Veteran Yogi Mark Blanchard Teaches Strength and Longevity Techniques
To Vastly Improve All Life's Stages and Age Transitions

Like most health experts and practitioners, Mark Blanchard believes Progressive Power Yoga is a powerful practice that enhances physical, mental and spiritual well being for all ages, while improving the quality of one's life more efficiently than any other practice. 

And Blanchard, a long-time veteran yogi and innovator of the Progressive Power Yoga movement, should know after more than 20 years of instruction. His wall-to-wall packed high-energy yoga classes in his Studio City and West Hollywood studios draw everyone from 20-somethings breathing their way to fitness, to seniors stretching to improve flexibility in their stiffening bones and joints, and everyone improving their overall health.

"Progressive Power Yoga is for every generation, every fitness level, every mood and for every body," says Blanchard. "It reduces stress (one of the most dangerous health-robbing factors of today), enhances flexibility, sculpts long-lean muscles, and increases your metabolism to burn fat, therefore benefiting the whole person."  Here's how yoga can benefit the various stages of one's life:

IN YOUR 20s           

"The attention to health that people develop in their 20s will carry over into the later stages of their lives, so it's important, if not critical, to develop solid fitness and nutrition habits and not fall into gimmicky diets or trendy workout routines that you won't stick to," says Blanchard. "Yoga differs because it initiates permanent changes in one's body perception and food consciousness." He further adds, "I firmly believe we would not be facing the obesity epidemic our nation is in at this time if we could instill the value of power yoga and proper diet to people in their teens and 20s - what a gift this would be to our future generations for better health."          

   In touting its many benefits, Blanchard explains that the "body heat" and long-lean muscles one develops through Progressive Power Yoga help speed up the metabolism to increase energy and burn fat. Preliminary research from Adelphi University in New York reveals that an individual can blast the same amount of calories in one hour of Power Yoga (about 400-500 calories) as they can running 11 miles or kickboxing for the same duration of time.

Yoga is also a weight-bearing exercise, creating stronger bones that are especially important to women in their 20s, usually their "last chance" to build the crucial bone density that will carry them through their lives (women typically begin losing bone mass after age 25).

IN YOUR 30s

"As far as yoga's benefits and individual needs go, your 30s are a lot like your 20s, with the addition that most thirty-somethings have added responsibilities and far greater stress (spouse, kids, advanced career stages) at this stage, making it more and more difficult for them to find time to workout, and primetime for "emotional eating," says Blanchard.   

          Interestingly, Progressive Power Yoga helps reduce the likeliness of binge eating in stressful situations by greatly decreasing the physical and mental stress levels that lead to this unhealthy habit. In addition, yoga's low cost of entrance (all you need is a mat and towel) and accessibility work into anyone's schedule, anywhere.     

        For many women, the 30s are also a childbearing stage, making yoga practice essential during pregnancy, during labor, and post-pregnancy. Yoga helps during pregnancy and in labor by strengthening the muscles throughout the pelvis, which in turn can alleviate backache and help make delivery easier and shorter. An added bonus: the de-stressing effect of yoga also helps with the hormonal emotional highs and lows many women experience during pregnancy and post-pregnancy.

IN YOUR 40s     

        "In your 40s, you'll start to see and experience the effects of what you did or didn't do in your 20s and 30s relative to the body's natural aging process," says Blanchard. "But rather than throwing in the towel and accepting that 'this is just the way it's going to be,' your 40s are really about gearing up and doing damage control to combat age and better prepare for mid-life in a healthy and positive way."

Yoga has a biochemical anti-stress and antioxidant effect on the body that helps improve if not prevent the onset of many degenerative diseases that are a concern to many in their 40s, like high blood pressure and heart disease. Indeed, the biochemical effect of regular yoga practice has been shown to decrease the sodium and "bad" cholesterol excesses in the body that can lead to these diseases.

"The body is like a sponge that's constantly absorbing all the toxins and stress that cause oxidation," says Blanchard. "That sponge can get to the point where it is so saturated that it can no longer absorb anything and that's where yoga comes in and acts like a "wringer" - to rejuvenate the body so that it can continue absorbing."

IN YOUR 50s

The stress relief and mental stimulation that yoga yields its practitioners is crucial to people in their 50s, when both sexes tend to experience either menopause or "mid-life crisis."

"Yoga's profound mind-to-body connection teaches patience, mental and physical strength, and even helps with insomnia-all helpful in alleviating the frustration, physical weakness and sleeplessness that many women experience during menopause," says Blanchard. According to Blanchard, yoga helps men going through a "mid-life crisis" by helping focus the mind away from the tension of a hectic day, deeply cleansing the lungs, increasing body awareness and cultivating patience.

IN YOUR 60s AND BEYOND

It's never too late for yoga to help, and the 60s and beyond are no exception. In fact, this is the stage where yoga's muscle-strengthening and flexibility-increasing effects can really make the difference in improving a senior's quality of life.

"Yoga is the most effective fitness program for a older person to follow," says Blanchard. "Not only can they do what they can at their own pace, but also yoga is especially helpful in keeping the bones and joints elastic so that they have greater mobility and experience less of the pain that arthritis and osteoporosis sufferers endure on a daily basis."

What's more, because Progressive Power Yoga increases strength and flexibility within the muscle and joint connections, injuries and strains to the lower-back, knees and ankles (which are injury prone at this age) are not as likely to occur. Incorporating Progressive Power Yoga into your exercise routine will not only make you stronger and more focused, but work wonders for your peace of mind at any age.