My limited knowledge of yoga called up images of very thin people twisted into and holding impossible body positions. How could a mature person do that? A friend offered to take me as an observer to her class of what she calls Fierce Yoga Goddesses. How could I resist?

The women who take Mana Behan’s Wednesday afternoon class at Woodlawn Commons in the Wesley Community complex range in age from their 50s to their 90s. I would guess most of the students are in their 60s or 70s. Mana has been studying and teaching yoga since the 1980s when she was in her 50s. She was hooked when she reluctantly attended a class, just to keep a friend company.

I was invited to watch a class and (though I didn’t know it beforehand) to participate in at least a portion of the exercises. Before we started a smartly coifed and dressed woman leaning on a cane came in to say she couldn’t make class that day, but she would be back next week. She is 91 years old and has multiple sclerosis. 

The class came to order standing in a large open circle around the slightly darkened room. After performing a series of stretching exercises that included every part of the body, we clustered into a tighter circle, supporting arms around each other’s waists for movements that were assisted by mutual support.  At one point we assumed a Warrior pose. As we bent and straightened, our loud exhalations sounded like the battle cries of Amazons. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Huff! Huff! Huff!

I watched a mother-daughter team standing across from me. The daughter is a strong athlete and the mother is fighting the physical limitations imposed as she nears her 90th birthday, but their movements synchronized as the daughter pressed her mother to hold her position, one foot in the air, while supporting her gently by the arm.

Despite the range of ages and the diversity of backgrounds – educators, businesswomen, artists, social activists – the flow of the class was a seamless continuum of movement and camaraderie.

I stood in my everyday clothes, having been told by Mana that I couldn’t understand what they were doing if I didn’t experience it. As we tried to balance first on one foot and then the other, laughter broke out to accompany our efforts. Disabilities, past illnesses or accidents, limitations of aging bodies were forgotten as these Yoga Goddesses bent and stretched against the wear and tear of age.

I finished the first half of the class and sat down to observe the floor work. Down onto their mats these “senior” women went, ready to stretch and pull and twist and hold to the best of their abilities, always under Mana’s watchful eye. To those with limitations, she offered options for completing the postures. Mana observed her students carefully, talking almost continuously in a calm voice, uttering supportive and encouraging phrases.

“I love my body just as it is,” was one of my favorites.

As the students doing floor exercises worked every part of their bodies, Mana continued to remind them to pay attention to breathing, to soften their faces, to wake up their spines. She even urged us to relax even our eyelids (it’s possible).

At the end of the session there was a long period of relaxation and visualization, while Mana sang softly to the group. As I got ready to leave I asked Mana what her goal was for her students.

“For them to lead richer lives through greater body awareness and to move beyond the physical to compassion and clarity of mind, “ she said.

My Web search of “yoga for seniors” led to 169,000 results, including photos of a 94-year-old man hanging upside down in a swing. Maybe I’ll try the floor exercises next time.