Nicola Jane Hobbs - Stay Young With Yoga: Use the Power of Yoga to Stay Youthful, Fit and Pain-free at Any Age

For my Mum, thank you for showing me how to grow older with grace, joy and beauty, and for my Dad, who never got the chance to. And for you, my readers. May you let ageing awaken you. May you fill each day with more fun, more passion and more meaning. May you give life everything youve got.

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First published in Great Britain 2020

Text copyright Nicola Jane Hobbs, 2020

Original photography Glen Burrows, 2020

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Additional photography is used by kind permission of the contributors Illustrations by Matt Windsor

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Everyone should have the opportunity to live a long, healthy and happy life. And you have a lot more power than you might think in how you feel as you grow older. From your skin and bones to your strength, dignity and independence, the healthy lifestyle behaviours you practise now have a huge influence on how well you age.

I was inspired to write this book after losing my Dad to cancer a few years ago. He was only 67. He died far too soon and he suffered far too much. We all deserve to enjoy long, happy lives full of vitality, meaning and joy, so I wanted to create a book, rooted in the latest scientific research, to encourage people to live healthier, more active lives and give them simple steps to do so.

My interest in longevity grew out of my love for health and wellness. For more than 10 years, I have been helping people breathe, move and feel better so they can enjoy the full breadth and depth of life. My academic training began in psychology, and after discovering the huge benefits yoga, weightlifting and living an active life brought to my own physical and mental health, I decided to study the impact of exercise on well-being and completed a Masters degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology. Around the same time, I qualified as a yoga teacher and began sharing the benefits of movement and meditation. I have now taught over 5,000 hours of yoga to all ages, genders and professions from retired CEOs and full-time parents to war veterans and Premiership footballers.

One of the beautiful things about being a yoga teacher is seeing peoples movement and mindset change as they practise. I have been teaching some of my clients for almost a decade and it is amazing to see them get healthier, stronger and more flexible, move more fluidly, recover from aches and pains, enjoy the way their bodies look and feel, become calmer and more emotionally resilient, and experience greater peace, purpose and meaning in their day-to-day lives.

Over the last couple of years, I have been researching global practices for health and longevity. From discussing the science of cellular ageing with experts to venturing to Sardinia (home to the oldest people in the world) to make pasta with 92-year-old Auntie Annarita and see for myself how the Sardinian people stay healthy and active for so long, I have learned several simple steps that you can take so you can enjoy growing older with health, grace and dignity.

In Stay Young with Yoga, I start by introducing you to the science of ageing and the reasons why yoga helps you age well through its influence on the bodys innate repair processes, memory, mobility, balance and other areas of physical and psychological health.

In the second part of the of the book, youll find more information on yoga what it is, the different types and answers to some FAQs.

Part three is all about how to make yoga work for you your body, your goals and your lifestyle. Youll discover ways in which you can help yourself to age well, including looking at your diet, sleep, stress management and other healthy lifestyle practices.

Part four contains over 70 yoga poses, movements, meditations and breathing exercises with variations and modifications so you can adapt each one to suit you.

And the final section of the book provides you with yoga sequences you can use to create a healthy, active life. These sequences are designed so you can easily incorporate them into your everyday activities. Theres a TV yoga sequence, a pre-gardening sequence and routines to use before and after active hobbies including golf, tennis, dancing and swimming so you can properly warm up and cool down your muscles. Youll also find lots of sequences designed to ease common aches and pains; yoga workouts to build core strength, increase flexibility and improve cardiovascular health and lots of other sequences to explore to help you sleep better, wake up happier, move more smoothly, get fitter and feel calmer.