I have been into exercise my whole life – if not taking classes then I was riding my bike, walking or jogging, doing kickboxing or calisthenics at home, or working out on my Nordic Track, treadmill, or with weights. Every day I have to do something physically demanding or I don’t sleep well and feel crabby.

Lately both Paul and I have come to notice that we need to improve our flexibility. I’ve known for ages that one of the things that we need as we grow older is good balance and flexibility. If you have those you can catch yourself if you start to fall and not end up with a broken hip or worse. So we decided to do something about it.

We had tried various yoga videos in the past and found them too difficult. We knew we needed something pretty basic and it turned out finding The Mat Project was just the ticket. I found them on YouTube but they have a website, too. We’ve started with their Yoga for Seniors (1) and will move along through as we improve. So, three days a week you’ll find us on the floor enjoying a half hour yoga workout. It’s been three weeks and I feel more flexible already.

You might wonder why we don’t just attend a yoga class nearby? We feel the need to improve before we go that route, but someday we might. For now though, we are thoroughly enjoying The Mat Project and I’m so thankful they make these available on the internet for free! Oh, if you are interested in Cardio, Pilates or Tabata, they have videos for those, too!

One other thing, yoga-wise… if you ever have trouble sleeping, I highly recommend Yoga Nidra. (nidra means sleep in Sanskrit) Here is the one I have been doing lately but there are lots available in the app stores. I just put my ear buds in and follow along. I usually end up asleep with the earbuds in and wake slightly to yank them out and continue sleeping.