Yoga For Elderly Students: How To Adapt Your Practice As You Age

Yoga for elderly people: the short answer

Yoga for elderly people works best when the practice changes as the body changes. You keep coming to class, but you choose differently on different days: a chair where the floor is too far away, a restorative session when you are tired, a longer Savasana (Corpse Pose) when the mind will not settle. Senior Iyengar teachers have been teaching older students this way for decades, and it is how we teach yoga for older people at Flametree Yoga Studio in Darwin and live online.

Here is the article in short form:

• It is not too late to start, at 60, 70 or beyond.
• Listen to how the pose feels today, not how it looked last year.
• Chairs, walls, blankets and bolsters bring the pose to you.
• Build up to backbends: Locust and chair backbends first, then Camel Pose with a chair.
• Some days need restorative poses, and that is part of the practice.
• Savasana is a skill that quietens the mind, and it can be learned.
• A Sydney pilot found Iyengar yoga improved balance at an average age of 68.
• Your first class is free, in Darwin or live online.

A quick word on Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. It is the style we teach at Flametree. (Why that matters when you read the research is set out in Yoga Or Iyengar Yoga?)

Last updated: 4 November 2026.

Is it too late to start yoga in your 60s or 70s?

No. Many of our students start in their 60s, and some in their 70s. What changes with age is not whether you can do yoga, but how the poses are set up.

In a beginner class you will not be asked to sit on the floor if the floor is a struggle, or to balance without support. The teacher brings the pose up to you with a chair, a wall or a block. Then, week by week, the support comes away where it can.

That is the heart of good yoga for older adults. The shape stays recognisable. The way into it changes.

Why does practice need to change as we age?

Because the body you bring to the mat is not the body you had at 30, and it is not even the same body each day. Sleep, a sore knee, a long drive or a hot Darwin afternoon all change what a good practice looks like.

A very senior Iyengar teacher in Australia described this on a recent panel for Iyengar Yoga Australia. As a young student she practised a set sequence for each weekday, as many students in Pune did then. As life changed, with pregnancies and then getting older, she began to choose differently on different days. Some days she still did the full sequence. Some days she needed restorative poses. As she put it, she started to listen to herself more. (Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library recording, Legacy and Lineage panel.)

That line is worth keeping. It does not mean doing less. It means practising with your eyes open.

What changes, and what stays the same

The poses stay largely the same: standing poses, gentle twists, supported backbends, forward bends and relaxation. What changes is the height of the support, how long you stay, and which poses you choose on a given day.

Standing poses still matter, perhaps more than ever. They load the legs and hips, and they train balance. A chair simply makes them safe enough to do properly.

What does listening to yourself look like on the mat?

It means paying attention to sensation. Not to the idea of the pose, and not to what the person on the next mat is doing, but to what you actually feel in the back leg, the lower back or the breath.

On the same panel, a senior teacher put it this way: “Feeling is the guide, the navigator.” (Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library recording.) The point being made was technical. Feeling here means sensation, not emotion. It tells you whether a pose is working, and it tells you where a problem is coming from.

For an older student this is very practical. A hip that pinches, a knee that complains, a breath that goes short: each of these is information. You adjust the pose, raise the support or come out, and then you try again.

The panel also made the point that this kind of attention is learned, and that beginners often pick it up quickly. You do not need years of practice to start noticing.

Which props suit an older body?

The usual Flametree props for yoga for elderly students are a chair, a wall, a belt, a block, two or three blankets and a bolster. Each one does a job:

• A chair brings the floor up, gives a hand to hold in balances, and supports twists and backbends.
• A wall steadies standing poses so you can work the legs without worrying about falling.
• A belt lengthens the arms when the hands cannot reach the feet.
• Blankets and a bolster lift the hips in sitting poses, cushion the knees and support restorative poses.

But here is the part that is easy to miss. A prop has to suit the body you have now. The same teacher said on the panel that some chair work no longer suits her own back at her age, and that rounder objects or her own effort now work better. The question she asks of any prop is what it is bringing, and whether it is right for this body today.

So we do not hand everyone the same prop for the same pose. Your teacher will try a version, watch how you are in it, and change it if it is not helping.

If you want to practise at home between classes, our beginner yoga props starter pack covers the basics, and our guides to yoga equipment for home and yoga blankets explain what each one does.

Backbends: start small, then Camel Pose with a chair

Backbends open the chest, help a rounded upper back and lift the mood. Camel Pose (Ustrasana) is one of them. It is also a big pose to start with, so we build up to it.

Geeta Iyengar taught that standing poses come first and backbends come later, and she started beginners with the gentler backbends lying on the front (Geetaji on basic backbends, Iyengar Yoga Australia). That is the order we follow with older students at Flametree.

Start with the introductory backbends

• Locust Pose (Salabhasana). Lie on your front and lift the chest and the legs a little. A belt round the thighs keeps the legs together. It builds the back muscles that hold you upright. Keep the spine long, so the chest lifts forward rather than the lower back crunching.
• Supported Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana). Lie on your back with a block, a bolster or a chair under the hips, or the feet up on a chair. The props do the lifting while the chest opens.
• Chair backbend, or Two-Legged Inverted Staff Pose (Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana) over a chair. Lie back over a chair seat, holding the back legs of the chair, with a bolster under the head. The chair holds you, so the upper back can open without strain. Mr Iyengar said that on an anxious or upset day, backbends are better done supported over a chair (Yoga Vaani 49, 1997).

Give these time. When they feel steady and easy on the back, you are ready for Camel Pose with a chair.

The Camel Pose ladder, from very simple to stronger

Take one step at a time. Stay on a step until it feels easy, then try the next one. In every step, kneel tall with the thighs upright and the hips over the knees.

1. Hands on the hips. Put your hands on the back of your hips and lift the chest up. Only lean back a little.
2. Hands on a chair seat behind you. Kneel with a chair just behind your heels. Lift the chest, then reach back to the seat. The chair brings the floor up to your hands.
3. Thighs against the wall. Kneel facing a wall so the fronts of your thighs and hips touch it. Keep them there as you lift the chest and lean back, hands on the back of the hips. The wall stops the hips sliding back, which is what strains the lower back.
4. Hands to the heels, toes tucked under. Tuck the toes under so the heels sit higher. Then take the hands back to the heels.
5. The classic pose. Tops of the feet flat on the floor, hands on the heels, chest lifted, and the head going back last.

Lift the chest before you go back, and let the head follow last. A folded blanket under the knees helps if they are sore. To come up, press the shins down and lead with the chest, then sit on your heels for a few breaths.

Tell your teacher if you have back, neck or blood pressure issues, and you will be given a version that suits you. If you feel dizzy or a pinch in the lower back, come up and go back a step.

For every step in more detail, see our guide to Camel Pose (Ustrasana) the Iyengar way, and for the wider family of poses, backbend yoga.

How did Mr Iyengar teach people who could not do the poses?

He started with the person, not the prop. A senior teacher on the panel recalled that in the early days, travelling without props, Mr Iyengar would never pick up an object and wonder what to do with it. He would look at a body and ask how to bring that body to the shape, and to the experience inside it. He might use a fork or a cooking pan if that was what was to hand.

In one of his medical classes, the panel heard, he tapped the foot of a young man who was paraplegic, and the foot moved. His response: “There are nerves in there. I can work with that.” (Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library recording.)

That is the attitude we bring to yoga for older adults. We look for what is alive and working, and we build from there. A stiff hip still has movement in it. A weak leg still has strength in it. The practice starts with what you can do.

The same teacher made a second point. For many people in those classes, the physical problem was in the way of everything else. They could not go further until they had a little more space in the body, more breath, and a more relaxed heart. Getting the body comfortable is not the end point. It opens the door.

Why include restorative days?

Because rest is part of the practice, not a break from it. Restorative yoga uses bolsters, blankets and chairs to hold the body in a pose for several minutes, so you can let go without effort.

For older students, a restorative day is often the difference between keeping a practice going and giving it up. On a tired day, a hard standing sequence can leave you sore. A restorative session leaves you rested, and you come back to the strong work the next time.

That teacher’s account fits here too: some days she needed restorative, and she let herself have it. Our guide to what restorative yoga is explains the poses and what the research has found.

How can Savasana quieten the mind?

Savasana (Corpse Pose) is the lying-down relaxation at the end of class. It looks like the easiest pose. Many people find it the hardest.

Geeta Iyengar, Mr Iyengar’s daughter and a great teacher in her own right, spoke about this in a question and answer session at her 2009 retreat in Australia. Her advice was to give Savasana a session of its own, 30 to 40 minutes, rather than squeezing it into the last few minutes of class. Quietening the mind does not just happen. In her words, “you have to learn how to quieten yourself.” (Geeta S. Iyengar, Yoga Retreat Australia 2009, Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library recording.)

She also said that dozing off in Savasana is allowed, and that it is different from night sleep. And she linked a good Savasana to a calmer nervous system: worry travels from the brain into the neck, shoulders and face, and relaxing those areas lets it go.

For older students, this is good news. Savasana asks nothing of the joints. It is a skill you can keep improving at any age. Our Savasana guide explains how we set it up with blankets so the neck and lower back are comfortable.

Accepting the stage of life you are in

Geeta Iyengar had a phrase for this, said in the context of ageing and blood pressure: “When you accept, you surrender.” (Geeta S. Iyengar, Yoga Retreat Australia 2009, Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library recording.) Accepting where your body is today is not giving up. It is what lets the practice work.

Should older students do pranayama?

Yes, and many of our morning pranayama students are retired. Pranayama is the yoga of the breath. Geeta Iyengar described it as more than breathing exercises: it vitalises the energy already within you.

Flametree suggests starting with some yoga first. The poses quieten the mind, and a quieter mind finds the breathing techniques easier to access. That is why our beginner and non-beginner passes both lead naturally into the breath classes.

In the Iyengar method, pranayama is usually learned lying down at first, supported on blankets, with techniques such as Ocean Breath (Ujjayi) and Staircase Breath (Viloma). Sitting pranayama often uses a chair, sat in backwards with a belt, to keep the chest lifted without strain.

Two practice cautions. Breath holds are not for people with high blood pressure or heart problems. Fast techniques such as Shining Skull Breath (Kapalabhati) are used sparingly and stopped if the head tightens. Tell your teacher if either applies to you, and you will be given a version that suits. More detail is in what is pranayama.

Can yoga help balance and falls after 60?

Yes. In a 2013 Sydney pilot study, 54 people with an average age of 68 did 12 weeks of Iyengar-based yoga taught in person (Tiedemann and colleagues, Journals of Gerontology). Balance, walking speed, getting up from a chair and balance with the eyes closed all improved. Those are the main risk factors for falls. There were no serious adverse events.

The poses that do this work are the standing poses: Tree Pose, Warrior poses, Triangle and their chair and wall versions. They load the legs and hips, and they train the small balance muscles of the feet and ankles.

For the full picture, see our guide to yoga for bone health, balance and falls, and our summary of the falls and yoga studies.

What might a week of practice look like?

Here is one way an older student might shape a week. It is a sketch, not a prescription, and your teacher will adjust it to you.

• Two or three classes a week at your level, in the studio or live online.
• One of those, on a tired week, can be a restorative or gentle class.
• A morning pranayama class once you have some yoga behind you.
• Ten minutes at home on other days: a standing pose at the wall, a chair twist, and Savasana.

The aim is regular practice that you can keep up for years. Coming to class with others helps with that more than anything. A good group keeps you turning up until the habit takes care of itself.

Yoga for elderly students in Darwin and online

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga, and live online across Australia. Our teachers are certified Iyengar teachers, which means a minimum of three years as a student and at least three more years of training before assessment by a panel of senior teachers. Every class is adapted to the people in it, with chairs, walls and blankets on hand.

• Your first class is free. Book an online class or just walk in. See the class timetable.
• New to yoga? The beginner deal is $59.50 for 10 classes at half price, plus 2 free.
• Done yoga before, or away for 3 months or more? The non-beginner starter deal gives you 2 classes free plus 10 classes at half price.
• Want to read first? Get 2 free classes and your choice of free ebooks.

For more on ageing well, read our guide to healthy ageing and yoga, chair yoga for seniors and yoga for seniors.

Frequently asked questions about yoga for elderly people

Is yoga safe for elderly people?

Yes, when it is taught well and adapted to the person. In Iyengar yoga, chairs, walls and blankets make each pose stable, and the teacher changes the version if it is not suiting you. Tell your teacher about any injuries or conditions so they can set you up properly.

What is the best yoga for elderly beginners?

A beginner class in a style that uses props and teaches each pose step by step. Iyengar yoga was built that way: Mr BKS Iyengar developed the use of chairs, belts, blocks and bolsters so that people who could not do a pose could still learn it.

How often should older adults do yoga?

Two or three classes a week is a good aim, with a little home practice in between. Regular practice matters more than long sessions.

Can I do yoga if I cannot get down to the floor?

Yes. Many poses can be done standing at a wall or chair, or sitting on a chair. Your teacher can also show you how to get down to the floor and up again using a chair, which is a useful skill in itself.

Is chair yoga real yoga?

Yes. A chair is a prop, not a lesser version. In Iyengar yoga chairs are used by beginners and very experienced students alike, for standing poses, twists, backbends, inversions and pranayama.

Can older people do backbends like Camel Pose?

Yes, built up step by step. Start with the introductory backbends, such as Locust Pose and a supported backbend over a chair, then try Camel Pose with your hands on a chair seat. Tell your teacher about any back, neck or blood pressure issues.

What is restorative yoga, and is it good for older people?

Restorative yoga holds the body in supported poses for several minutes using bolsters, blankets and chairs. It is a good choice on tired days, and it helps many older students keep a regular practice going.

Why is Savasana so hard?

Because lying still while the mind stays busy takes skill. Geeta Iyengar said “you have to learn how to quieten yourself”, and suggested giving Savasana a session of its own. It gets easier with practice.

Can older people do pranayama breathing?

Yes. Flametree suggests starting with some yoga first, because the poses quieten the mind and make the breathing easier to learn. Breath holds are not for people with high blood pressure or heart problems.

Can yoga improve balance in older adults?

Yes. In a 2013 Sydney pilot study, 12 weeks of Iyengar-based yoga improved balance, walking speed and getting up from a chair in people with an average age of 68.

Where can I do yoga for elderly students in Darwin?

Flametree Yoga Studio runs beginner, gentle and restorative classes at Woolner and Coolalinga, and live online across Australia. Your first class is free.

Where this comes from

The panel quotes are from Legacy and Lineage: Celebrating 50 Years of RIMYI, “Iyengar Yoga Is Not Spoon-Feeding”, a panel of senior Australian Iyengar teachers held in the Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library. The Geeta Iyengar quotes are from a question and answer session at Geeta S. Iyengar’s Yoga Retreat Australia 2009, also held in the Iyengar Yoga Australia e-Library. The falls study is Tiedemann A and colleagues, “A 12-week Iyengar yoga program improved balance and mobility in older community-dwelling people”, Journals of Gerontology Series A, 2013. Everything else is in our own words.

Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and online. This article is general information, not medical advice.