Exercise for Healthy Aging: Why Yoga Is Only Part of the Picture

Written by Jackie Paunil, Creator of the Young Heart Yoga App, E-RYT, RPYT, CHC, MFA

Empowering older adults to move, breathe, and thrive with grace and vitality.

Yoga has a lot going for it. It can challenge your balance, improve mobility, build some strength, encourage body awareness, and give your nervous system a welcome opportunity to exhale.

But if we're talking honestly about exercise for healthy aging, yoga doesn't need to do everything.

And that's actually good news. Your yoga mat doesn't need to do all the heavy lifting.

Aging Well Requires a Well-Rounded Approach

Healthy aging isn't about finding one magical exercise and doing it forever. Our bodies benefit from different kinds of movement, and each serves a different purpose.

For older adults, a well-rounded exercise plan includes aerobic activity, resistance training, balance exercises, flexibility or mobility work, functional movement, and recovery. Current international consensus recommendations emphasize this multicomponent approach because different forms of exercise create different benefits for healthy aging (ICFSR Task Force, 2024).

Think of it as building a well-rounded movement practice:

• Cardio challenges your heart and lungs.

• Strength training helps preserve muscle and physical function.

• Balance practice helps you respond to life's uneven surfaces.

• Mobility work helps you move more comfortably.

• Functional exercise prepares you for everyday activities.

• Recovery gives your body time to adapt and rebuild.

  
  

Yoga can contribute to several of these areas, but it doesn't have to—and realistically can't—do everything.

The goal isn't to find one perfect exercise. It's to give your body the variety of movement it needs to keep doing the things you love.

What Yoga Does Particularly Well

Yoga has a unique ability to combine movement with attention.

Research in adults 60 and older has found that yoga-based exercise can improve balance and physical mobility (Youkhana et al., 2016).

Other research suggests that yoga may positively affect several aspects of physical fitness in older adults, including muscle strength, balance, mobility, and lower-body flexibility (Shin, 2021).

Yoga also offers something that's harder to measure with a stopwatch: body awareness.

As you practice, you learn to notice where you feel stable, where you may be compensating, how you're breathing, and how a movement feels in your body. That awareness can help you become a more informed and confident participant in your own health.

And that matters.

Where Yoga Needs Some Help

Here's where I want to be candid: yoga should complement—not replace—cardiovascular and progressive resistance exercise.

As we age, maintaining muscle strength becomes increasingly important for preserving physical function and independence. A large 2025 systematic review and network meta-analysis examined 151 randomized trials involving 6,306 older adults. Resistance training improved measures including physical function, lean body mass, muscle hypertrophy, and lower-body strength (Radaelli et al., 2025).

And strength isn't simply about lifting heavier weights.

It's about having the strength to get out of a chair without using your arms, carry groceries, climb stairs, walk uphill, lift a suitcase, garden, or get yourself up from the floor.

Those abilities are part of what allows us to remain independent and continue participating in the activities we enjoy.

Exercise for Healthy Aging Means Training for Life

Consider what you actually want your body to be able to do.

Maybe it's hiking a favorite trail, traveling, gardening, dancing at a wedding, playing with grandchildren, carrying your groceries, or simply getting through a busy day without feeling completely spent.

That's functional longevity.

Exercise becomes more meaningful when we connect it to the life we want to continue living.

That's why your movement practice might include yoga, walking, strength training, swimming, cycling, hiking, dancing, or another activity you genuinely enjoy. You don't have to choose one and abandon the others.

Different forms of movement provide different benefits.

The best exercise isn't necessarily the exercise with the fanciest name or the most impressive reputation. It's movement you can do safely, consistently, and progressively—and that helps you remain capable of doing the things that make your life yours.

Think Beyond the Workout

One of the most useful shifts we can make as we get older is to stop thinking about exercise solely as something we do for a certain number of minutes.

Movement is preparation for living.

Strength helps you carry the suitcase.

Balance helps you step over the uneven sidewalk.

Mobility helps you reach the top shelf.

Cardiovascular fitness helps you walk that hill without wondering halfway up why you ever thought this was a good idea.

Yoga helps you move with greater awareness, mobility, balance, and control.

And recovery helps you come back tomorrow.

When we look at exercise this way, healthy aging becomes less about chasing a particular fitness goal and more about maintaining the physical capacity to participate fully in our own lives.

Yoga Is Part of the Picture

None of this diminishes yoga.

Quite the opposite.

Yoga can be an important part of an active-aging lifestyle, particularly for mobility, balance, flexibility, body awareness, and mindful movement. Research supports meaningful benefits in several of these areas for older adults.

It simply works best when we recognize what it does well—and where another form of exercise can provide something different.

So don't ask:

"Is yoga enough?"

Instead ask:

"What does my body need—and how can yoga be part of the answer?"

That's a much more useful question.

You may discover that the answer includes yoga, walking, resistance training, hiking, swimming, or something else entirely.

And that's okay.

Healthy aging isn't about doing everything.

It's about doing enough of the right things to keep living the life you want to live.

Keep Moving With Young Heart Yoga

Young Heart Yoga isn't designed to replace your walks, hikes, strength training, swimming, or other activities.

It's one tool in your healthy-aging toolbox.

If you want accessible yoga and meditation designed specifically for older adults, create an account with the Young Heart Yoga App and practice at your own pace.

Use your yoga practice to build mobility, balance, strength, body awareness, and mindfulness—and then take those benefits out into the world.

Because the goal isn't to become really good at yoga.

The goal is to keep being really good at living.

About the Author

Jackie Paunil is a published author, wellness advocate, and creator of the Young Heart Yoga App, designed for active and older adults seeking balance, vitality, and mindfulness. With certifications including E-RYT, RPYT, CHC, and an MFA, Jackie combines her extensive training and life experience to inspire others to live with purpose and wellness.

Residing on a ranch in Casa Grande, Arizona, Jackie leads an organic lifestyle surrounded by animals she adores. She is a devoted wife, mother, proud “GiGi” to her grandchildren, and a world traveler who has explored the depths as a master scuba diver. Her in-person yoga and meditation classes, alongside her app, reflect her passion for helping others thrive. Jackie's teaching philosophy is grounded in her own holistic practices, empowering students to embrace sustainable, joyful movement and mindfulness for a more vibrant life.

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References

• Radaelli, R., Rech, A., Molinari, T., Markarian, A. M., Petropoulou, M., Granacher, U., Hortobágyi, T., & Lopez, P. (2025). Effects of resistance training volume on physical function, lean body mass and lower-body muscle hypertrophy and strength in older adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of 151 randomised trials. Sports Medicine, 55(1), 167–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-024-02123-z

• Shin, S. (2021). Meta-analysis of the effect of yoga practice on physical fitness in the elderly. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(21), 11663. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111663

• Youkhana, S., Dean, C. M., Wolff, M., Sherrington, C., & Tiedemann, A. (2016). Yoga-based exercise improves balance and mobility in people aged 60 and over: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Age and Ageing, 45(1), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afv175

• Ward, L., Stebbings, S., Sherman, K. J., Cherkin, D., & Baxter, G. D. (2019). The effects of yoga compared to active and inactive controls on physical function and health related quality of life in older adults—systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16, 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0789-2