health

Q: I teach chair yoga for older people. Several of my students have pretty bad kyphosis, a rounded curve in the upper back. They are not yet into a dowager's hump but they are on the way. When we do down dog with a chair, their upper backs are very humped. If I have them try to do cat/cow stretches with hands on the chair seat, their upper backs barely move. I have suggested that they try to lie on their backs with a small blanket roll under the bottom tips of the shoulder blades. Do you have any suggestions for how they might try to reverse this curve or at least stop it from getting worse? A: This is an interesting question: what to do with the student who has kyphosis of the thoracic spine, the part of the spine in the area of the rib cage? What can we do as yoga practitioners to prevent the progression of the spinal changes we are seeing, and is it possible to reverse the excessive posterior curve in the upper back?  And should we be more attentive to this area when we are youn...