By Meghan Streit
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

If you’re looking for a workout that not only builds strength and flexibility, but can also reduce stress and anxiety, boost your immunity, lower your blood pressure, help you sleep more soundly, relieve back pain, aid with digestion, and possibly even improve your self-image and outlook on life, then you should consider adding yoga to your fitness routine.

Frank Iszak is the founder of Silver Age Yoga, an outreach program in San Diego that provides free yoga classes to hundreds of older adults. Iszak has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than 15 years. His organizations track the health improvements people experience after committing to a yoga fitness program, and he says the results are “remarkable.”

“Yoga has been known, now for centuries, for increasing health benefits. And now that it’s getting to mainstream, there are endless benefits for posture,  flexibility, strength, balance, blood pressure and all of the things you need for your health as you get older,” Iszak says.

A workout for all ages
At first glance, some yoga poses may seem like they require super-human flexibility, so many people who are new to yoga—especially older adults— think they might not be able to try it. But yoga instructor Ann Funck, who teaches a class on Tuesday mornings at Monarch landing, says that’s not true. Funck has been teaching yoga for a decade, and she says people can regain much of the flexibility they had during their youth if they do it “slowly,  methodically, and with body awareness.”