Lifelong Yoga: Maximizing Your Balance, Flexibility, and Core Strength in Your 50s, 60s, and Beyond

Description

Yoga gives active people vital tools for healthy aging- strength, flexibility, balance, and focus. In this one-of-a-kind book, Sage Roundtree and Alexandra DeSiato clearly describe the what, why, and how of poses and routines that help keep people in any decade of life-but especially older people-fit and injury-free. Addressing the four biggest concerns of the older yoga student-balance, core strength, hip flexibility, and recovery-Lifelong Yoga is a unique and essential guide to the philosophy, poses, and routines that can help solve the challenges we encounter as we age. The authors offer poses and routines aimed toward specific goals, such as improving balance, maintaining strength and flexibility, or recovering properly between workouts. Each sequence is fully illustrated with photos and introduced with a brief overview of the benefits of the movements along with modifications and options suited to individual requirements. Lifelong Yoga also provides sequences that help support specific activities such as running, swimming, or golf-as well as yard work, travel, and caring for grandchildren. Straightforward schedules suggesting ways to incorporate yoga in daily routines illustrate how easy it is to receive yoga's benefits with minimal time commitment. Rountree and DeSiato also explain how meditation, mindfulness, breathing practices, and the physical practice of yoga can help with both mental flexibility and relaxation, and with staying focused and mentally acute. From the practical to the philosophical, at home or in class, Lifelong Yoga is a friendly, wise handbook for living in a changing body over the course of a long life.

SAGE ROUNTREE is a preeminent yoga authority for athletes, a yoga teacher trainer, and an endurance sports coach with certifications from USA Triathlon, USA Cycling, and the Road Runners' Club of America. She has written numerous books and articles for athletes, including The Athlete's Guide to Yoga and The Runner's Guide to Yoga, and is a regular contibutor to Yoga Journal and Runner's World. Her website is sagerountree.com. ALEXANDRA DESIATO is a seasoned teacher of yoga and an expert Pilates instructor who has taught several athletic teams at the University of North Carolina, including the football team, men's basketball team, and women's rowing team. She is a regular contributor to YOGANONYMOUS and Wanderlust. Her website is alexandradesiato.com.

"In this wise, compassionate, and skillfully written book, Sage Rountree and Alexandra DeSiato draw upon their decades-long experience as athletes and yoginis to offer guidance into how your practice will and should change as you age. With poetic insights from yogic philosophy, Lifelong Yoga is much more just than a posture book-it's a blueprint for healthy aging." -Carol Krucoff, C-IAYT, E-RYT, yoga therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine and coauthor of Relax into Yoga for Seniors "Sage and Alexandra have made an important contribution to the yoga literature with their splendid Lifelong Yoga. A strong, active asana practice, with mindful awareness of alignment and breath, is a powerful ally for enhancing longevity and maintaining balance, agility, suppleness, strength, and vital health." -Beryl Bender Birch, author of Power Yoga and Boomer Yoga and director/founder of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute and the Give Back Yoga Foundation "Sage Rountree and Alexandra DeSiato offer a friendly introduction to yoga. You will improve your flexibility and your balance. You will learn breathing and relaxation techniques. Practice Lifelong Yoga and feel better, whether you're playing golf or playing with the grandkids." -from the foreword by Roy Williams, University of North Carolina men's basketball coach "I've been an athlete for forty-two years. Since turning fifty, I feel my limiters are lack of ability to recover, joint stiffness, impaired range of movement, chronic repetitive injury, and fatigue. Yoga is the answer for me now more than ever! Sage's gentle but specific approach points me in the direction of improving all of these challenges. But most importantly, she has shown me how to relax, something highly competitive athletes have difficulty truly achieving." -Kristin Villopoto, 2016 USAT Athlete of the Year "Part Two of Lifelong Yoga, Solving Problems with Yoga, is especially helpful for me as I'm always looking for ways to proactively address the tweaks and twinges that come with intense training by improving balance, core strength, and stability, especially now that age fifty is just around the corner. In doing so I've been able to continue to swim, bike, and run at a high level, but also feel good in my daily life activities, especially the ones that require lifting, bending, and balance. Thanks to Sage and Alexandra for another great resource for athletes and nonathletes alike." -JoAnna Younts, founder of Kids Tri NC and two-time finisher of the Ironman World Championship "I've worked with Sage and Alexandra many years now and seen their work with other folks firsthand. They have a great way of applying their years of combined experience to help people bring out the best in themselves. You will not only be able to work harder, you will work smarter and more safely as well." -Donnie Barnes, Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race finisher