An Ontario woman who holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest yoga instructor has turned 100.
Ida Herbert marked the occasion with friends and well-wishers at the Orillia YMCA Monday, including General Manager Gilda Evely, who has known her more than a decade.
“Ida is an optimist,” Evely said. “Her philosophy about life is to live every day to its fullest, to enjoy life, to embrace life and to just value all of the opportunities that life presents.”
One such opportunity presented itself at a health club many decades ago. Herbert believes she was already in her 50s by that point.
“I was cycling away on the phoney bicycle and I saw a girl against the mirrors,” Herbert said. “I asked the assistant: ‘What’s that lady doing over there?’”
The woman informed her it was yoga and the two decided to try it out.
Herbert said yoga taught her “how to relax and relax easily -- not to have to work at it.”
She got a job teaching yoga full-time at the Orillia YMCA around age 70 and retired from teaching three years ago. Her “sun salutations” continue in the retirement home she moved into a few years ago.
Yoga has helped Herbert with her flexibility and relaxation, but she says it wasn’t the key to her longevity. She told CTV Barrie: “My sherries do that.”
