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Seniors Yoga

How Seniors Yoga Can Change The Lives Of Aged Care Residents

Maintaining physical and mental wellbeing is so important in older age, and seniors yoga is one of the best ways for senior people to keep healthy and active. At Yogamigos, we believe that every retirement village, nursing home, and aged care facility should incorporate yoga for seniors into their lifestyle, health, and wellbeing programs. That’s why we have more than 350 mobile instructors that teach yoga classes for seniors, and we’ve seen the benefits first-hand.

The Benefits Of Yoga For Seniors

Senior yoga offers a range of physical, cognitive, and spiritual advantages for aged care residents.

Decrease stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression. Yoga reduces symptoms of anxiety and stress by lowering the heart rate and blood pressure and encourages deep breathing. Because yoga lowers blood pressure, it also lowers cholesterol, blood sugar, and triglycerides, which reduces hypertension. Yoga also combats the adverse effects of geriatric depression with the endorphins released through the combination of movement, breathing, and meditation.
Improves overall health and wellbeing. Seniors who practice regular yoga have reported feeling stronger, more flexible, cognitively sharper, and healthier and happier overall.
Encourages socialising. At Yogamigos, we understand the positive impact a healthy social life has on seniors in aged care facilities and retirement villages. We encourage group yoga for older adults to give everyone a chance to have a chat and a laugh while focusing on our minds and bodies.
Strengthens joints and muscles. The yoga poses encourage movement and circulation, and over time, these strengthening exercises can assist seniors with their balance which is particularly important with this age group. Yoga allows the body to release the tension it’s been holding, particularly in the upper back and shoulders. Suffers of chronic pain such as osteoarthritis can learn techniques to breathe through the pain and reduce the severity through regular light exercises.
Improves confidence. Seniors’ yoga has a huge impact on self-image, self-esteem, and confidence. The Yogamigos team loves empowering seniors by reminding them just how strong and agile they can be.

How To Prepare Aged Care Residents For Their First Seniors Yoga Class

One of the most important steps in senior yoga classes is preparing for the session. The Yogamigos team has some tips to make sure everyone is ready to make the most of their class.

Give residents plenty of notice. Make sure you let residents know when and where the yoga session will take place. You should ensure that everyone knows how intense or relaxed the class will be so they can decide whether or not they feel up to it.
Make sure everyone is wearing comfortable clothes. Even though a seniors yoga class won’t see people doing complex, intense asanas, aged care residents should still wear loose clothes they feel comfortable exercising in.
Provide seating. While some older adults will be comfortable using mats on the floor, we find that most elderly participants prefer to be seated in a chair throughout the class. Make sure you have seats ready for anyone who needs a break.
Reduce distractions. We find that running the yoga sessions generally takes place in the communal lounge room and recreational space. So it’s great if we can schedule your chair yoga sessions outside of mealtimes.
Provide water. Yoga is strenuous work, so make sure you have water readily available for residents to drink throughout the class.

How To Organise Yoga For Seniors

Yogamigos has over 350 mobile instructors all over Australia, so we’ll come to your aged care facility to run our seniors’ yoga classes.

Figure out how often you need us. For residents to get the maximum benefit from their senior yoga classes, we’d suggest holding them once or twice a week. The more sessions you book with Yogamigos, the cheaper the rates become!
Contact Yogamigos. We’ll provide an experienced, professional yoga instructor to run yoga for elderly beginners. Make sure to let us know how many people will be attending and how long you’d like the sessions to run. If we’re unable to come to the aged care facility, we can run the class via an online Zoom session.
Help us tailor our session. At Yogamigos, we believe yoga should be accessible to everyone, so we incorporate gentle movements and plenty of exercises residents can do from the comfort of their chairs. To provide the very best seniors yoga session, we ask that you let us know the physical abilities of the residents participating so we can tailor the lesson to meet their needs.
Set aside a space for the class. You’ll need to provide each resident with around 2sqm of space, so they have room to move without knocking their neighbour. We can run the session in a recreational space like the lounge room, dining room or garden.

How Much Does Yoga For Seniors Cost?

Gifting your residents with tailored yoga wellbeing sessions is priceless! However, if you’re interested in the numbers, costs may vary depending on how many residents attend the class, the duration of the sessions, and the number of sessions you wish to book. The more sessions you book, the cheaper the rate. Here is a rough pricing guide below based on up to 25 people per session:

INTRO SESSION – One 1-hour session: $229 plus GST

WELLBEING BUNDLE – Six 1-hour sessions: $199 plus GST per session

ZEN BUNDLE – Twelve 1-hour sessions: $189 plus GST per session

Depending on your location and teacher availability, travel fees may also apply.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

All aged care services with Yogamigos are now provided by Vivatree, your one-stop shop for wellbeing and lifestyle programs in aged care centres. Vivatree offers wellbeing programs including chair yoga, seated dance, tai chi, sing-along sessions, live entertainment, art programs, and gentle fitness classes to ensure your community receives the best care and support.

For over a decade, Vivatree has been dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for Australia’s elderly population through movement, connection, creativity, and meaningful engagement.

Our team of caring, friendly, and highly trained instructors has a wealth of experience working with seniors, including those with varying mobility and cognitive abilities. For more information about Vivatree’s services, please visit the Vivatree website.

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