A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in April confirmed that yoga and a form of meditation known as Kirtan Kriya improved brainfunctioning by increasing connectivity, improving memory, and decreasing mood aberration.
The Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation in Tucson, Arizona, has been studying the effects yoga meditation has on the brain and discovered (confirmed, really) that a certain form of yoga meditation, known as Kirtan Kriya, can have immediate, long-term positive benefits for the brain. Practicing this simple twelve-minute yoga meditation has been shown to bring about the following benefits:
Improve cerebral blood flow (help you think better).
Improve blood flow to the posterior cingulated gyrus (improve memory retrieval).
Increase activity in the frontal lobe (sharpen attention, concentration, and focus).
Replenish vital neurotransmitters and brain chemicals, such as acetylcholine, norepinephrine, and dopamine (which help the brain function more smoothly).
You may have read Hillary Clinton’s comment in her book ‘What Happened?” where she describes a yoga practice – Alternate Nostril breathing. She says that it helped to get her through the challenges of the aftermath of the election.That’s is a whole lot of stress! In yogic language it is known as Nadi Shodhana, here are just a few of the benefits:
Reduction of anxiety and stress
Lowered heart rate to relieve tension
Revitalize a tired mind and body
Preparation for deeper meditation
Alternate Nostril Breathing – a beginners guide.
-Find a comfortable seat.
-Creating a long spine, take the shoulders back and down. Rest your left palm on your left knee, bring your right index to your right nostril, press down to close the right nostril.
-Take 3 deep breaths just through the right nostril. If if feels comfortable add a count, inhale for the count of 4, exhale for 8.
-Now change sides by resting your right hand down, bring your left index to your left nostril, press down to close the left nostril.
-Take 3 deep breaths just through the left nostril. If if feels comfortable add a count, inhale for the count of 4, exhale for 8.
The above is one round.
Repeat this pattern twice more to make three rounds in total and ease back into normal breathing.
Did you know that up to 80 per cent of your brains activity while you are awake is focused on keeping you upright and balanced? The brain gets this information from the eyes, the inner ear and the joints; this sensory feedback is used to help form an ‘executive decision’ on what needs to be done in order to remain stable. This active process is happening when you are sitting, lying, standing, walking or even dancing. So far so good, let’s take a little test now – from standing, see if you can balance on one foot for 30 seconds without wavering.
If you managed that – congratulations! If it was not so easy you’re in good company. Take a look at your “balance-based age” below, you’ll see that balance starts declining from middle age.
4 seconds: 70 years
5 seconds: 65 years
7 seconds: 60 years
8 seconds: 55 years
9 seconds: 50 years
12 seconds: 45 years
16 seconds: 40 years
22 seconds: 30 – 35 years
28 seconds: 25 – 30 years
Challenging our balance with small simple practices like standing on one leg for 30 seconds can help to improve the neural pathways leading to better balance over time. I’ll be showing you a number of easy yoga practices that you can do to look after and improve your balance over the coming months.
Start with this one-leg balance and if you want to challenge your brain a little more – half close your eyes or close your eyes.
Do you ever feel stiff when standing up from seated? Do normally easy actions now produce aches and pains? Tightness and stiffness aren’t just due to ageing that’s only part of the story. Compression, dehydration and inactivity can trigger whats know as adhesion. For instance when fibrous connective tissue becomes dehydrated, the fascial layers that are supposed to glide smoothly start to stick and drag. What this means for your muscles is that the muscles strands get stuck together and hey presto – you feel tight.
A daily walk doesn’t demand that these muscle groups separate very much – that’s why a gentle daily yoga practice is so beneficial. Long periods of sitting day after day with only minimal walking breaks for exercise will lead to the fascial layers getting stuck together. When you finally experiment with a forward bend or hamstring stretch, the muscles feel tight and not very responsive to stretch.
While being able to do the splits is not especially useful, being able to reach down to tie your shoelaces certainly is. So what can we do? Firstly, make sure you drink 8 glasses (8 ounce) of water a day. When your body doesn’t get enough water through the day it starts to draw on other sources like the skin and internal organs.
Secondly, try to incorporate gentle stretching into your day everyday and get those muscle strands moving. You can join me on You Tube or find a local class. The University of Arizona has proven that a low intensity stretch held for at least 3 minutes but often as long as 5 minutes, causes a release of cellular messengers that improve the body’s flexibility.
Here’s an example of a yoga posture that’s low intensity, very good for the spine, chest and shoulders above:
Did you know that up to 80 per cent of your brains activity while you are awake is focused on keeping you upright and balanced? The brain gets this information from the eyes, the inner ear and the joints; this sensory feedback is used to help form an ‘executive decision’ on what needs to be done in order to remain stable. This active process is happening when you are sitting, lying, standing, walking or even dancing. So far so good, let’s take a little test now – from standing, see if you can balance on one foot for 30 seconds without wavering.
If you managed that – congratulations! If it was not so easy you’re in good company. Take a look at your ‘Balance-Based Age’ below, you’ll see that balance starts declining from middle age.
What’s Your Actual Balance-Based Age?
Balance Time Actual Balance-Based Age
4 seconds 70 years
5 seconds 65 years
7 seconds 60 years
8 seconds 55 years
9 seconds 50 years
12 seconds 45 years
16 seconds 40 years
22 seconds 30 -35 years
28 seconds 25 – 30 years
Challenging our balance with small simple practices like standing on one leg for 30 seconds can help to improve the neural pathways leading to better balance over time. I’ll be showing you a number of easy yoga practices that you can do to look after and improve your balance over the coming months. Start with this one-leg balance and if you want to challenge your brain a little more – half close your eyes or close your eyes.
Bad tempered, unapproachable and grumpy? Do you grumble incessantly about everything from other people’s driving to television programmes? Other times you can be almost normal, amusing even. In my experience, there maybe two different answers to these questions – possibly ‘no’ from you, and ‘yes’ from your partner? I’ve taught a class called Grumpy’s Yoga for Men for a number of years and men usually end up in my class because their wives have made them go (no surprises there).
Although there are many factors that contribute to men becoming grumpy the main culprit is falling levels of testosterone combined with high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Just like women during menopause, men are also experiencing shifting hormone levels but it is especially low testosterone that can significantly affect mood.Grumpy men tend bottle things up and from a health care perspective middle aged to older males tend to avoid the doctor’s office as much as possible, closely followed by a grouchy avoidance of all things yoga.
Yoga is certainly worth exploring for the many positive benefits it can deliver to men of a certain age. It’s a low-impact practice that strengthens core muscles, offers better balance and relieves stress. There is evidence that yoga improves prostate health and can raise testosterone levels by as much as 33 percent with regular practice. It’s not just the individual guy who will reap the benefits from a regular yoga practice but family, friends and colleagues too as they see a sunny smile returning.
Grumpy doesn’t have to be for life – see your doctor and get your testosterone levels checked, find a beginners yoga class or join me on You Tube and commit to a regular weekly yoga practice.
What’s the difference between mobility and flexibility? Take the test.
There are many ways in which we can begin to notice our mobility and flexibility changing in everyday life. You may be able to bike or run on a treadmill but how about bending forward to tie your shoe laces or reach a pair of glasses lying under the bed or table?
The term flexibility refers to the ability of your soft tissue (your muscles) to stretch. Mobility, on the other hand, refers to the many elements that contribute to movement with full range of motion. Therefore, exercises or movements that stretch muscles increasing flexibility and improving range of movement are particularly important for quality of life. Strength, flexibility and balance are the key elements to prioritise when considering which sort of exercise you will choose.
The Sit-Rise Test (SRT), a deceptively simple measure of flexibility and strength, is widely used in the medical community to test the whole body and to predict future health.
Let’s do the Sit-Rise test: sit down on the floor, no pillows or cushions. Now stand up, notice how you got up – if you simply stood up without losing balance and without using any limbs for support, give yourself a score of 5 points. If you had to use a hand or a knee to get up, take off one point.Both hands and both knees: subtract two points.
It maybe that bad knees and stiff joints affect your ability to do this – good news, this test can also be applied to sit and rise from a chair. From a seated position, arms crossed in front of the body, feet flat on the floor, how many times can you rise and sit in 30 seconds? (The average results for men and women are at the bottom of the page).
Try it a couple of times, what’s your score?
Got a low score? Sitting down on the floor and getting back up again, sitting and rising from a chair – do it 5 to 10 times a day that becomes a work-out, you’re improving your fitness. This is where Chair Yoga comes in because it’s the best way to start to improve joint and muscle flexibility, a wide variety of movements for the whole body. Applied yoga exercises have also been shown to increase spinal mobility and flexibility of the hamstrings regardless of age.
An improved SRT score could reflect an individuals capacity to successfully perform a wide range of activities, moreover a high SRT score indicates a reduced risk of falls going forward.
Take on a 30 day challenge of improving your SRT score by practising everyday.
