Yoga helps you to get healthier in many ways. The 3 major areas yoga will help you are: regaining your flexibility, strengthening your muscles and stimulating your joints for a long, active life.
On some days flexibility seems to be something exclusively for the young generation. As we age, it is getting more and more challenging to touch out toes or touch our hands behind the back. If you feel as flexible as a block of wood, it is time to head to the studio!
Improving flexibility will be one of the first and most obvious benefits of your yoga practice. Of course with any new habit, you cannot expect results after taking only 2-3 classes. We recommend making a commitment to taking 10-12 classes in 3 months’ time to begin to realize the benefits of yoga can bring in to your life. Of course if you decide to do yoga twice a week (or even more if your time permits) at the studio, you will see results much faster.
Adding a simple home yoga practice can work wonders, too. Ask your yoga instructor next time for 3-4 easy poses you could do at home. Take 10-15 minutes every morning to actually do your practice and enjoy the change you will see in your flexibility.
Needless to say, just dreaming about practicing yoga will have very limited results… other than feeling good daydreaming for a few moments (not that feeling better isn’t a result already). If you want to see real change in your health, please take the time every few days to do yoga at home besides visiting the studio weekly.
Unless you decided to live as a hermit, you most probably heard about the importance of having strong muscles. Those muscles not only make you look good, and even looking slimmer, they burn calories hours after exercising. And that is a very welcome added help if you want to achieve your healthy weight.
Losing muscle is very easy unfortunately. Going on a diet can cause your muscles disappear first – leaving your fat cells enjoying a good laugh while sticking to your hips all the more.
Good strong muscles help with your balance, too. Especially the elderly need those muscles – they prevent falls very effectively.
Do you suffer from backaches? It might be a result of weak core muscles.
Yoga is special as it combines strength training with flexibility training. An amazing 2in1 combination that helps preventing injuries and saving you work-out time.
The third big area where yoga will benefit you is keeping your joints supple and healthy. Joints function as squishy sponges. The way they get nutrients is squeezing out the fluid and soaking new nutrition filled fluid up. This squeezing and soaking happens when you are moving and actually using those joints. Sitting many hours per day is killing your joints slowly. You need yoga moves to balance this out.
The hip joint is notorious for causing pain especially if you work in an office. Please watch this video for some of the best hip openers – they will help you to keep your hips cooperating for years to come. If you are not sure how to perform the postures, ask your yoga instructor next time you come to Clayton Yoga Studio!
Yoga will benefit your health – no doubt about it! You just have to keep practicing! Check out our yoga class schedule here.
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Thanks for posting this! I think people often forget that yoga works to strengthen muscles as well and they think of it as stretching only. I’ve been to many yoga classes that have made my muscles sore afterwards!