Your life hasn’t stopped moving now that you’re over 60, and neither should you. But what if stiff, achy hips are preventing you from stooping to grandchild height, bending to tie your shoes, standing in long lines or comfortably navigating stairs?

Then it’s time to stretch your way back to flexibility with the fifth of Sixty and Me’s free eight-video series, Gentle Yoga for Seniors. Keep reading to learn more!

Why Motion Is Your Aging Hips’ Best Friend

If you’re reading this, the odds are good that you’re sitting. In fact, for most of us over 60, the odds favor spending more than six hours a day seated and another six to nine hours asleep or trying to be.

Working a desk job, driving, sitting down to food we didn’t grow or prepare or spending hours in front of our computers and televisions — 21^st century life is simply filled with reasons to park ourselves in sit mode.

Mother Nature, however, has designed our bodies for standing and moving. Unfortunately, the strong, flexible hips that allow us to do so have become a casualty of the sedentary lifestyle.

For too many of us senior women, decades of prolonged sitting have atrophied and shortened our hamstrings, flexors and other hip-moving muscles. And the less we move, the less we are able to move.

But once again, our favorite yoga instructor Cat Kabira is here to help us rediscover the freedom of movement that time and tension have stolen.

Yoga for Older Adults: Re-Establishing Your Connections

 Cat starts the 37-minute workout with a deep breathing technique that “…increases the oxygen and the circulation, nourishes the nervous system and helps the immune system.”

The deep breathing prepares you to tackle the workout’s four poses or their variations. Not surprisingly, each pose also calls on the core muscles that are really responsible for the work we too often delegate to our hips.

As Cat put in our introductory video workout for relaxing and soothing your joints, “… everything is connected in the body. So as you start to bring health to one area, the rest of the body also becomes healthier.”

With Gentle Yoga for Seniors, It’s All About the Attitude!

You may feel drum-tight today, but with practice you’ll rediscover your body’s inner connectedness and experience a surge in vitality. The secret is to pay attention to what’s happening within your hips as you’re working on them.

While it’s tempting to slip into defeatist self-talk because you can’t get through the poses without your pillow, strap or blocks, don’t give in. Just reach for whatever prop you need and give yourself a gold star for making the effort!

Instead of focusing on what they can’t do, thank your tendons, ligaments, muscle fibers and hip joints as they work together at getting healthy. They’ll hear what you’re telling them and respond accordingly.

And as they become stronger and more flexible, your balance will improve. If you’re among the millions of women over 60 who share the fear of fall-related injuries, you know that good balance is a goal worth fighting for!

How has life taken a toll on your hips? Have you found ways to sit less during the day, whether at work or at home?  If you’re hesitant about using our gentle yoga video to counteract the effects of too much sitting on your hips, what would it take to get you started? Let’s have a conversation!