How 71-year-old yoga teacher Argie Ligeros looks and feels so much younger than her age

“Exercise every day and just don’t ever stop” is Argie Ligeros’ top advice on living and ageing well for her more than 135,000 Instagram followers.\nThe 71-year-old yoga teacher, author and fitness influencer swears by this approach to stay youthful and vibrant herself: she looks decades younger than her age, and is the same size and weight as she was in her twenties.\nFrom her home in the US state of Colorado, Ligeros’ yoga and wellness teaching, grounded in her life experience, has inspired tens of thousands around the globe.\nShe was forced to come to grips with loss early in life. Just before her 12th birthday, her parents died in the 1966 BOAC Flight 911 catastrophe over Japan’s Mount Fuji. All 124 people on board died after the Hong Kong-bound plane broke apart in mid-air in severe turbulence.\nLigeros had overheard a palm reader predict the circumstances of her mother’s death only a few months before the accident, instilling in Ligeros a belief in “powerful, cosmic forces directing our lives”.\n“We are not in control … the positioning of the sun, moon, planets and stars became my reference point for the events in my life,” she says in her recently published memoir, Salutations.\n\nShe felt alone after her parents died. She has a sister three years younger, but they were never close. Ligeros went to stay with her aunt, then her uncle, but it was a dark and difficult time.\nGrowing up in Salt Lake City, in Utah, with Greek heritage, she had always been physical as a child. Her mother had enrolled her in swimming classes, acrobatics and dance, and she went on to become a champion gymnast through the Amateur Athletic Union, a non-profit sports group.\nTo lessen her grief, she threw herself into the “discipline of physical activity every day”. She eventually studied to become a certified fitness instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles.\nThere, in 1974, she encountered Bikram Choudhury, who at the time was launching his Bikram Yoga in Beverly Hills. The 90-minute routine is a fixed series of 26 poses done in a hot room. It gained a cult following over the years.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nView this post on Instagram\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA post shared by RG Life (@therglife_)\n\n\n\nChoudhury left the US after allegations of sexual assault, rape and harassment led to multiple lawsuits and an order to pay millions of dollars in damages in late 2016. The name Bikram Yoga was largely replaced with hot yoga, though other forms of hot yoga exist.\nLigeros is open in her memoir about Choudhury having propositioned her, and having consensual sex with him once. His public fall from grace had no impact on her yoga practice, though.\nShe had found Bikram Yoga’s repetitive nature and rigid discipline enormously appealing, and she became the first student of Choudhury’s teacher training. In 1978, she helped him set up the first Yoga College of India and was the first Bikram Yoga instructor.\n“After the death of my parents, I had never had any profound professional therapy, except for a few family sessions, so yoga became my therapy. I felt as though I was sweating out the heartache and pain, leaving it as a wet puddle on the carpet of the yoga studio,” she says in her memoir.\n“It gave me hope; a voice in my head began saying, ‘You’re going to be OK.’”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nView this post on Instagram\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA post shared by RG Life (@therglife_)\n\n\n\nIn the decades since, Ligeros has relentlessly dedicated herself to a daily yoga practice; she estimates that she has done the popular Sun Salutation series – Surya Namaskura – more than 50,000 times.\nYoga also helped her get through another difficult time in her mid-thirties when she was caring for her critically ill son on her own for a year and a half.\nShe did the 90-minute hot yoga routine nightly, even when she was barely sleeping for fear of him having a seizure.\n“It saved me, mentally, emotionally, and kept me healthy enough to be a good caregiver. I never got sick once,” she writes.\nLigeros has exercised daily throughout her life, including when she was pregnant. “I am totally addicted,” she says.\n\nThere was a short exception. Around 20 years ago, when she was 50, she was diagnosed with osteopenia and osteoporosis, both conditions that cause brittle bones. The doctor’s advice was to stop doing backbends, rein in her exercising and start taking medication.\n“The diagnosis scared me and I was afraid to move,” she recalls. She stopped doing yoga for about a month, but it left her feeling depressed.\n“I thought, I’m not going to live the rest of my life like this. So instead of relying on medication, I chose to strengthen my body to protect my bones.”\nShe added weightlifting and impact exercise to her workout routines, started hiking more, and ate more protein. She also added a vitamin D supplement to support bone strength.\n“Touch wood, I’ve never broken a bone, even though I am an avid skier.” She even went heli-skiing last year, to celebrate her 70th birthday.\nToday, Ligeros follows a daily routine of waking up with the sun at dawn, lighting incense called palo santo – used for centuries by the Incas for purifying – and meditates for half an hour.\n\nShe stopped using Botox to keep wrinkles at bay as she worries about its effects on her brain. Now she uses facial massage and “face yoga”, following facial massage therapist Aysel, who posts free tutorials on social media.\n“I just use a little facial oil and my fingers and knuckles. It’s very soothing, as well as getting a mini ‘facelift’.”\nShe drinks lemon juice with hot water in the morning along with a coffee or matcha tea, then exercises for an hour to 90 minutes – doing yoga, Pilates, weightlifting, hiking or a mix.\nShe eats her first meal around 10am, “usually something savoury”, as she tries to avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates. She describes her approach as “close to the Mediterranean diet”. A standard meal might be eggs, microgreens and cheese to start the day, with low-carb bread.\nShe also has a smoothie for breakfast, usually half vegetable, half fruit, with flaxseed, coconut water base and collagen powder. She eats a bigger meal mid-afternoon, a small snack in the evening, and goes to bed by 9pm.\nShe saves alcohol for special occasions, and is careful to get a good night’s sleep, keeping electronic devices outside the room.\n\nLigeros would not describe herself as a biohacker in the strict sense. She prefers not to use technology to collect data and track results.\n“That disengages you from your own inner voice and your innate sense of what is going on in your body. If you practise being in tune with what your body needs, it is more valuable than any device.\n“Stay active and listen to your body – that’s the best thing you can do.”\nThrough her lifestyle platform The RG Life, last month Ligeros launched a “reset retreat” in her hometown of Vail, Colorado, for women of all ages called The Labyrinth Summit. It involved four days of meditation and yoga with regular hikes at the Grand Hyatt Vail Resort and Spa.\nShe is planning a retreat in June next year, in a yurt in a forest close to her home. For more information, visit her website.\nArgie Ligeros’ memoir, Salutations, is available on Amazon.com.\nLike what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.\n