What are the benefits of Yoga?
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a form of exercise which originated in India. The word yoga comes from Sanskrit and means ‘to join together.’ This joining together refers to the key focus of yoga: joining the mind, body and spirit. The joining of these factors is achieved through the three main practices of yoga: postures, breathing and meditation.
Yoga has been found to be effective for improving your physical fitness through areas such as flexibility, balance, strength and coordination. Additionally, yoga can be used as a great tool for assisting you with coping with stress and improving your general well-being.
The benefits of Yoga
Research shows Pilates programmes lead to various health improvements, such as:
Build Full-body strength
- Building strength doesn’t have to be done in a gym and through strength training sessions.
- Since yoga uses your own body weight as resistance this is a form of resistance training and can be a great way to build strength across your entire body.
Reduce and build a resilience to stress
- Research has shown yoga to “reverse” reactions in our DNA which cause stress and has also been found to lower inflammatory compounds in the blood.
- This is achieved since yoga helps our bodies adopt the relaxed, ‘rest and digest’, state of our nervous system
- By doing so, our body can start its recovery and begin to repair
Help with anxiety and depression symptoms
- Research found yoga to be one of the best forms of exercise for improving mood as it was found to increase GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) levels.
- This is important since low GABA levels are often associated with depression and anxiety.
- To reap the rewards, twice-weekly practice is the sweet spot, according to experts.
Suitable for all skill levels
- Classes and exercises can be scaled for different skill levels therefore suiting complete beginners and more advanced levels.
Weight loss/management
- Although perhaps not a key aim with yoga as this is often performed with the focus on mental well-being, yoga can be used to help with weight loss.
- Since weight-loss depends on being in a calorie deficit, yoga can help increase you energy expenditure (i.e. how many calories you burn) to help achieve this deficit.
Balance
- Experts suggest working against resistance to build strength and improve balance simultaneously, something yoga is brilliant for.
Flexibility
- Yoga offers many styles to choose from, varying in intensity from high to moderate to mild. Even the lowest intensity styles have been found to increase flexibility
What does Yoga involve?
Yoga is highly accessible as you need little to no equipment and it can be done anywhere providing you have enough room around you. Our classes mainly consist of floor-based exercises on a mat and at times incorporate the use of specialised equipment.
Classes focus on:
- Improving muscular strength and endurance
- Flexibility
- Balance
- Breathing
- Mindfulness
What we provide:
- 6 week block of classes (1 session per week)
Classes Available:
- Monday: 19:00
- Tuesday: 10:00
Something for you to try – a common breathing technique in yoga for relaxation
- Sit or lie in a comfortable position and place a hand on each side of your ribs.
- Take 10 deep breaths breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth
- As you inhale, feel your breath expand the ribcage and fill your stomach the same time.
- As you exhale gently, hug the belly in, keeping the awareness on the core.
Want To Find Out More About Yoga?
Please call us now on: 028 9187 1701 or visit our Contact Us page.