Author: Audrey

Stretching it Out – George Benson

Posted on by Audrey

95-year-old stays active and healthy at local yoga studio

by Mark Storer

Special to the Acorn

 

George Benson has been active all his life. He ran a floor care and cleaning business in the San Fernando Valley from 1977 to 2001 and has always done his best to keep moving every day.

The lifestyle has worked well for the soon-tobe 96-year-old Leisure Village resident.

Benson said he felt he was slowing down about 10 years ago when he had a back issue—a problem that led him to try yoga and a whole new way to move his body.

“My wife, Joyce, and I were walking by the shops up on Santa Rosa Road, and we walked by the yoga studio there. I said, ‘Why don’t we go in there and ask them about my back?’ It changed my life,” he said.

The studio was the Camarillo Yoga Center on Santa Rosa Road.

“He was already standing really straight and he had good posture,” said Audrey Walzer, owner and director of the center. “He got his back better and pretty quickly he was doing intermediate classes. He really works at it and at that time was in classes with 20- and 30-year-olds.”

Benson, who has been a vegetarian for more than 65 years, was “in love with yoga,” he said. He worked at it and began subscribing to yoga magazines.

“It became not only physically good for me but also a social thing. I’ve met great friends through yoga, including Audrey.”

 But about three years ago, Benson developed an eye disease that required him to wear an eye patch while he healed.

Walzer said wearing the patch caused Benson to look down when he walked.

“The result was that he got hunched over pretty quickly,” the yoga instructor said.

Benson now uses a walker and that has led to problems with his legs, Walzer said.

“We’re working on loosening him up a bit,” she said, adding, “He’s been able to get back some range of motion, and we’re getting there.”

As Walzer talks, Benson demonstrates some of the stretches and movements that help him.

“It just allows me to feel better,” he said. “It upsets me to no end that I have trouble walking, but it’s the hand I’ve been dealt and I’ve got to deal with it.”

Benson served in the Navy during World War II, based at Pearl Harbor after 1941.

“I was supposed to serve on a ship called the Blackhawk that was headed to the Philippines,” Benson said. “But a lieutenant I knew wanted me to stay with him at Pearl, and he transferred me. I must have been pretty lucky because the Blackhawk was torpedoed and they lost a lot of men. I could have been one of them.”

Benson married after the war. He and his first wife had four children before she died. He married Joyce 37 years ago and they had one child.

Joyce doesn’t do yoga, but she said it’s been good for her husband.

“ He really loves it. His friends come from there and it really does help him physically,” Joyce said.

“I’m really glad he went into the classes. It’s been wonderful.”

Walzer says yoga is good for anyone of any age.

“The biggest thing that people say to me is, ‘I can’t do yoga, I’m not flexible.’ It’s kind of a misnomer,” Walzer said. “Yoga is a tool to keep yourself healthy and balanced. It’s not about being good at it. It’s not about a standard or goal. It’s about practicing healthy living.”

Benson will continue to do his best to stay healthy.

“The thing is, I move a lot and I eat fresh foods,” said Benson. “It doesn’t hurt that there are a lot of pretty girls who go to the classes with me, either.”

http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2013-02-01/Family/Stretching_it_out.html

George Benson 95 Year old Yogi

Posted on by Audrey

This holiday season, remember:   Your good health is the best gift of all! 

“Why are you saying, “Do you mind moving your leg?” I don’t mind. I want to do this. I love to do this.”  These words are gifts from my good friend and yoga student George Benson, who practiced yoga with me regularly until a week before he passed away in August, at the age of 96.

George’s determination to keep up his strength and live life to the fullest, despite limitations due to an internal issue last year, inspired all of us at Camarillo Yoga Center.  How could anyone think of complaining about a little physical effort to stay in good shape, while George made it clear he was not to be babied at 96, and that his lifelong exercise and nutritional discipline had provided him excellent health well into the years when many are in sad decline?  His puzzlement at the idea that someone would mind doing whatever it takes to be in good health was an insightful commentary on the changes in our physical culture during the decades of George’s life.   

As a young man in the navy, George began working out with weights, and continued an active life, swimming, hiking and running, until he developed a back issue at 86, and found yoga at Camarillo Yoga Center.  Many years of strengthening, and working at jobs involving physical labor had caused tight muscles; George discovered that with a dedicated stretching program, his back pain was relieved entirely, and he became a fixture in our classes.  At an age where many would give in and give up, George, as he always said, “played the cards he was dealt,” and made the effort to live with gusto into his nineties.  At his memorial service, George’s daughter told us juicing was not a new fad in their lives- her dad bought massive bags of carrots for juicing in the 1950’s!  A vegetarian for 65 years, George eschewed sugar and junk food, but loved to eat and delighted in healthy, tasty recipes, many with vegetables from his own garden, prepared by his beloved wife, Joyce.  George was always quick with a joke, and his love of life was infectious. 

In contrast to George’s active, healthy life, statistics show that today, only 30% of adult Americans take part in exercise of any kind!  Not surprisingly, 35.7% of adults and 30% of children are obese, and these numbers are growing rapidly.   Having been a teacher of yoga and movement for adults and children for over forty years, my experience is that fewer people tell me they enjoy moving their bodies, and working up a sweat. I regularly hear that perspiring or being warm “makes me uncomfortable” and “I really should exercise, but I just don’t like the feeling.”  Additionally, we think of fatty, fried or sugar laden foods as treats, and “make ourselves” eat fruits and vegetables. 

When did it become a burden to move our bodies the way nature intended, and to eat foods nature provides without draining them of all nutritional content? When did we lose sight of the gift of good health?  

One clue is to look at the major labor-saving technological changes in the span of George’s lifetime:

  • The industrial processing of food, and the spread of fast-food eateries (White Castle, the first drive-in restaurant, was founded in 1921.) No longer do we expend energy growing and cooking our own food, disconnecting us from food as a product of our own efforts.
  • The rise in purchasing power of Americans who no longer had to make things, but instead buy them. 
  • The widespread use and promotion of pharmaceuticals as a way to deal with physical discomfort. Why change your diet, when you can take a pill?
  • The rise of an automobile-based way of life, to the extent that we even drive to the next store in the parking lot.
  • The introduction of radio and television- losing ourselves in the lives of others, instead of living our own lives, including being outdoors in the elements.
  • The IT revolution, which enables us to live our lives virtually. With the whole world at our fingertips on a screen, why move at all? 

My belief is that the “progress” which has allowed us to be more “comfortable” and have more leisure time, has weakened our bodies and our minds, and taken away the gift of effort, of sweat, of overcoming obstacles through our own application and persistence over time.  We look for easy and fast at every turn, and fall prey to gimmicks that tell us on every level that we can look good and feel good without having to do anything at all.

The holidays are nearly here. While we shop online for more stuff, “treat ourselves” with holiday sweets and overeating, and create back pain driving far and wide, let’s remember George, and what is really important-

The best gift you can give yourself, your family, and the world, is a healthy you.  Let’s change our minds about what we “mind” and what we enjoy.  Let’s get strong and proud of it. Start small.  Enjoy a walk with a loved one.  Ask for a bicycle for Christmas.  Take pride in the “effort” it takes to wash some blueberries for breakfast, or create a meal that’s healthy and tastes good.   George taught me that a life well-lived requires effort, and that the effort itself can be joyful! 

Joy to all this holiday season!

 

First published in Camarillo Life Magazine, December issue, 2013

You Don’t Need To Be Flexible To Do Yoga

Posted on by Audrey
Yoga is not only for flexible women!

By Audrey Walzer, CYC Yoga Teacher; Owner & Director

“Yoga?  Oh no, I’m not flexible.”  If I’d only heard it once… but a thousand times later I am frustrated that people’s perception of yoga is still based on media images of yoga practice as a bunch of pretzel-like poses done by super bendy women in provocative outfits.  This imagery sells products from mattresses to designer water, and yet it keeps the very people who would benefit most from yoga, away from it.

 

As a yoga and movement teacher for over thirty years, please, please believe me when I say:  You don’t have to be flexible to do yoga!  In fact, if your muscles are tight due to lots of athletics, sitting at a computer all day, driving, past or current injuries, or simply being a couch potato… yoga can keep you from an almost inevitable visit to the orthopedist’s office one day!

 

Stretching the chest helps prevent rotator cuff injuries!

Our bodies were designed to move. As children, we naturally explore the full range of movement nature has given us. Today, even children move less, and teenagers are experiencing back pain in record numbers. As we age, due to lifestyle, time and family constraints, our movements become habituated, lacking variation, and our bodies become imbalanced… often tight in hamstrings, hips and lower back, chest muscles and shoulders.  These imbalances, if left unattended, inevitably lead to pain- in the back, in the knees, in the neck, and this can cause us to move less, creating a vicious cycle. Make no mistake, everyone needs to stretch!  Just look at an animal waking from sleep- it’s a natural instinct we have forgotten.  But once you begin, it feels so good!  The secret is this:  you need to move your body in a way that serves you, and not try to imitate a bendy-Barbie teacher.  

 

At Camarillo Yoga Center, we are celebrating our 13th year teaching “regular people” of all ages, sizes, shapes and levels of fitness, to rebalance their bodies.  With safe yoga practices that bear no resemblance to pretzels, and attention to individual differences, we ease the muscles of the back, hips and legs to alleviate lower back pain, and relieve shoulder and neck tension. We gently stretch tight muscles and strengthen those that are weak and ignored, most often the core muscles that support the lower back. Our goal at Camarillo Yoga is not to tie you into a knot, but instead to untie the knots that you know are there, and the ones you may not even realize are causing you pain or discomfort. 

 

“I tried to stretch; it hurts!” I believe it.  A machine that has rusted, no matter how old or new, creaks and groans, but a little oil helps lubricate the parts so they move smoothly. In yoga, as opposed to old-fashioned “reach and bounce” stretching, we use a very special oil can to help your body glide more freely: The Breath. Western medical science confirms that yoga breathing stimulates the vagus nerve to create a “relaxation response” so the “fight or flight” tensing mechanism is disengaged, and the whole body is able to move in a more relaxed, integrated way. Yoga breathing helps us focus, concentrate and  let go of the brain chatter that occupies us 90% of the time, so we feel our bodies in ways that keep us safe, and ultimately result in greater range of motion, balance and freedom. 

 

Touching your toes with straight legs not necessary!

“I don’t have time to go to a yoga class!” Time is the key. How many minutes do you spend at a computer, tightening your neck and shoulders? Our bodies are efficient accountants, and they want to please us. If we spend most of our time holding our bones in positions that shorten our muscles, our accountants will tell the muscle crew to just firm up and hold the bones there permanently. When we finally take that much needed vacation, and tear out our shoulder taking a suitcase from the overhead bin, our accountant is confused. This overhead bone position wasn’t in the plan- the muscles have formed themselves for typing. Ouch! We need to balance the ledger, it’s as simple as that, and denial is a huge factor in the ultimate deterioration of our physical health. So many people come to me for help once back pain is so great they are trying to avoid surgery, or when all the surgeries haven’t helped them feel better… if only they had put in the minutes to rebalance their bodies before pain became the motivator.

 

My heartfelt suggestion?  Put in the minutes toward your own health and freedom now. Open your mind and find out how yoga can significantly change your body balance sheet! 

 

Audrey Walzer Yoga Teacher; Owner/Director — Audrey Walzer was voted “Ventura County’s Best” Yoga Teacher in 2011, 2012,  2013 & 2014 in the Ventura County Reporter Reader’s Poll. She is the owner and director of Camarillo Yoga Center, (Voted “Best Yoga Studio 2012, 2013 & 2014) and director of the Yoga@Work program. Her DVD “Easy Yoga Stretches for Home, Office & Travel” can be found online at www.easyogastretches.net.