08/09/2026
Want to keep your body strong and your brain switched on as you get older?
Then your yoga practice has a lot more going on than you might think.
When you're working your legs, you're not just building strength.
You're asking your brain to coordinate movement, balance and stability.
You're focusing your attention, working with your breath, noticing what's happening in your body.
You're learning to stay with something when it gets challenging.
That's dhāraṇā.
That's prāṇāyāma
That's pratyāhāra.
And it's one of the reasons I love yoga so much for midlife.
Because we can use the physical practice to support the body and practise some pretty useful skills for navigating life.
Strong legs are great.
But being able to stay steady, focused and present while life is doing its thing?
I'll take that too.
Chair → toe squat
Build strength + ankle mobility
Chair pose makes your thighs and glutes work.
Taking it down into a toe squat adds a bit more challenge and asks your ankles to move through more range.
Because strong legs are useful.
Strong legs that can move well are even more useful - especially when you need to get up off the floor!
Goddess pulses + heel lifts
Strength + balance + proprioception
Those pulses?
🔥 Hello, legs.
Also, sorry 🤣
Add in those heel lifts?
Now your calves, ankles and balance are joining the party.
You're not just building strength.
You're asking your brain and body to coordinate, stabilise and respond.
Warrior 3 → Shiva squat
Strength + balance + concentration
This one is doing quite a lot.
Single-leg balance.
Hip stability.
Glute strength.
Coordination.
And your brain has to pay attention to where the hell everything is in space.
Which is one of the reasons I love yoga as we get older.
It doesn’t have to be just “hold this shape.”
It's strength + balance + coordination + focus.
Bridge + leg lifts
Strong glutes + hamstrings + core
Bridge is a great way to work the posterior chain.
Add the leg lifts and you've got to stabilise your pelvis while one leg moves.
Again: strength meets coordination.
And that combination matters for keeping everyday movement feeling capable and confident.
And this is where yoga gets really interesting.
Because we're not just training muscles.
We're training attention.
We're practising balance and coordination.
We're learning to work with the breath.
We're noticing sensation.
We're practising staying steady when something feels challenging.
The physical practice becomes a way of practising how we meet things.
On the mat.
And, hopefully, off it too.
Slide 7:
So yes, I want you to have strong legs.
I want you to be mobile.
I want you to feel balanced and capable in your body.
I want you to keep doing the things you love.
But I also want your yoga practice to give you somewhere to practise being focused, steady, curious and present.
Because that's the bit of yoga I don't want us to lose.
The movement matters.
And so does everything happening while you move.
