Every morning at 5:30 a.m., while the world was still asleep, Ida Herbert of Canada was already on her mat — flowing through her sun salutation practice with the quiet discipline of someone who understood, better than most, that movement is life. At 95 years of age, she was not just practising yoga. She was teaching it.

Ida’s relationship with yoga was inseparable from her decades of service at the YMCA, where she had guided countless students through the practice. Her commitment to health and physical wellbeing was not a late-life hobby but a lifelong calling — a vocation she continued to honour long past the age when most people have put down the broom, handed over the keys, and settled into rest.

In 2012, the World Records Authority officially certified Ida Herbert as the world’s Oldest Yoga Teacher — still actively teaching at 95. The certification was a celebration not only of her extraordinary longevity but of the philosophy she embodied: that the body responds to what you ask of it, and that asking should never stop.

Ida Herbert leaves behind a lasting legacy of inspiration. Her story is a reminder that dedication to movement, practised consistently over a lifetime, can carry you further than anyone might imagine — and that the mat is never truly out of reach.