Senior yoga class gets a little rowdy

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There’s a buzz in the air before class as yoga therapist Stacey Reynolds tries to calm her students, but the chatty back rows are behaving like a teacher’s nightmare.

The mischievous group rolls around laughing, joking and gossiping. Their leader, Suzie, is a foul-mouthed troll who hurls the f-word whenever they practice a difficult pose and insists that ZZ Top be on the playlist.

Susie is 86 years old.

It’s a typical weekday morning for Reynolds at Blue Yoga Nila in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and his class is packed with several dozen students, with few exceptions ranging in age from 60 to 90.

“They’re as wild as a bunch of kindergarteners,” says Reynolds, who began serving seniors at a nearby church in 2001. Her free classes were for all ages, but retirees were a big part of the mix. The first person to sign up was Juanita, then 87 years old. She had scoliosis and was petite, standing just 4 feet 10 inches tall. She was also popular among her friends and a talkative joker. Suddenly, the classes were filled with seniors, and Reynolds had to offer extra classes.

Reynolds continued teaching free classes to faithful church members for nine years, and in 2010 she opened Blue Yoga Nila, followed by Juanita and others.

“My students love coming to class and being together,” Reynolds says. Many of her students plan their day around her 10 a.m. class each week. Regulars come early to chat and help set up the classroom, preparing chairs, mats, props and other things they need for class. They collaborate and are responsible, she explains. By the time Reynolds arrives to start class, her students are excited and ready to go.

For those who can’t make it to the studio, Reynolds goes to them. A few times a week, she teaches at off-site nursing and rehabilitation centers and independent and memory care centers. She also works in senior care facilities and has developed Yoga Blueprint for Aging and Living, a program that can train other yoga instructors who work with older adults. The program is certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

These off-site chair classes put Reynolds in contact with seniors at all levels of decline: some in dementia care, stroke survivors with severe cognitive impairments, and others rehabilitating after hip, knee or shoulder surgery, but they still don’t miss class.

Nine out of 10 students are in wheelchairs — “We had a 104-year-old woman who came to yoga every week in her wheelchair until she passed away,” says Reynolds — and most of the rest use walkers. Some fall asleep in and out of class. Some are completely non-verbal.

Some of Reynolds’ students are deaf and would watch her and join in. One nearly blind 101-year-old student sat in the front row across from Reynolds. He would always hug her after class and say, “I love you so much.”Namaste.”

Benefits of Yoga for the Elderly

Reynolds says that older adults tend to see big health benefits from practicing yoga: She’s observed some of her yoga students no longer need walkers, and she’s secondhand heard doctors say, “Keep doing whatever you’re doing.” The change is so dramatic.

Research supports the profound benefits of practicing yoga for older adults, including improved balance and motor skills, as well as slowing cognitive decline.

“People seriously underestimate their own physical capabilities,” says Reynolds, explaining that many seniors surprise themselves with how well they do. The weekday morning classes, which attract mostly retirees, have people sit in chairs, do poses on mats, or do a combination of both, but there are also chair-only classes.

Mat classes are gentler practices, with longer holds in poses and props like bolsters and straps; chair classes are more challenging, with seated positions like downward dog and plank. Reynolds says her classes work on strength, stability, agility, flexibility and blood flow, but she prioritises poses that strengthen the core, because a strong core also affects stability, balance and back health, all of which can become an issue as we age.

Yoga also trains cognitive skills. The process of mastering a range of movements and developing new neural pathways is psychologically beneficial. One student with Alzheimer’s disease attends classes every day. Although she sometimes has to back out to the parking lot and turn off her parked car, her friends say her memory has improved since she started doing yoga.

Emotionally, seniors also benefit immensely from yoga. Because yoga is a discipline for the body, mind and soul, she typically starts her classes quietly, asking students to breathe or pray over the area where their nagging “worry points” are.

Regular class attendance also quickly creates a community where you can build valuable relationships. That camaraderie wards off loneliness and anxiety, and helps ease the sense of loss that’s so common at this stage in life. Reynolds explains that people in this age group are deeply stressed by losing a spouse or facing a difficult diagnosis. “They’re filling each other’s voids,” she says.

Suzie, the queen of the back row, gets her fellow yoga friends to drive her to and from work, and to cocktail parties with her. In fact, everyone in the back row is so close, they stay in text threads and decide what colors to wear to class.

The seniors seem so keen to spend time together that Reynolds has instituted an after-class coffee session, which she calls the “party after party.” Students mingle, exchanging news, gossip and phone numbers while feeling a necessary sense of connection and belonging. Reynolds provides the space and the guidance, but understands there’s more going on. This is yoga in its most complete form.

Making yoga affordable and sustainable

In her mission to make yoga accessible to everyone at her studio, Reynolds offered weekday morning classes on a pay-what-you-want basis to her senior students, many of whom are on fixed incomes and used to getting yoga for free. She knew she would lose the dedicated students who benefited from her classes if she didn’t get creative. The only rule: Donate something. She explains this requirement on her website: She’ll find coins or $100 bills. Other classes require the purchase of a single item or class package.

Reynolds recalls her family laughing and telling her that this strategy wouldn’t work. She acknowledges that offering a third of her classes for free is an unusual approach to running a business, and is quick to praise the more traditional model of running a yoga studio. “We’re all just doing what we have to do,” she says.

Reynolds has three full-time employees and 12 contract instructors who support her operations with off-site teaching and yoga teaching training three times a week. She also runs a private yoga therapy clinic, working with traditional therapists and health professionals to support people struggling with trauma, grief and addiction.

The studio also holds fundraisers from time to time. In the past, the studio created a senior yoga calendar to raise funds. A professional photographer filmed the classes doing yoga poses. The seniors were delighted and the response from the community was amazing.

Hosting free classes at the church helped her gain the exact fanbase she needed to later launch a successful studio: her church-aged students regularly attend classes at the studio, wear Blue Yoga Nila T-shirts around town, and act as walking billboards for the studio.

Reynolds says teaching free classes at churches has had a lasting effect on older people and has made her longtime friends, and she says the 75-year-old students are the ones who have the time and understand the benefits of yoga. One 87-year-old student has studied with her for 23 years and recently graduated from a rigorous teacher training course.

Why is teaching older people appealing to Reynolds?

To understand Reynolds’ motivation for offering yoga to seniors, it is essential to understand her background. Born as the only child of teenage parents, Reynolds had a turbulent childhood supported by her grandparents. As a child, Reynolds suffered from anxiety and depression. As a teenager, Reynolds had to undergo repeated surgeries and was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. At one point, she lived a life of near immobility, recovering from one surgery only to face the next. She found herself in a dark place.

What happened next was a kind of spiritual experience, Reynolds explains: She heard whispers to try yoga, but knew nothing about it at the time. The first six months on the mat were hard, but she kept going. Eventually, she had more good days than bad.

“Yoga has made me stronger from the inside and helped me heal from anxiety and depression,” says Reynolds. After a year and a half of practicing yoga, Reynolds began private training with an Iyengar yoga instructor.

Her yoga practice became her go-to tool as she endured serious health crises, including a traumatic brain injury and cancer. “Every health challenge was an uphill battle,” says Reynons, who credits yoga with helping her bounce back.

It’s no wonder she understands the suffering of others and wants them to experience the life-changing benefits of yoga: “I’m held together by duct tape and glue, just like everyone else,” she says.

After 23 years of teaching yoga to seniors, Reynolds has a different impression of the advanced yoga practitioner: She sees a 90-year-old student in a hospice doing breathwork exercises while looking her in the eye. “They’re the forgotten demographic,” she reflects.

Despite all she shares, Reynolds insists she gets even more out of teaching, as she explains: “The mark these people have left on me. It’s indescribable.”

For more information on Stacey Reynolds’ YogaBLUEprint for Senior Age and Living course,, Please email us at blueyoganyla@gmail.com.