Yoga is a wonderful holistic mind-body workout. You strengthen your body on many levels. You develop focus and balance. You learn mindfulness and a keen awareness. In yoga you access the healing powers of nature to keep you strong and healthy.
Through teaching for over 7 years I have found yoga both a community/ social experience and an individual one. Each person incorporates yoga in their life in their own way. You could call it a flex plan. Some people take a weekly class. Some practice at home. Some people go to week long retreats. And some people meditate daily etc.
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Please tell me about your approach to yoga. How you have made yoga a part of your life and what it is for/ to you.
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Some benefits of yoga
So we all hear that yoga is relaxing. This is important, most of us are so amped up on the other side of relaxation. It is a form of relaxation that is both mellow and alert. It gives us a greater sense of ourselves and our world.
- Improve mood and sense of well-being
- Counteract stress
- Reduce heart rate and blood pressure
- Increase lung capacity
- Improve muscle relaxation and body composition
- Help with conditions such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia
- Improve overall physical fitness, strength, and flexibility
- Positively affect levels of certain brain or blood chemicals.
Fitness Yoga
This is the yoga I teach, another name it Vinyasa yoga. This includes flowing with the breath, moving moving moving and then towards the end of class slowing down and holding the poses.
We all want a work out that is efficient. Fitness yoga has a dual purpose. It is an intense workout. It gets the blood pumping, increases healthy chemistry in the body, burns calories,gets rid of cortisone, creates healthy habits of movement, increased IQ (yes it does!).
It is also relaxing. To much relaxation does not create that amazing body right? Yoga does. You balance ass kicking work with mind centering relaxation. You get a chance to rebuild and to process. It is that balancing act [work hard and take time for body to process that work].
Yoga and Running
Yoga is a mind exercise and a physical exercise. Running is to. When running you utilize the same muscles repetitively (legs). It builds up the cardiovascular system. It floods the body with all kinds of wonderful chemicals. (Endorphins, dopamine, anandamide etc.)
Yoga builds up those running muscles and kicks in the regeneration process. It is a beautiful combination, a symbiotic relationship.
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Ancient Yoga Master
Krisnamacharya (Professor Sri Trimulai Krisnamacharya is considered by many to be the grandfather of modern yoga)
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Sources: NIH, Running and Yoga
