Original Question: Is 79 too old for yoga?
My Comment:
No. But because you are asking the question, you’d need to be more cautious. At that age, the body has a lot of “mileage”. Even though you are familiar with your overall health history, in addition, you’d benefit from medical clearance beforehand.
Starting at this age leads me to conclude that your motivation or desire to practice is in reference to the commercial and general western approach to the discipline, and nothing esoteric.
It is important in yoga to develop the capacity to tune to your body, internally in order to apply the effort when and where you need it as an individual. That understanding is normally not present in the agenda of group studio yoga lessons. In such settings, the M.O. is invariably to mimic how nicely everyone else is doing and looking beautiful in their pauses. So the focus is external.
With an internal focus, you’d be able to derive benefits that are adequate to for personally, and that are applicable to your beginner’s level as well as advanced age. But that is not easily accessed.
A good instructor will have you use props that can assist you along the session. One thing that comes to mind is Bikram Yoga because they use a heated environment. An older body could use the added heat to warm up, and warm muscles are less resistant, they yield more easily to movement and will be less prone to injury.
Additionally, you could do Tai-Chi, here also the focus is internal movement and tracing of energy, as you the bodily works. Although these two are related at very advanced levels, by definition the latter is smoother, slower and easily adopted at an advanced age. It is overwhelmingly more practiced by older people, than yoga or other martial arts.
Keep up the good work!
And, be Well!
Coach Salif 🙂
XYZ Life Coach 