yogo lessons cochrane

Meet your Teacher - Melanie
Anderson

Why Free Spirit Yoga? Why Teach Seniors? Why Online?

 I am a fully-certified Hatha and Chair Yoga teacher, trained in 2013. I began teaching in 2015 and in 2022 I also received certification to teach chair yoga.
 
I specialize in teaching yoga
for people who are 55+ or for those who may have mobility issues or just want a more gentle yoga practice.
 I am 76 years old and very aware of the health challenges many of us may experience as we grow older. This doesn’t mean we don’t work in our classes to ensure we keep our joints healthy and our core, bones and legs strong.  MOTION IS LIKE LOTION FOR OUR JOINTS.
During each practice we include the three main components of yoga: breathing (pranayama), poses (asanas) and meditation,  proven to improve our health and wellness and slow our aging process. We start each class with warm-ups and then move to more active poses and end with a cool-down including stretching, legs-up-the-wall and a meditation..
 
Many of us experience physical challenges  as we age. Skills like our balance, strength, flexibility and agility naturally decrease as we grow older. Health issues like arthritis, back pain, stress related issues and sleep problems also affect many of us. The focus of my yoga teaching has been for people my age to ensure we remain healthy, active and independent by working on these 4 physical skills during each class and addressing the other health issues that yoga has been proven to benefit.
 
As a testimony to the benefits of yoga, I had full knee replacement surgery on December 9th. I returned to teaching yoga from a chair at the 3 week mark and then moved from the chair to teaching from the mat (including Hatha and Flow classes) at 6 weeks. During the 6 week follow-up visit with my surgeon I surpassed all markers for a healthy recovery including full knee extension and I was able to bend my knee to 116’.
I attribute my rapid recovery to my yoga practice. We strengthen our core and our legs, from toes to butt, and work on flexibility of our lower body, in each yoga practice. The upper right picture is on my 7th week surgery anniversary doing the tree pose balancing on my new knee. 
 
I began teaching online via Zoom when CoVid prevented our in-person classes. Practicing yoga online allows you to join from home or anywhere that has internet access. You don’t have to drive to a studio, you can practice in your pjs and you can meet other yogis from across Canada and the US who join us online. 
 
Try a FREE class – email melanie.freespirityoga@gmail.com 
 
 

Where are the lessons held?

All of the classes are online, via the Zoom app. I teach out of my home  in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada and teaching online allows yoga students to join us from anywhere in Canada and the US or anywhere else for that matter. We have students from Montreal,  Toronto, Nova Scotia, Victoria, Edmonton and California.  We have had students who joined us from Mexico and South Africa when on vacation. When the weather allows, I prefer to move outside to a sunny location and I have taught on beaches in Vancouver and Kelowna, parks in Calgary and on my daughters’ sundecks in northeastern Alberta.  

All you need is an internet connection, a computer, iPad/tablet or you can connect on your phone. As long as you have Zoom you can join the class.

For class participants who may have to miss a class, all classes are recorded and a link will be sent after each class allowing you to practice at your convenience.  ,

Do you Have Questions?

Will anyone see me online during the practice?  When you receive your Zoom invitation I have set it up so your video and your audio will not be turned on. The only person you will see on the screen will be me. At the end of the class I invite everyone to turn on their video and audio (optional) if you would like to come on to say hello to the other students and to do our final closing for the class.  The recording is turned off for this last part of the practice.

What should I wear and what equipment do I need for the class? Since you are at home you can choose to wear anything, including your pajamas. The only thing to consider is to ensure whatever you wear is comfortable and moves with your body so you can stretch and move easily. I recommend you have a yoga bolster or meditation cushion but if you don’t have one you can roll up a blanket or fold a large pillow in half. You should have a yoga strap and again if you don’t have one you can use the belt from a housecoat, a tie or a long scarf. You may also want a couple of yoga blocks but you can use a thick book instead. 

What are some of the health benefits of yoga? There have been over 3700 scientific and medical studies to determine the health benefits of yoga and to date they have found over 115 health benefits including reducing stress, increasing flexibility, increasing muscle strength and tone, improving cardio and circulatory health, improving balance, boosting the immune system, improving posture and many more. My newest mantra for yoga is “Yoga does not have side effects, it has side benefits”.

Do you have to be flexible to practice yoga? No you do not have to be flexible to start practicing yoga. Ignore those pictures online of people putting themselves into pretzel like positions. We won’t be doing that. The reason I started practicing yoga about 20+ years ago was because I was so inflexible I couldn’t get my leg over my bike. I am now more flexible than I have ever been. I am also stronger than I have been since I was in my 40’s. 

Am I too old to start practicing yoga? You are never too old to start yoga. I turned 76 this year. I attended my yoga teaching training in Brazil when I was 63 with 15 other students and all of them were 30 to 40 years younger than me with one exception, someone who was only 15 years younger. So as you can imagine it was challenging but it was also one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. That training experience did bring home the fact that younger people simply don’t understand the aging process and the fact that balance, strength and flexibility become issues as we age and that’s why our practices always include poses to improve our balance and flexibility and increase our strength. The longer we remain healthy and strong the longer we can live independently. Yes we want to increase our longevity but we want to ensure we remain healthy during those last years of our life. 

What can I expect if I join one of the yoga classes? You will receive the Zoom invitation (you will have to download the Zoom app) for the class the evening before.  Your video and audio will be turned off so just a few minutes before the class all you have to do is log in. Each class starts with warm-ups including poses for our eyes, face, neck wrists, shoulders, toes, ankles, knees, lower spine, hips. If you join hatha or the 30 minute flow yoga classes we do some standing poses but if you join the chair or floor stretching classes we do not include standing poses. In all classes we do some strengthening poses and poses to increase flexibility. The last few minutes of each class we do some relaxing poses, including legs up the wall, and then a meditation to close the class. Every week we set a new intention and focus on a health issue. You will also receive a recording of the class to repeat if you want to or if you had to miss or leave early you can do the whole class.