Yoga to Prevent Mobility Limitations in Older Adults

The 60-minute yoga sessions began with a brief breathing practice led by the instructor. The yoga instructor then led students through yoga poses at a gentle pace using chairs as props as needed. The pace of the class increased slowly over time as students became more familiar and more capable with the poses. Meditation and breathing was followed by chair poses (15-20 minutes), standing poses (10-15 minutes), floor poses (15 minutes), and lastly a supine resting pose (Savasana; 10 minutes). In the Silver Age Yoga method at that time, there were 73 available postures overall including: 35 Chair Postures, 18 Standing Postures, 20 Floor Postures, with a typical class covering 20-25 poses.

The health education comparison intervention consisted of once weekly, 90-minute health information workshops conducted in group format. The 90-minute sessions generally consisted of a 60-minute lecture followed by 30 minutes of questions and discussion. The lecture titles for Weeks 1-10 were as follows: Introduction/ Exploring Communication, The Science of Successful Aging, Acupuncture 101: How it Works \& What it is Good for, Quality of Life/Quality of Well Being, Fighting Cancer With Your Fork, Forgiveness via Shakespeare's: A Winter's Tale, Better Eyesight in Minutes a Day, Brain Fitness, The Importance of Organic Foods/ Organic Gardening, How Dementia Can Be Modified. Lectures were provided by a mix of credentialed experts (physicians/psychologists, etc) and other clinicians. Instructors were asked not to talk about yoga or medication in their lectures. Content was not otherwise closely monitored.