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I started doing yoga a little more than 2 years ago when I found that my previous form
of exercise was not as readily available to me.
I started at a studio that provides hot yoga
and thought I was going to die at the first session,
and then after I got accustomed to it,
realized that this is a wonderful form of exercise.
It allows me to get flexibility, balance, muscle strengthening, meditation.
It has an aerobic component to it if you are doing a flow rapidly.
It's everything!
Typically at home I start off
with Downward-Facing Dog which allows me to stretch all of the muscles,
um, get my body centered.
Then I go into Sun Salutations,
that, again, allows stretching,
you begin to move the body a little more rapidly.
Then I do, uh, Spinal Twists
that again gets things flowing
and then onto Backbends,
Eagle,
Triangle,
so just about every muscle group gets used.
I think that yoga has a number of health benefits and we have research
at NIH and NIA
that supports the fact that there are benefits to
increasing one's flexibility,
increasing one's balance--that's very important in terms of helping to prevent
the, uh, risk of falls as one gets older.
There's benefit in terms of strengthening muscles, also important in falls protection.
I think it's one of the best forms of exercise that's available.
Some of the conveniences of doing exercise, and in particular yoga, at home are that
you can do it regardless of the time of the year and the outside temperature-
if the weather is too hot or too cold.
You can do it with videotapes, or to music,
or there are even television instruction classes on yoga.
You can do it with a group or you can do it all by yourself.
It's portable, when I travel, I do yoga.
I would say that yoga is a form of exercise
that one can likely do to the end of one's days.
It's low impact yet has multiple benefits, so I think that's something I'd want people to think about.
You need to exercise.
This is something you can continue doing regardless of your age.