Safer Practices for Older Adults

Join host Jivana Heyman as he talks with yoga therapist and author, Carol Krucoff. Carol shares her journey from her early career as a journalist for the Washington Post to her current role as yoga therapist at the Duke Integrative Medicine Center. Carol shares how she stumbled into teaching older adults through a volunteer gig and what a near-death experience at a marathon finish-line revealed about the true purpose of yoga practice. Together they reflect on the importance of teaching older adults with both care and respect, the difference between what you do and how you do it, and why yoga is so much more than asana.

In the second part of the episode, Jivana chats with co-host Deanna Michalopoulos about what it means to find your voice as a yoga teacher and how the language we use shapes a student’s experience. They also respond to a listener question from Reika Shucart about dualistic and non-dualistic yoga philosophy, breaking down the difference between Patanjali's classical approach and the Vedanta tradition of non-duality, and why both paths ultimately point toward the same truth.

Topics include:

• Bridging yoga and Western medicine together and the importance of publishing in medical journals
• How intensity, not the poses themselves, is the key variable when teaching older adults
• Why yoga injury rates rise sharply in older adults and what that tells us about how they're being taught
• Clearing up the confusion around the risks of certain movements and teaching with awareness rather than fear
• Carol’s personal shift from a physically intense yoga practice to a more gentle practice
• Communicating while teaching in way that avoids condescension and creating hierarchies of practice

 

Check out:

Accessible Yoga’s upcoming online course, Accessible Yoga for Older Adults: Building a Safe & Effective Practice

Carol’s Relax Into Yoga Seniors Training co-created with Kimberly Carson

Carol’s books: Yoga Sparks, Relax into Yoga for Seniors, Relax into Yoga for Chronic Pain, Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain

Jivana’s episode with Reika on her podcast Full Time Yoga Teacher (Ep. 105)

Accessible Yoga's on-demand course, The Essence of Yoga: Making Yoga Philosophy Accessible with Jivana Heyman & Anjali Rao

 

 **Learn more about the Accessible Yoga Mentorship Program and join today! We look forward to seeing you there.**

 

 

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