Want to be fit enough to have reason to use our best sex position finder well into your 70s? Then there’s one kind of workout you should be practicing today, tomorrow, and fifty years from now: Yoga.
Just ask Martha Stewart (yes, that Martha Stewart), who practiced her poses amid many fans in Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall in New York City this morning to kick off her American Made celebration honoring new business owners and artisans who’ve followed in her footsteps to make careers out of their passions. Stewart, who is 71 years old, says she hits the yoga mat as often as possible. After all, she says her stay-young secret is, “Exercise, exercise, exercise. And diet, diet, diet.”
Martha Stewart says "Om" with her long-time yoga instructor James Murphy of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York
As it happens, Stewart may be onto something with her yoga practice (which, for the record, is pretty damn near perfect). She typically gravitates toward Iyengar yoga, which emphasizes precision and alignment, as opposed to higher-intensity Vinyasa or power yoga, which could do wonders for women in their 30s and 40s, but may lead to injury once existing conditions such as weak muscles, brittle bones, or wrist, shoulder, or lower back issues set in as we age, says Kathryn Budig, Women’s Health yoga expert.
While your practice may—and should—evolve as you age, one thing’s for sure: the benefits of yoga are life-long. Here, three reasons to “om” your way to better health, starting now.
You’ll smile more
It’s no secret that doing any kind of exercise can elevate your mood, but a 2010 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that those who did three 60-minute yoga sessions a week for 12-weeks saw greater improvements in their mood and anxiety, compared to subjects who participated in a metabolically-matched walking program. The next time a rainy day or bad mood leaves you lacking motivation to tackle the great outdoors by foot, stay in. Pop in a yoga DVD and you might find that you feel better.
You’ll eat more healthy foods
In a 2009 Australian study published in the journal Qualitative Health Research, obese women who participated in a 12-week yoga program reported consuming less food, eating at a slower pace, and making all-around better food choices throughout the study. Because yoga emphasizes the mind-body connection, performing pose sequences can result in you consciously treating your body better even off the mat, perhaps helping you eat more mindfully. And that’s a good thing, considering that the average middle-aged women gains a little more than a pound a year, according to the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health survey of over 8,000 women between the ages of 45 and 55, published in Obesity in 2005. Jump on the yoga bandwagon to help keep the scale numbers stable over time. (Need a quick fix? Try one of these six one-day diet solutions.)
You’ll kick chronic pain to the curb
If schlepping your mat, calming your mind, and stretching your bod sound to you like a pain in the ass, listen up: A 2008 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that yoga can actually help to alleviate chronic pain—at least in the lower back. Compared to chronic lower back pain suffers who participated in a week-long physical exercise regimen, those who participated in a seven-day yoga-based lifestyle program (including poses, breathing exercises, meditation, some schooling on the philosophies of yoga—the whole shebang) more effectively reduced pain-related disabilities and improved spinal flexibility. Now, about those sex positions…
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The Best Yoga Exercises for Women
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