger than I actually was. I continued riding on public transportation in Buffalo, NY at the child’s fare well into my early teens because I was small.  Or, when I tell people how old I am, they say: well, as long as you have a “young” attitude. This is ageism. Doesn’t accumulated knowledge and wisdom count for something? “Young” is the standard of mental and physical fitness in our culture largely because commercial advertising promotes it. Ads promote youthful slim or bulked up figures that few of us can approximate. But we try to compete with the models anyway. We’ve become a body-obsessed culture, but not always in ways that are healthy for our bodies.

Young body builder working on his exterior appearance. Will he pay attention to his interior strength, such as his core, which is not the same as six-pack abs?

Certainly we can’t ignore our bodies, because we are our bodies. Through our bodies—our senses and our movements—we connect with the world around us. Human beings have always been aware of their bodies and concerned to maintain healthy ones. But in modern culture, health is not enough; we must be fit. Men and women have always paid attention to their appearance as a way to improve their chances of mating and procreation, as other species do. Today people want to be attractive because that opens up more social opportunities.  Commercialism understands and promotes this and we literally “buy” into it in choices of clothing, health clubs, etc. But, just so, entering old age is an escape from this commercial captivity of the body.

But it’s not an escape from our bodies. Older people are like adolescents in the sense that our bodies are changing rapidly and we tend to pay more attention to them.

The body reaches its full stature by the early 20s. It reaches its apex of muscular development in the mid-30s. Then the body begins its slow muscular decline. By age 60, 25% of the body’s muscle mass has been lost. Physical decline increases more rapidly after that. There’s no magic number for these age differentiations we make.  But the body doesn’t lie. As one ages the hair turns to shades of grey and then to white. The skin thins, dries, and loses elasticity. With decreasing  muscle tone the skin forms wrinkles and sagging occurs. With muscular atrophy arms and legs get thinner. But body fat in men settles into the belly. Aging also causes thinning of bone density and stiffening of joints that affects our balance, coordination, and strength. Hormonal shifts can set the stage for chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes as well as cardiovascular issues.

The following photo was taken in October 2016 when I was 73 years old, ten years after having a colectomy to remove a malignant tumor in my colon and part of the colon, as well as chemotherapy for colon cancer. The scar down my belly is the evidence of the surgery. My bent left elbow is caused by an elbow transplant to replace a shattered elbow, the result of a fall two years later. I began practicing yoga about that time, at age 65. I began yoga practice with my bent left arm and from the beginning learned ways to compensate for it. (Downward dog was my hardest pose, but using a block helped.) So this is the wounded warrior in warrior 2 shape.

There are other signs of aging that are less external. Hearing may diminish and sight may lose its sharpness. We begin to sleep fewer hours at night and compensate by taking a nap (or two) during the day (especially once we’re retired). Maybe the mind isn’t as agile as it once was. The gait may be slower. We no longer look or act like the commercial images of fit young adults. Maybe with the population aging as baby boomers have come into (shudder!) old age, commercial images of fit, attractive senior citizens will give the generations following something to aspire to.

This senior bodybuilder shows the inevitability of the physical signs of old age. The external decline (e.g., wrinkled skin) cannot be halted. Nevertheless, there’s no reason to hide the aging body by covering it up. See Frank Answers About Male Shirtlessness.

These changes are taking place in my body. When I look in the mirror I see the physical processes of aging that I mentioned above. But do I feel old? Do I experience old age? That’s what embodiment is: what I experience or feel in the body. My aging body is not embodied unless I experience or feel it aging. Unfortunately, I would be deluding myself if I said that I don’t experience aging. On a recent trip to Sedona, AR I wasn’t as nimble on the hiking trails as I was when I was there five years ago. I find myself holding lightly onto bannisters when going up or down stairs. The issue is whether I can manage aging in such a way that I remain physically able and mentally alert.

In spite of our embodied aging, we need to remain physically healthy and mentally alert because we are living longer in our time and place than human beings used to live, and we want to enjoy our remaining years. The study of human senescence continues and firm conclusions cannot yet be drawn. But the fact is that our biological nature gives us the ability to live past the Bible’s three score years and ten (70), “or if due to strength, eighty years” (Psalm 90:10). We probably won’t make the ages reported for the biblical patriarchs.

Abraham was 100 years old when Issak was born.

Anyway, Genesis’s record of decreasing age spans may be a way of indicating the consequences of the fall into sin (human alienation from God, the source of life).  The natural average age humans can attain is different from the actual average age some attain because the average is cut short by deaths in child birth, war, famine, disease and other factors. Health authorities claim that medical progress has extended human life spans by 20-30 years during the course of the 20th century.

As our average life span increases we need to exercise to keep the body functioning at an optimal level.  Many seniors find a congenial physical activity. Some go to the gym. Others play golf.  The major physical activity of my senior years is yoga. In fact, I didn’t even begin practicing yoga until I was sixty-five. Yoga has been the practice of my senior years. I got into it almost accidentally when I joined an active older adults exercise group at the local YMCA as I was rehabilitating my body after nearly a year of chemotherapy for colon cancer. Then I shattered my elbow and when I returned to the fitness class the instructor suggested that I try yoga. Of course, yoga is not just an exercise regimen. It has a spiritual aspect and a philosophic foundation that I have been interested in studying. That added dimension has kept me interested in yoga so that I have consistently practiced it going on 15 years. But yoga is not the only exercise I do.

Frank moving into warrior 1 pose in November 2015 at age 72.

We need aerobic exercise that comes from walking, running, biking, swimming, etc.  I enjoy hiking and biking.  But as we age the challenges associated with high impact forms of exercise make things a little more difficult. Yoga provides a safe way to get moving and stay active. We need strength work because our muscles are atrophying.  I do moderate workouts with hand weights. Holding the body against the force of gravity is also a form of weight lifting. Holding one’s body in a yoga pose is also strengthening, especially of the core.

Frank holding forearm plank in fitness class. In January-February 2020 at age 76 I undertook a forty-day plank challenge to see how many minutes/seconds I could hold plank after forty days. My fitness instructor is in the background timing me. I made my goal, which was to hold in plank for five minutes.

Yoga won’t give you six-pack abs, but it will strengthen the core of the body (which is within). That chair pose we dread is actually one of the best poses for seniors because it strengthens the core. I’m proud of the fact that I can sit down and stand up from sitting without having to hold on to something while grunting like I remember my grandfather doing.

Frank in chair pose this morning, January 10, 2023.

The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit for “yoke.” Yoga stresses the union of body and mind.  In fact, it turns out to be good for the mind. A study in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health  on “The Acute Effects of Yoga on Executive Function” demonstrated that after yoga sessions the mind shows increased memory Kooand processing power. Maybe that’s because one has to keep in mind all the separate things the body is required to do in any pose.

Yoga works on balance. Of course, we don’t always have a focal point when walking like we do if standing in tree pose.  But we can be mindful of maintaining our balance on uneven surfaces. That’s an important benefit for seniors. It lowers the risk of falls and fractures that commonly injure older people.

Yoga tree with a senior yoga teacher sharing his wisdom with younger yogis.

Yoga increases our flexibility. Many people (especially men) say they don’t want to do yoga because they’re not very flexible.  That’s like saying I won’t lift weights because I’m not very strong. One becomes flexible by getting into those bends and twists as best as one can. Yoga is not a competitive sport.

Frank doing side twist in low lunge in October 2016 at age 73

Related to holding yourself upright (or downward) is bone strength. Bone density decreases with age, but yoga can keep bones more supple. My yoga teacher has lately been stressing that the bones in our body are not the white brittle things we see in display skeletons. Those are dead bones, he says. Living bones are more fluid.

In that connection, I’ve been practicing with my teacher a more fluid form of movement than yoga conventionally emphasized with its angular poses. In fact, integrating qigong with yoga practice can be a good activity for seniors. In a park in Singapore I saw a whole group of Asian senior citizens practicing qigong. I enjoyed joining others in doing qigong on the expansive lawn of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Ayurvedia Health when I was there in 2015 taking a course in the embodied history of yoga. That course required a lopt of breathwork (pranayama).

Street qigong in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

One of the most important benefits of yoga is what it teaches about breathing. The deep breathing performed in yoga sends more oxygen to the blood, which keeps the body’s organs happy, healthy, and functioning at an optimal state. Moreover, one can experience in the breath work an energetic force that does enable us to move in and out of poses (asanas) and to relax under stress of muscle or mind.

Yogi doing breath of fire, pumping the belly in and out.

Yoga often leads into practices of meditation. In fact, that was its original purpose. The purpose of the poses (asanas) and breathwork (pranayama) was to be able to keep the body still for meditation (as taught by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras). Most yoga classes don’t allow enough time for actual meditation. Meditation helps to reduce hypertension and can reduce the diastolic blood pressure number. This is exactly what people with high blood pressure need. (Fortunately, my blood pressure has been consistently low.)

There are many different yoga styles out there. I’ve tried different brands just to see what they offer. But basically I stay with hatha yoga classes that will include breath work (pranayama), a sequence of poses (ananas), and time for meditation.

Food

Healthy people, seniors in particular, need to pay attention to what they eat. Yoga is allied with ayurveda, the ancient health system of India. One of the emphases of ayurveda is diet. In fact, ayurveda is one of the world’s original “food as medicine” systems. I’m no authority on this complex system that makes adjustments to diet for seasons of the year and body types.  Ayurvedic practitioners can give guidance on this. But I know that people of my generation have had to radically change the dietary habits we grew up with. We grew up with foods of convenience, such as canned foods dumped in a kettle and overcooked or TV dinners. It’s no wonder we didn’t like vegetables. Now we can buy fresh fruits and vegetables, sometimes directly from the farmers at community farmers’ markets, and we know we should eat more of them. We should buy organic produce that hasn’t been treated with chemical fertilizers. And we should eliminate from our diet refined sugars, reduce starches, and avoid overcooking meat. And that’s just the beginning.

Nichols Farm selling fresh produce at Evanston Farmers’ Market

Mood

There are two other benefits I receive from yoga practice that I’m sure could be received from other physical activities as well. Practicing yoga boosts my mood. It lowers cortisol levels in the brain and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. These biochemical changes make us feel less anxious and create a healthier state of mind. I just feel good after yoga class. The final relaxation savasana (corpse pose) in yoga classes is important, because it serves to integrate these changes into our body-mind.

Senior people practicing as savasana in class

The final benefit for me is making the acquaintance of a wider group of people than I’ve known before. As a pastor for more than forty years I knew mostly church people, sometimes augmented by being involved in community organizations. Certainly there are church people in yoga classes. But in yoga classes there are also people with other religious backgrounds or none at all.  And while there are many other seniors in my regular yoga classes, there are also younger people. I enjoy the mixture of ages in classes. I especially enjoy having young yoga teachers who challenge me both intellectually and physically. (Well, almost any treacher will be younger than me at my age.) But connecting with a diversity of people around a common interest is good for the brain and our spirits. A major concern for seniors is losing in-person social connections. This was one of the health disasters of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we must get vaccine boosters. But we must also return to studios and gyms.

Portrait of smiling people of mixed ages stretching in yoga class

I hope these tips have been helpful to other seniors. I don’t practice yoga to “keep young” but to “age well.”

Aging Yogi Frank

Tao Porchon-Lynch was regularly teaching yoga classes at age 101 when she died in 2020.

Frank Senn

I’m a retired Lutheran pastor. I was in parish ministry for forty years and taught at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for three years. I've been an adjunct professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. Since my retirement in 2013 I've also taught courses at Trinity Theological College in Singapore, Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, and Carey Theological College in Vancouver. I have a Ph.D. in theology (liturgical studies) from the University of Notre Dame.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Frank Senn

    A note from Al.

    As a US male with 70-plus years of life experience, I find that a variety of spiritual practices contribute to the conscious eldering process for me… helping me to “age well,” as Pr. Frank says in his sign-off.

    Yoga is certainly one of them. I’ve been practicing asanas for about 15 years, since taking two yoga classes at the YMCA. Like Frank, I also find that yoga helps me with flexibility, core body strength, meditation, mental focus, balance, and energy… all needed traits for keeping an aging body healthy.

    But balanced with yoga I’m also drawn to standard gym workouts, bicycling, and a healthy diet. Formerly also to running, until I required knee surgery 8 years ago. Giving up the running back then was hard and involved grief and regret as I had to acknowledge that my body was aging. But in retrospect, I see now that going through those grieving steps was also a part of positive eldering for me…

    To borrow a phrase from a favorite author, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: We can call acquiring wisdom through loss and suffering “Sage-ing” as opposed to aging. Nice turn of phrase.

    More… Together with both the rabbi and Pr. Frank, I also mix in spiritual practices like regular liturgical worship, singing in a choral group, family time, storytelling, journalling, social justice, serving others, recollection, and quiet meditation (which often happens when on my bike, at church, in the sauna, and a variety of places – many of them anything but typically “religious”).

    Not one of these practices is primary for me, balance and variety are key. But of them all, yoga is high on my list.

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