I admit I get a tiny bit tired of older women telling me all my life that I’m fit because I’m young. At 55, soon 56,  I still have to hear that BS.

To prove that challenging oneself has nothing to do with a certain age, I´m sharing a photo I took a few months ago, of a yogini I admire tremendously, and a photo of myself doing the same asana, triangle pose.

Meet the fabulous yogini, Pauline Dimitry, who is 81 years old and has beaten cancer 4 times. At one point she was told by a surgeon she would not be able to practice asana yoga again, and she is certainly proving him wrong.

Yoga isn’t only about the poses, but the poses (asanas, as they are known in Sanskrit), practiced with care, along with yogic breathing, can be beneficial for unifying mind, body and spirit.

According to Yoga International, “In the contemporary world where many of us are perpetually on the go, practice can slow us down and help us bridge disconnections between the body, mind, and breath. It can also be practiced to increase strength and flexibility, improve balance and core strength, and bring a sense of mindfulness into our everyday lives.”

Asana yoga is just one of the eight limbs of Yoga which are the following:

If I´ve learned something after a lifetime of body work, it´s that strengthening our core is vital, not to get six-pack abs (I don´t have them), but to protect our back and help maintain our balance. I´ve had two babies and I´m 55. Although I practice yoga daily, I still have loose skin around my middle. I usually don´t wear a shirt in class to hide it because at this age (or any age, really) who cares?

However, I´m able to stand up from the floor without using my hands, and if I trip, I can usually recover pretty fast without falling or injuring myself. Hoping I can help others feel just as strong and confident, here are four yoga poses that are also used in general fitness classes that can help any of us have a strong core and good balance at any age. 

Many of us spend a lot of time sitting and, sometimes, standing up to exercise and stretch is simply not an option. Here are five yoga poses you can do without getting up from your chair. Some of them can also be done in a tight airplane seat, like side twists and eagle pose. You may take each pose as far as you are comfortable, or hold back a bit and make it relaxed. Do them all in a sequence, or choose a couple for a when you´re feeling tired and tense. 

When a few years back I wrote a post on HuffPost about why I shared my yoga photos online at 53, I got some snarky comments from older women saying “because she’s ONLY 53.” I’ve been hearing that I’m “only” this or that age as the reason why I’m fit, since I was a fitness instructor in my early 20s. At 54 I understand that I’m younger than a 60 or 70-year-old, but I know plenty of women of both ages and beyond who are fit as a fiddle and of course I aspire to emulate them when I’m their age. Anyway, the point of this post – aside from this little rant – is to share what I’ve learned from comparing a recent photo of me in wheel pose, with one of me doing the same pose in the same place a year and a half ago, at 52. I also would love to inspire women younger than my age to take care of their bodies, minds and souls, so they can enjoy their 50s and beyond.

What I learned applies to yoga or to any other life endeavor. In both photos, I felt I was doing my best – which I was – each of the two times. Comparing both pictures showed me that doing the best I can will look different as I improve a skill. This could be writing books, parenting, running my digital business or … doing wheel pose!