There is a beautiful quote about aging by American writer/activist, Betty Friedan that said, “Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” It’s very meaningful and can be inspiring for the elderly to live a fulfilling life with good health. An excellent way to achieve that is by having the best online yoga classes for seniors, which are chair yoga or gentle yoga online classes.

Although there is naturally a decline in the body as we age, it doesn’t have to be a weary, weakening experience. Through chair yoga dance or gentle yoga for seniors, seniors can achieve better physical, mental, and spiritual health, which, overall, can have a positive impact on their lives.

Why Is Chair Yoga Dance Good for Seniors?

Exercising and maintaining good health is generally a must for all ages, but it’s especially important for the elderly for them to age gracefully with a good quality of life. For this reason, along with the aging of our population, there is a growing demand for elderly fitness and health solutions.

Chair Yoga Dance is great for seniors, as it’s a type of exercise that is easy on them. It makes use of a chair for support and involves steps that are easy to do and safe. This is especially convenient for those who have impaired mobility; need support for exercising; are in recovery after surgery; use a wheelchair; endured a bad injury; and are suffering from flexibility-reducing tension and pain, stiffness, and a tight back.

Chair yoga dance benefits seniors not only in physical aspects such as strengthening the muscles and bones; loosening stiff joints; reducing physical pain; and improving posture, flexibility, agility, balance, coordination, blood circulation, and heart health. It also boosts memory, concentration, and mental and emotional well-being as well as gives a chance for seniors to socialize.

In addition, it’s not just an ordinary exercise involving monotonous steps that may tend to be boring. The fun choreography along with the lively music make it enjoyable to do.

Chair yoga dance is, in fact, growing in popularity in areas such as yoga classes, physical therapy, nursing, eldercare services, and senior living communities. It is being added to their fitness and recreational programs.

Why Is Gentle Yoga Good for Seniors?

Gentle yoga, also known as yoga for beginners, is popular for its versatility, which allows it to cater to different demographics. It’s another great exercise option for seniors, as it can be a gentle way to promote fitness for them.

In gentle yoga, there are many options and variations on how it can be done, which makes it suitable for varying ages, mobility capabilities, health conditions, and skill sets. So it can be modified to cater to the fitness needs and safety of seniors. Even those with impaired mobility, physical limitations, chronic health conditions, and recovering injuries can do it.

In addition, its many health benefits are of great significance to seniors, given the decline in their bodies. It can strengthen the muscles and bones, loosen stiff joints, lessen physical pain, as well as improve endurance, mobility, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Apart from its many physical health benefits, it also improves memory, concentration, and mental and emotional well-being.

Yoga Vista Academy Online Yoga Teacher Training Explained: How Does Online Yoga Teacher Training Work?

Yoga Vista Academy is one of seasoned wellness entrepreneur and certified yoga therapist, Sherry Zak Morris’ successful yoga businesses, which started in 2012 as a studio in Vista, California, and co-founded with fellow certified yoga therapist, Justine Shelton. It was established with the aim of producing qualified and certified yoga teachers to be able to help more elderly and mobility-challenged persons in local areas.

Eventually, Sherry left the brick and mortar Yoga Vista studio (now named, Yoga Branch Vista Village) in the hands Lisette Hart and focused on providing yoga teacher training videos and certification programs for the best online yoga classes for seniors to gain more reach. Now, Yoga Vista Academy has thousands of yoga class videos in its subscription-based video library, YogaVista.TV and YouTube channel, Yoga Vista, which has 117k subscribers to date and have helped produce yoga training graduates all over the world.

So how does one undergo online yoga teacher training at Yoga Vista Academy and become a certified yoga teacher? It’s an in-depth process that involves watching yoga teaching videos and using insightful yoga learning materials to become a proficient yoga teacher. But it’s no pressure and not overwhelming to do since it’s a self-paced self-study.

Chair Yoga Dance Online Teacher Training

Upon enrolling for the chair yoga dance online teacher training at Yoga Vista Academy, you’ll be given a downloadable manual that will provide everything you need to become a chair yoga dance teacher in full detail with illustrations and videos for complete understanding. It’s got you covered starting from the basics of teaching chair yoga dance as an introduction; to comprehensive guides for doing chair yoga dance and creating your own choreography for chair yoga dance, lesson videos, and filmed yoga classes; even down to marketing, with a module teaching how to market your chair yoga dance service. Plus, you can also enjoy a one-year free subscription to YogaVista.TV, which provides dance videos and tutorials.

In the chair yoga dance online teacher training, you’ll be able to learn how to teach safe, effective chair yoga dances that will be fun for your students with any dance style or music genre while also learning chair yoga dance’s physical, mental, and emotional benefits. Filming and video editing will also be taught, which will be helpful if you want to provide classes online. Upon the completion of the training, you’ll have the confidence to teach chair yoga dances and also be equipped with a methodology to choreograph new dances of your own.

Optional After Chair Yoga Dance Online Teacher Training Completion: Certification and Credential Module

Upon completion of the chair yoga dance online teacher training program, there is an additional optional module called the certification and credential module, for those who wish to have an additional credential certificate for a bolstered confirmation of their competence. This module involves a teachback class and the completion of a final assignment.

The teachback class evaluates whether a course graduate applied most of the program’s methodologies in learning and teaching. Here, they have to demonstrate their learnings from training through two dances, particularly one of Sherry’s dances from her online training program or YouTube channel and a dance they choreographed, themselves, applying the moves from the course and even adding their own moves, if they wish. In the final assignment, they have to provide the details of their choreographed dance such as song title and artist, why they chose that song, lyrics sheet, lyric and structure movement document, dance movement format, and dance demographic.

Gentle Yoga Online Teacher Training

To thoroughly educate and fully equip trainees in the gentle yoga specialty, Yoga Vista Academy’s gentle yoga online teacher training provides a downloadable training manual that’s fully detailed and includes illustrations and videos. The training manual would familiarize you with health conditions, issues, and injuries as well as how to properly deal with them as a gentle yoga teacher; enlighten you with the essential learning, movement, and teaching philosophies for gentle yoga training and instruction; guide you with the dos and don’ts in gentle yoga movements for effective and safe exercising; and teach you several yoga poses and yoga pose vignettes. In addition, you’ll also be given access to lesson videos, live yoga classes, worksheets, and guides.

Through this training, you’ll become knowledgeable of how to safely and effectively provide gentle yoga classes that will help the students improve their physical conditions. This includes therapeutic precautions and modifications to be done for students with health conditions, issues, and injuries. With the knowledge you gain, you’ll also be able to develop gentle yoga sequences that can cater to your students’ needs.

Help Rejuvenate Seniors’ Lives With Chair Yoga Dance and/or Gentle Yoga

Seniors can age more gracefully with better fitness and physical, mental, and emotional health with the help of gentle exercises that are doable for them, which the chair yoga dance and gentle yoga offer, making them the best online yoga classes for seniors. If you wish to help seniors live healthier, fulfilling lives by teaching them chair yoga dance and/or gentle yoga, Yoga Vista Academy can provide online training and certification to equip and qualify you to be a chair yoga dance and/or gentle yoga teacher. Links for the training programs are provided above, which you can click to enroll.