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Why should yoga change to accommodate menopause?

This is an excerpt from Yoga for Menopause and Beyond epub by Niamh Daly.

Why should yoga change to accommodate menopause? I believe that:

• When the body becomes less able for strenuous and/or end-of-range-of-motion postures, women can lose confidence, self-esteem and a desire to continue their practice if alternatives are not adeptly delivered and demonstrated.
• Many of the various styles are slow to accept, or unaware of the need to make, changes in the way the resources of pranayama, meditation and asana are practiced.
• Due to physical changes, the expectation of constantly increasing flexibility may lead to greater risk of cartilage damage and/or arthritis
• In the West there is a considerable enmeshment of the world of yoga with diet culture, ageism, and the cult of the body-beautiful. Most yoga teachers feel a pressure to appear in their marketing, and in front of their students, as slim, bendy, and youthful. The result is that this is how most images of yoga appear. This is immensely impactful on a group of women who report hating the changes in their body, in particular weight, skin-tone, energy, and flexibility.
• The sense of yoga as a linear practice with a final goal in sight (the “full” expression of a pose, a regular meditation regime, competency in complex pranayama, daily practice, etc.) may make it damaging or difficult in the face of:
  • physical changes to tissues such as fascia, collagen, cartilage, and muscle
  • autonomic nervous system changes
  • symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, anxiety
  • trauma resurgence
  • time poverty
  • typical family obligations at the average age of menopause.

More Excerpts From Yoga for Menopause and Beyond epub

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