Course Finder

This course provides older adults who reside in a communal housing site with an enjoyable, safe exercise program. Older adults learn to maintain or improve their physical health through mild exercise, movement games, modified dances involving music, and rhythmic instruments and props.

Chair Yoga is a practice for developing balance and stability while improving strength and flexibility. Chair Yoga is geared for those who might be experiencing limited mobility due to illness, injury or disease, chronic pain, joint inflammation; or difficulty standing for long periods of time. Classes will include proper posture, breathing, relaxation and meditation that is made accessible for all students.

This course introduces Emeritus students to a variety of meditation techniques from different traditions, including mindfulness and gentle breath centered movement. It will provide an overview of the neuroscience supporting the benefits of individual meditation techniques including reduced stress, better sleep, improved focus, and a sense of well-being and other issues. The course will also address common obstacles to meditation as well as approaches to overcoming these obstacles. This course is designed for beginners and is also suitable for those with experience who want to refine their practice. Classes consist of a combination of lecture, practice, and discussion.

This course focuses on the history, principles and practices of yoga. Designed to promote health and safety among older adults, it focuses on yoga principles and practices to enhance the health of older adults through improved flexibility, balance, range of motion, strength, lung capacity and circulation. Some course sections may focus on specific yogic methods. Some sections may include therapeutic applications of yoga to address specific health challenges for older adults. Students will be encouraged to share their physical, mental and emotional challenges in a supportive environment specifically for older adults. These challenges will then be addressed within the coursework. Students will create a Daily Personal Yoga Health Plan integrating their own personal therapeutic yoga applications. Students will be encouraged to practice daily, creating opportunities to rehabilitate challenges. The course is designed to help students to use yoga methods such as postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and visualization to enhance their confidence, health, and overall feeling of well being.

This course is designed to enhance the health and safety of older adults through use of the principles and techniques of Chi Gong. Based on Chinese philosophy and healing concepts, the course will include the history, theory and practice of Chi Gong, including both the Wu School and Yang Style. Included are such Chinese philosophies as Yin and Yang, the Eight Directions, and Five Element theory and their applications to healthy living. Students work at their own level to improve tone, strength, flexibility and balance. Lectures, films, texts and discussions will explore the theory and practice of this traditional Chinese method for health and healing. Students will analyze which strategies best meet their needs, and create an individual health plan integrating Chi Gong techniques into their daily lives.

This course offers an overview of the history, philosophy and techniques of the Chinese energy balancing health practice T’ai Chi Ch’uan. With a focus on enhancing healthy aging for older adults, the course offers strategies for improving balance and posture; increasing flexibility and endurance, reducing stress, and promoting relaxation and mindfulness. The course shows older adults how to avoid injury, conserve energy and use the body in an ergonomic manner. Students will create a personal health plan integrating T’ai Chi principles and techniques into their daily lives.

This course focuses on physical fitness and conditioning principles to help older adults maintain or improve their health, safety and independence. It covers basic principles of anatomy and fitness, showing older adults how to improve their cardiovascular health, muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, posture and balance. Principles of good nutrition also will be covered. Students explore movement strategies that are particularly helpful for older adults. Included are proper concepts and methods for warm-ups, stretching, low-impact aerobic activity, cool-downs, strength training and balance work. Students learn how to avoid falls and safely accommodate physical conditions and challenges. Students create a customized personal fitness and conditioning plan to suit their individual needs and physical challenges.

This course focuses on how strength training and stamina building strategies help to promote health, safety and vitality in older adults. Principles of basic anatomy and physiology are covered. The course explores how older adults can maintain or improve their health and stamina through strength training using free weights, resistance devices and fitness techniques. The course emphasizes safe ways to start and maintain a program to increase strength, improve stamina and sustain bone density. Principles of good nutrition and stress management are included. Students create a personal fitness and strength training plan based on their individual needs and physical challenges.

This course is designed to help students avoid falls, which are the most frequent cause of serious injury in older adults. The course focuses on how, when and where falls frequently occur; how to maintain mobility, and how to improve and recover one’s balance. Students will create an individualized activity program to improve balance, endurance, strength and flexibility.

This course assists older adults in understanding the major functions of parts of their bodies, preventative measures, as well as how aging can impact their lifestyle.

This course offers older adults a range of strategies and techniques to reduce and manage stress in their lives. It includes stress reduction methods such as positive thinking, breathing exercises, meditation, humor, diet and exercise. The course also helps students establish peer support groups to help maintain their stress reduction skills.

This course assists older adults in understanding the functions and elements of the human body, including what can go wrong, current treatment options, and consumer information on alternative treatments. Older adult students learn about a variety of conditions that affect their population, including those that vary by lifestyle and/or genetic background.

This course helps older adults with chronic joint pain or mobility problems to attain and maintain physical strength, mobility and flexibility. Older adults with arthritis and/or other minor physical limitations will learn about the function of joints in the human body and techniques to move effectively without joint stress. Students create an individual plan for mobility and physical fitness.

This course is designed to improve the flexibility and mobility of older adults, increase their activity levels, and lessen their joint pain through exercise. Older adult students focus on maintaining strength, stability, mobility, balance, and flexibility in order to improve their physical and mental well being through safe and therapeutic core strengthening and balance techniques, deep muscle and/or moving stretches, and weight-bearing exercises using balls, blocks, weights, dynabands, and/or straps. Some sections of this course involve moving the body and performing joint exercises to fun and lively music.

This course helps older adults with chronic joint pain or mobility problems to attain and maintain physical strength, mobility and flexibility. Older adults with arthritis and/or other minor physical limitations will learn about the function of joints in the human body and techniques to move effectively without joint stress. Students create an individual plan for mobility and physical fitness.

This course teaches older adults Iyengar yoga techniques that can be used to maintain or increase their respiratory capacity, physical strength, balance, and flexibility. Older adults will relax their bodies and minds through the practice of Iyengar yoga and meditation.

This course helps older adults increase their strength, flexibility, balance, and circulation by encouraging older adults to concentrate or focus intently on their physical self, thus blocking out the factors that detract from a sense of wellbeing.

This course provides older adults with a supportive yoga experience using yoga concepts that most benefit older adults. Yoga movements performed in this class are designed as an alternative to high-impact aerobics, and maintain or improve older adults’ flexibility, lung capacity, range of motion, balance, circulation, strength, and ability to relax.

This course helps older adults engage in Tai Chi Chuan exercises to maintain or increase their balance, strength, and flexibility. Exercises are modified to take the special conditions of individual older students into account.

This course helps older adults who have experienced an acquired brain injury to maintain or improve their mobility and physical endurance through an individualized program offered in a group setting. Topics include how to cope with the effects of brain injury or stroke and how to restore the student’s natural energy and flexibility, through techniques used to regain and maintain physical fitness. Participation in this Pathfinders Program allows older adults to be included in their community and maintain their independence, and helps them to self-advocate and engage in activities that benefit their health. Registration is completed through the SMC Disabled Students Program & Services (DSPS) 310-434-4442.