The New Yoga for People Over 50: A Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners [Paperback]

Suza Francina (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1997

Many seniors are searching for ways to improve their quality of life and remain active as they enter midlife and later years. Nationwide, people are recognizing yoga for its ability to slow down and reverse the aging process. A complete health system, yoga not only restores vitality to the body, but also expands the mind and soul. Yoga transforms the years after 50 from a time of deterioration to one of increased perspective and illumination.

In The New Yoga for People Over 50, readers will learn how the health of the spine and posture affect every sustem of the body, and how yoga positions and breathing exercises benefit the circulatory system, the heart and other vital organs, relieve menopausal symptoms, and remove stiffness and inertia from the body. In this comprehensive guide, Iyengar yoga expert Suza Francina describes and illustrates how to begin and maintain a yoga program through personal stories and over 100 easy-to-follow instructional photos of older teachers and students.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"No segment of our population can benefit more from yoga than people over 50," says author Suza Francina, Iyengar yoga instructor and director of the Ojai Yoga Center, where she specializes in classes for people over 50. The New Yoga for People over 50 shows how to adapt traditional postures to suit any age or fitness level with step-by-step instructions aimed at the older beginner. Photographs, quotes, and personal stories of yoga teachers and students--many in their 70s and older--add inspiration.

One key to modifying postures for older, stiffer bodies is the use of props that provide support to let the yoga student get into strenuous postures and hold them longer without pain or fatigue. The book illustrates how to adapt many postures with the aid of chairs, walls, wall ropes, bolsters, back-bending benches, and straps. Yoga decreases stiffness and inertia, and enhances health, energy, flexibility, posture, breathing, independence, and balance (physical and emotional). Francina explains how yoga may prevent the shortening and rounding of the spine and ward off osteoporosis. This book is an excellent companion to a yoga class or an inspiration to begin one. --Joan Price

About the Author

Suza Francina is a certified Iyengar yoga instructor with over 20 years of experience in the field of yoga and exercise therapy. Francina is the author of Yoga for People Over 50 and is director of the Ojai Yoga Center in Ojai, California, where she specializes in classes and workshops for people over 50.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: HCI (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558744533
• ISBN-13: 978-1558744530
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Suza Francina was born in 1949 in The Hague, Holland, and is of Dutch-Indonesian heritage. A yoga teacher since 1972, she is the author of four bestsellers on yoga for people at midlife and older: Yoga for People Over 50 (Devin Adair, 1977); The New Yoga for People Over 50: A Comprehensive Guide for People at Midlife and Older (Health Communications, Inc., 1997); Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause: A Guide to Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Health at Midlife and Beyond (HCI, 2003); and The New Yoga for Healthy Aging: Living Longer, Living Stronger, and Loving Every Day (HCI 2007). She is a contributing author for many other books.

Suza's new book, Fishing on Facebook: A Writing Yoga Memoir, will be released in February 2012. Fishing on Facebook is the first in a planned series of "writing yoga" memoirs.

Suza lives in Ojai, California, where she is a former mayor and long-time community activist. She considers her social and ecological activism to be an essential part of her daily-life yoga practice. The mother of a grown son and daughter, she is a passionate animal advocate whose family also includes several dogs and cats.

suzafrancina.com
Suzaji.com (Suza's Writing Yoga Memoirs Blog)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN EXCELLENT TOOL/GUIDE FOR ANYONE OF ANY AGE!, May 19, 2000

By 

S. Kelly - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Yoga for People Over 50: A Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners (Paperback)

My aunt (a flourishing over-50 yoga devotee) recently sent me (a very stiff 33-year old beginner) a copy of Suza Francina's marvelous book, The New Yoga for People Over 50. I previously acquired Mira Mehta's authoritative How to Use Yoga, which I find quite instructive and aspire to begin using (yoga isn't as easy as it looks, folks!). However, I don't believe anything could inspire me as much as seeing and reading the testimonials of so many over-50 yoga practitioners in Francina's book; their execution of some of the more challenging postures is absolutely mind-altering!

Francina's book and her work in general are truly a blessing. Bolstered by the knowledge The New Yoga for People Over 50 has given me I have begun "converting" my mother, who frequents the weight machines at the gym. She is a fit and vibrant 54-year old, but her hectic lifestyle, which includes a six-day work week (she owns a business) needs the addition of yoga to ensure her health and longevity.

This book is a wonderful, invaluable tool for everyone, regardless of age. I hope to catch up with Francina's octogenarian students within a few years! With Francina and her students as examples, I expect I will do just that - and anyone who reads this book will be motivated to set a similar goal: feel better and live longer with yoga!

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beginers?, June 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Yoga for People Over 50: A Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners (Paperback)

I wish I had read the review "Yoga or Yada" before I purchased this book for my 74 year old mother. I feel the books set up is out of wack ( the bleep on breathing is in the back of the book ), and the pictures are very intimidating. I thought this book would be a little more for beginners, like the title suggests, with easy yoga poses and more detail on breathing. Instead I read and saw expert Yoga students and teachers showing off their limberness and writing of the author's greatness and their own. I would return this book to Amazon but by the time I paid for the postage it would be a waste. The Yoga book I bought for myself (The Little Yoga Book) I feel is much more appropriate for all beginners regardless of age.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference book; buy an extra to share with friends, July 11, 1999

By 

Carin A. Seebold (Beaumont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Yoga for People Over 50: A Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners (Paperback)

This book has made a difference in my life! I have read several yoga books, but "The New Yoga for People Over 50" by Suza Francina spoke to my special needs. If you are seeking answers for questions relating to menopause, osteoporosis, healthy heart, etc., seek no more. This book provides answers. Her chapter on feet and knees is extremely helpful, providing the groundwork for specific needs. I keep this book handy as an excellent reference manual, both for myself and my friends. Additionally, this book is an inspiration to learn and practice yoga. The models are real and most are definitely over 50 years old. This in itself is an incentive. When you see people in their 70's and 80's, you are encouraged that you, too, can do yoga well into your "golden" years. After reading her book, I was excited to learn that I am close enough to Ojai (an hour's drive but well worth it) to take classes by Suza. She is an empowering teacher as well as a talented author. If you cannot attend a class, "The New Yoga for People Over 50" will more than suffice. Buy more than one; you'll want to share with a friend. Enjoy!