Yoga gets a gentle nudge

Seated program eases seniors into exercise routine

Yoga instructor Carol Dickman leads a seated yoga class at Whole Foods market, 6689 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Photos by Craig L. Moran/View. Dickman pioneered her "gentle" approach to yoga on audiotapes, which eventually led to DVDs and classes for seniors at the city of Las Vegas Senior Center. Sally Nilan, left rear, Hansa Naran, Sid Graber and Sandi Freund, front left, and Saroj Dhodapkar learn basic yoga stretches during a seated yoga class at Whole Foods market in the Town Square shopping mall.

Images of the sleek, pencil-thin models doing all sorts of impossible stretches may leave you thinking that yoga is not for you. But think again.

Carol Dickman has spent the last two decades teaching people how to benefit from yoga, despite their age or physical limitations.

Dickman, a former broadcaster and television personality, has parlayed her communication skills into first a series of audiotapes, and now DVDs, on forms of the exercise known as seated yoga and bed top yoga.

Seated yoga involves a beginners' program of simple stretches, breathing exercises, yoga postures and relaxation that may all be done while sitting down. Bed top yoga offers the same techniques, but allows the participants to do the yoga while lying on his or her back.

"My DVDs, and my seated yoga, is very gentle, compassionate yoga that is only supposed to feel good when you do the yoga," she said. "Bikram, that is the one where the teacher kills you and tells you to kill yourself. That is a challenging yoga for type-A (personalities) that doesn't always feel good. The seated and bed top yoga is always supposed to feel good."

That has been welcome news for Dickman's many senior followers. She says most of her students and DVD purchasers are up in years. The programs are geared so they can participate no matter what their health is like. She has taught the yoga programs to hospital cardiac patients and to seniors at the City of Las Vegas' senior center.

Las Vegas, with its growing senior population, was lacking a type of yoga that was applicable to aged, Dickman discovered.

"Las Vegas had a lot of yoga, but I want to bring yoga to the population that thinks they can't do it," she explained. "If someone is older, they have that image that yoga is for their granddaughter and not me."

Health benefits of yoga can include stress relaxation, increased circulation and, in some cases, lower blood pressure, she said.

Free seated yoga classes are being offered by Dickman at select Whole Food Market locations on the fourth Saturday of every month. The classes are a half-hour long and include a question-and-answer session. The next classes will be held at 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. at the Whole Foods at 6689 Las Vegas Blvd.

Dickman first got into seated and bed top yoga in the early 1990s, soon after beginning yoga instruction. She taught yoga in New York at the Jewish Center for the Blind after being inspired by a cousin who was blind. But the students wanted to practice yoga on their own at home and Dickman feared for their safety. Many students were not only visually impaired, but also suffered from a wide array of other health conditions.

Then an idea stuck.

"I started recording the do's' and don't's of yoga when they were lying in bed at night or in the morning," Dickman said. "That was very popular, but I had to be very specific on the audiotapes because I couldn't visually demonstrate how to stretch out your arms, for example."

Thousands have since learned of the benefits of yoga through Dickman's recordings, no matter what their condition. The practice means much more to Dickman than simply obtaining a toned body and fitting into a tight leotard. She recalled a gentle type of yoga that may get lost in today's fitness hype.

"I believe that yoga is more than an exercise, it is the way you live your life," she said. "When you do yoga, you learn to be compassionate about yourself, loving, giving."

Dickman, who is a very youthful looking 66, followed up her successful bed top yoga with seated yoga. Today, she no longer does the audiotapes alone. She donated her inventory of them to charities for the blind. The audio instructions are on the DVDs, so visually impaired people can still learn the yoga.

The path to yoga pioneer was an unlikely one for Dickman. She spent decades in television in Florida and New York, working for independent stations, an ABC affiliate and the NBC network. She even had her own show at one point, "The Carol Dickman Show," and hosted the topical "Florida" program in the Sunshine State.

Her time in broadcasting resulted in some unforgettable moments. One of which was being in Miami at a television station and watching some of the city burn in a 1979 race riot.

"I remember looking out the window and seeing fires. It was just very scary because I had never seen anything like it."

Being an on-air talent, as well as a producer, gave Dickman valuable skills needed to put together her audiotapes, and later, DVDs. By the early 1990s, she was ready for a change -- a big change to yoga instructor.

Her "family was mystified," she recalled. Back in those days, yoga wasn't as widely accepted as it is today and tended to conjure up hippies and other anti-mainstream images.

"In those days, it was challenging because people were skeptical," she said. "I did yoga for runners, yoga for men and women."

Dickman, who had been practicing yoga since the mid-1960s, got her certification and began teaching classes at the NBC gym at Rockefeller Center in New York City. At the end of the 1990s, she was invited to come to Las Vegas to develop a yoga program at the Canyon Ranch Spa at The Venetian when the property first opened.

She later returned to New York but decided to make a permanent move to the Entertainment Capital of the World. Dickman's students are certainly glad.

Sid Graber, a physically active 81-year-old Las Vegas retiree, has learned seated and bed top yoga from Dickman and raves about its benefits.

"I found that Carol's brand is very good, doing it from a chair. She makes it available to people with health problems," he said. "She taught a class at the senior center on Bonanza and I feel the yoga gives you a sense of well-being."

For more information on seated or bed top yoga, visit Dickman's Web site at www.stretch.com.

Contact reporter Valerie Miller at vmiller@lvbusinesspress.com or 387-5286.