瑜伽让老年女性站得更直走得更稳

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Yoga helps older women balance and stand taller

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Elderly women showed measurable improvements in their walking speed and balance after a nine-week yoga program -- and they gained a centimeter in height, on average, Philadelphia researchers report.

\"The only explanation may be that they are standing more upright, not so much crouching,\" study chief Dr. Jinsup Song of Temple University told Reuters Health. Song presented the findings April 4 at the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society's Annual Meeting.

While past studies have investigated yoga for helping improve balance in elderly women, Song noted, they have typically used a relatively demanding form of the practice. In the current study, he and his colleague Marian Garfinkel, a certified yoga instructor, worked with B.K.S. Iyengar, the originator of Iyengar Yoga, to develop a program specifically designed for older people. \"The poses were very basic -- how to stand upward, how to bend forward, sideways,\" said Song, who admitted he found some of the poses challenging himself.

Song and colleagues enrolled 24 women aged 65 and older into their study. The women performed an hour-and-a-half yoga session twice a week, gradually building up the intensity of the exercise.

After the program, the women walked faster, used longer strides, and could stand for a longer time on one leg. They also felt more confident in their ability to balance while standing and walking.

While the women had been balancing their weight on the ball of the foot as they walked before they had yoga training, afterwards their weight was more evenly distributed across the bottom of their feet as they walked, Song noted, which could contribute to greater stability.

Song, who is a podiatrist, noted that both strength and flexibility are important for helping people avoid falls, a leading cause of disability among older people, especially women. He and his colleagues are planning further studies to determine if the Iyengar program is an effective fall prevention strategy.
瑜伽让老年女性站得更直走得更稳

在4月4日举行的步态与临床运动分析学会年会上，费城研究人员报道，老年女性在经过九周的瑜伽项目练习后，步行速度和平衡性得到显著提高，且平均身高增加1厘米。

主要研究者天普大学Jinsup Song博士解释说，“唯一可能的原因是瑜伽练习使她们站得更直。”

Song博士指出，以往研究发现瑜伽有利于改善老年女性的平衡能力，而在这项研究中，他和他的同事Marian Garfinkel，一位瑜伽教练，也是Iyengar瑜伽的发明者，设计出一种特别针对老年人的瑜伽项目。其中的瑜伽姿势都是一些基本动作，主要为如何站直，如何前弯，如何侧曲。Song博士介绍说，某些姿势对他来说都有很大的挑战性。

Song和他的同事招募了24名65岁以上的女性参与研究。受试者每周进行两次瑜伽训练，每次一个半小时，并逐渐增加运动强度。

此项训练以后，练习者走路速度较前加快，步伐较前加大，且单腿站立时间更长。她们对自己在站立和行走中的平衡能力更有信心。在瑜伽训练之前，受试者走路时体重主要集中在跖球，而训练之后，她们的体重则平均分布于脚底，走起来更加稳健。

Song博士是一名足医，他提出：力量和灵活性对于防止摔倒非常重要，而老年人，特别是女性很容易因摔倒致残。Song博士和他的同事正在计划进一步以试验观察Iyengar项目对预防摔倒的有效性。