In my blogs about yoga for back pain, the emphasis is often on relaxation, releasing tightness and relaxing the body and mind. However, even with back pain we need a bit more ‘oomph’ sometimes. This need can be even more acute in January. We’ve had a seemingly interminable, grey January so far, with more than one ‘blue Monday’. The cure for me is to move in nature daily, whatever the weather, and to practise more stimulating yoga poses. These include standing poses, back bends and dynamic flow sequences. Unfortunately, quite a few of them could make your back pain worse. Try this feel-good yoga sequence if you want to feel energised in a way that is still gentle and caring enough for your back.

There was a time when I regularly woke up in the morning with neck pain. Once, on holiday, the pain was so bad I could barely lift my head off the pillow. I thought my acute neck pain was due to wrong pillows: too low, too high, going down during the night. I would do gentle neck stretches during the day and wait for it to pass. One time, during the first lockdown, I started to have nerve pain going down one arm and into my thumb. Since then I have researched neck pain more seriously. I am happy to say that even though I have to be careful, I don’t wake up with neck pain any more, not even on holiday. The nerve tingling and numbness in my arm and thumb have disappeared. In this blog I am sharing my insights and hope it will help you to prevent, manage and relieve acute or chronic neck pain.

Did you know that the ability to balance can be a reflection of how well your brain functions? On the Radio 4 programme ‘Just One Thing’ the late Michael Mosley mentions a study that connects the ability to stand on one leg in your 50s with your eyes closed and being alive 13 years later. This is because balancing requires the brain to integrate the different physiological systems that are needed to balance. If the brain is struggling to coordinate these different messages, it could point at a more general decline in brain function. Luckily, it’s never too late to improve one’s balance, and doing that will have a positive effect on the brain. Mosley’s report suggests that it may even slow your chance of developing dementia. This blog takes you through different stages of learning to balance, gradually increasing the level of difficulty. If you would like to learn how to improve your balance and boost your brain health, this step-by-step guide can help you.

Polymyalgia rheumatica is the most common inflammatory rheumatic disease in people over 70, according to NICE. The onset is usually fast and the main symptoms are pain and stiffness around hips and shoulders, on both sides of the body. The tightness in the morning can be extreme and immobilising. Both the inflammation and symptoms are relieved with corticosteroids, anti-inflammatory drugs. Apart from that, staying mobile and stretching are recommended. This is of course where yoga therapy comes in. Yoga therapy for polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) can help loosen tight muscles in a relaxing but effective way. Also sleeplessness and the stress associated with having the condition, can be addressed with the relaxing tools of yoga therapy. This blog discusses PMR and explains the many ways in which yoga therapy can help.

There are many reasons why you could feel tight and achy in the morning. They don’t have to be serious. When you’ve just been lying still for a long time, already tight muscles tend to tighten more. Then again, you may have slept on an uncomfortable mattress or in an awkward position. Apart from these straightforward reasons, there are health conditions that will make you feel particularly tight upon waking. This blog discusses these health challenges, and provides a morning routine for achy joints that could benefit all. Moving your body gently in the morning will allow you to keep your mobility, flexibility and stability in the long term, as well as make you feel much better overall.

When you have back pain, you are desperate to ease the pain straight away. Taking pain medication is one option. Waiting until the pain subsides is another, longer-term option. But what if you knew exactly what to do to relieve the pain? Back pain is draining, sapping all your energy. The better you look after your back, the sooner you can return to feeling more carefree. This blog gives you a few general guidelines and discusses how yoga therapy can help when you have acute back pain.

A health expert recently argued that posture and social contact are the two most significant factors when it comes to healthy ageing. Of course, there is more that we could add to the list, such as healthy eating, exercising, sleeping enough and having a purpose in life. In fact, the older we get, the more we seem to have to do each day to stay healthy. Naturally, socialising is crucial when we age, but to single out posture as the most powerful physical factor may be more surprising. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting idea that I would like to explore in this blog. Is a good posture really the most important factor for healthy ageing?

While winter yoga naturally invites us to focus on dynamic and strengthening practices, summer is just too hot for these. The warmer weather allows muscles to release more easily and is perfect for soothing movements and cooling breath techniques. The yoga I teach in my group sessions changes from season to season. In summer I always recommend the legs-up-the-wall-pose as a regular home practice. If you suffer from heavy legs during warm weather, this simple inversion could be just right to relieve leg fatigue and heaviness. This supported inversion can also be helpful when you have lower back pain, varicose veins, and oedema in legs, ankles and feet. In addition, it soothes the nervous system. If you feel stressed or anxious, this an excellent position to relax in, regardless whether your legs need it or not. For your yoga in summer, stay cool and relaxed with these yoga poses!

Having high blood pressure does not prevent you from doing yoga. On the contrary, practising yoga, calm breathing and meditation can reduce hypertension. However, do you know which kind of yoga to practise and which poses to avoid? In this blog I explain what high blood pressure is, what the risks are and how you can reduce it. Importantly, you will learn which yoga practices are beneficial and which you have to avoid even if you take medication for high blood pressure. Finally, in this episode of yoga for healthy ageing: high blood pressure, I’ll walk you through a calming yoga practice.

I never thought I would do a pilgrimage walk. I used to think walking holidays quite a curious way to spend the summer, mainly for older people. Of course, with age long walks can become an attractive challenge. Walking from A to B, in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims, turned out something meaningful, demanding but still achievable. Over 10 days, I walked one of the pilgrim routes in France, from Le Puy to Conques. It’s the route that eventually leads to Santiago de Compostella, so it brims with the pilgrimage history, and is also popular with modern-day walkers. We walked an average of 21km per day, up and down, through stunning countryside. Stretching my leg muscles twice a day became necessary to stave off leg and knee pain. Whether you are planning a walking holiday or regularly walk long distances, I would like to share the stretches that helped me most. Especially as we get older, practising these essential leg and knee stretches after long-distance walking will allow us to feel rejuvenated and ready to walk again!