Relax into Yoga for Seniors: A Six-Week Program for Strength, Balance, Flexibility, and Pain Relief - Softcover

Carson MPH E-RYT, Kimberly; Krucoff, Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626253641 ISBN 13: 9781626253643

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, 2016

Synopsis

Relax into Yoga for Seniors presents twelve principles of yoga practice for seniors, including those with limited mobility. This evidence-based workbook will guide you safely—step-by-step, and with posture illustrations—on a six-week program for improved balance, flexibility, and overall well-being.

Managing the emotional and physical challenges that come with aging can be difficult. Seniors face a number of age-related issues, such as chronic pain, hypertension, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and anxiety and depression. And while some people may consider yoga a young person’s practice, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests yoga can be beneficial for a wide variety of age-related ailments.

Relax Into Yoga for Seniors—based on the innovative Yoga for Seniors program, and including new material for fans of the Relax Into Yoga for Seniors DVD—provides a step-by-step guide that combines the best of modern, evidence-based medicine with the ancient wisdom, experience, and tradition of yogic teachings. With this book, you’ll explore what yoga is and how to do it safely, including important movement considerations like how to get up and down from the floor with care, and how to stand and sit with healthy postural alignment.

With this popular program, you’ll be able to create a safe and effective individualized practice that will address your needs, take personal limitations into consideration, and help you relieve pain, become more flexible and active, and connect more deeply with your inner experience.

Relax into Yoga for Seniors includes free downloadable guided audio practices and printable PDFs. Instructions for downloading these extra features can be found on page 229 of the book.
 

About this title

About the Author:

Kimberly Carson, MPH, E-RYT, is a health educator at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), in Portland, Oregon, specializing in the therapeutic use of yoga and mindfulness meditation for seniors and people with medical challenges. She currently offers classes to cardiac, oncology, and chronic pain patients. Kimberly has developed and taught yoga programs being researched at Duke University Medical Center and OHSU. The Yoga of Awareness program, developed by Kimberly and her husband Jim, has been shown in research trials to significantly reduce pain and fatigue in women with metastatic breast cancer, breast cancer survivors, as well as women with fibromyalgia. For more information, please visit her website: www.mindfulyogaworks.com.

Carol Krucoff, E-RYT, is a yoga therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, where she offers individual sessions, workshops, and group classes for people with health challenges. An award-winning health journalist, Carol served as founding editor of The Washington Post’s Health Section and her articles have appeared in numerous national publications including The New York Times, Yoga Journal, and Reader’s Digest. She is author of several books including “Yoga Sparks: 108 Easy Practices for Stress Relief in a Minute or Less” and “Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain,” and is creator of the audio home practice CD, Healing Moves Yoga. For more information, please visit her website: www.healingmoves.com.

Kimberly & Carol are co-directors of Yoga for Seniors, a network of yoga teachers dedicated to making yoga practices appropriate and available for older adults. They are co-directors of the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors Teacher Trainings and co-creators of the DVD, “Relax into Yoga for Seniors.” For more information, please visit their website: www.yoga4seniors.com.

Foreword writer Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD, is professor of medicine/cardiology at Duke University Medical Center and Director of the Cardiovascular Devices Unit at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.  He is internationally recognized for his pioneering research in computer-assisted heart monitoring, new modalities of coronary revascularization, and cardiovascular applications of spiritual and complementary therapies.  Author of more than 250 publications in the cardiology literature and book chapters in medical texts, Mitchell is Senior Editor of the Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine.   He has served on the Board of Directors of the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Puttaparthi, India, since its construction in 1990, and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Society of Coronary Angiography and Intervention.  Mitchell is a special government employee of the United States Food and Drug Administration, from whom he received a Distinguished Award for his tenure on the Circulatory Devices Advisory Panel. He has been married to Carol Krucoff since 1974 and they have two adult children.

Afterword writer Jim Carson, PhD, is a long time student of Swami Muktananda and former yogic monk who has taught the practices and philosophy of yoga worldwide for over 30 years. Now a clinical health psychologist and associate professor of anesthesiology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Jim is applying his expertise to the development and evaluation of yoga and meditation-based clinical treatments. He has worked extensively with patients suffering from persistent pain, including those with cancer, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis. While Jim was on faculty at Duke, he and Kimberly developed the Yoga of Awareness program and completed research trials with metastatic breast cancer patients and with survivors of early stage breast cancer. During his tenure at OHSU, a successful research trial has been completed using Yoga of Awareness for fibromyalgia. Jim and Kimberly together developed the first mindfulness program for couples as well as the first loving-kindness meditation program for medical patients.

Review:

“As advances in medicine help us to live longer, we now face the challenge of how to maintain our vitality, often while also dealing with various chronic conditions. Increasingly, yoga is being recognized as a way to improve and maintain one’s mental and physical health when practiced in a safe and appropriate way. In Relax into Yoga for Seniors, Kimberly Carson and Carol Krucoff provide the program all seniors need to integrate yoga into their lives and improve their health and well-being.”
—Adam Perlman, MD, executive director at Duke Integrative Medicine, and associate vice president at Duke Health and Wellness


“Kimberly Carson and Carol Krucoff are two of the most trusted, and trustworthy, voices in the field of therapeutic yoga. Relax into Yoga for Seniors is a perfect introductory guide not just to yoga, but to a philosophy of embracing the changes that come with age. This book and the practices described will help you find the strength, energy, and ease to engage with life fully.”
—Kelly McGonigal, PhD, health psychologist at Stanford University, and author of Yoga for Pain Relief

“Relax into Yoga for Seniors is a well-researched and thoughtful book that leverages the authors’ many years of practice experience as well as their work and close ties with the world of integrative medicine. It provides older adults with a practical, effective compendium of yoga practices that they can readily adopt. Whether they are well or experiencing distressing chronic conditions, Relax into Yoga for Seniors’ practices can enhance their quality of life.”
—John W. Graham, PhD, senior investigator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health


“Relax into Yoga for Seniors brings together Kimberly Carson and Carol Krucoff’s experience in teaching their Integrative Yoga for Seniors Professional Training at Duke Integrative Medicine. It describes a step-by-step approach to yoga for healthy aging and how to relax into yoga. This is a masterpiece book, which should be an essential resource for seniors, health care professionals, and yoga practitioners, who will find themselves coming back to the text time and time again for deeper study and practice.
—Dilip Sarkar, MD, FACS, CAP, associate professor of surgery (retired) at Eastern Virginia Medical School; fellow at the American Association of Integrative Medicine (AAIM) and American College of Surgeons (ACS); president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT); and chairman of board at Life in Yoga Institute


“Carson and Krucoff have skillfully taken the complex, confusing world of yoga and made it practical for anyone, not just seniors. The ‘magic’ is that in simplifying from their many years of practice with seniors, they have solved how to make yoga safe and effective for the full spectrum of abilities in this diverse population. Relax into Yoga for Seniors needs to be embossed onto every prescription pad printed!”
—Matthew J. Taylor, PT, PhD, yoga safety expert and past president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists www.smartsafeyoga.com

“In this inspiring and accessible book, Kimberly Carson and Carol Krucoff offer you peaceful ways to prioritize your positivity and wellness. Relax and enjoy!”
—Barbara L. Fredrickson, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of Positivity and Love 2.0


“Yoga, as a mind-body practice or a way of life, is transformative and leads to improved health, wellness, and connection to self and others. A daily yoga practice is especially important to foster healthy aging. Relax into Yoga for Seniors is a wonderful guide to help people start practicing yoga at any age.”
—Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, professor and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and coeditor of Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care


"In this insightful, evidence-based guide, authors Kimberly Carson and Carol Krucoff share their fundamentals for working safely and effectively with older adults as part of their mission to advance the art and science of adapting the yoga practice to senior bodies, minds, and spirits. Whether you’re a senior who is seeking improved health and fitness through yoga, or a seasoned yoga instructor, you’ll find the information in Relax Into Yoga for Seniors an invaluable asset for your practice. ... This book offers a wealth of knowledge for yoga enthusiasts and fitness professionals alike. I highly recommend Relax Into Yoga for Seniors to anyone interested in improving their yoga practice and looking for healthy approaches to integrative wellness as they age."
—Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, FACSM, chief science officer at The American Council on Exercise

About this edition

• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1626253641
• ISBN 13: 9781626253643
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272