Living fit and healthy: Eating and exercising over 50

You are never too old to take up yoga. In fact yoga benefits you as you age.

It can help ward off the physical limitations that sometimes come as you get older. It helps relieve stiffness, improves balance and makes you physically stronger.

Many long-term yoga devotees never stop. The world's oldest yoga teacher, according to Guinness World Records, is a 96 year old still working in New York.

If you are coming to yoga fresh as a senior there are plenty of mixed ability classes or groups for the over 50s which are usually full of people in their 60s and 70s and beyond.

"It doesn't matter what the person next to you is doing, nor does it matter what you used to be able to do 5 years ago or even yesterday!" says yoga teacher Sue Hastings-Barnes. "It's all about the here and the now, really honouring where you are in this moment."

Get the balance right

Doing yoga improves your balance which reduces your risk of falls.

The risk of tripping or falling becomes greater as we age. Around 1 in 3 people over 65 who live at home will have at least one fall a year according to the NHS.

The falls may cause injuries like broken bones but they can also do a lot of psychological damage causing people to lose confidence in going out and becoming more isolated.

"Yoga works your core and pelvis which will also help with your balance," says yoga teacher Eva Paoli.

A good option for balance is tree pose:

Stand with your legs together and your arms straight over your head, palms together.

Raise your right leg slightly so that the toes are still on the ground and your heel is touching the inside part of your ankle. Try to balance for 20 seconds. Hold onto something if you need to. Repeat on the other leg.

As your balance improves, place the sole of the right foot on the inside left thigh, but not on the knee joint.