Are You Thinking About Yoga? If Not, Here Are 3 Reasons You Should Be
MateFit - Are You Thinking About Yoga? If Not, Here Are 3 Reasons You Should Be
The fitness trend has exploded Detox over the past few years. As of late, people are super into strength training, building muscle, etc. #strongisthenewskinny which is totally great. Strength and endurance training do wonders for your overall health and life expectancy. But, does anyone remember how bonkers people were over yoga before all the CrossFit wave hit? Yoga was, like, it! And it kind of seems like it’s fallen by the wayside in lieu of whatever exercise it is that will make you look like a fitness model. Again, we’re obviously hugely into this craze ourselves, but can we just take a second to talk about how obsessed we are with yoga? Depending on your fitness goals, yoga is either the perfect workout or supplemental workout, but, either way, it fits your active lifestyle. If you’re even thinking about taking up yoga, here are three reasons why you definitely should:
Mind Body Connection This phrase may elicit a groan from some folks, it sounds a bit granola, I know. Really, what we mean by this is that practicing yoga provides you the opportunity to connect with your body in a way you may not otherwise have. When your workouts consist of high impact activities, you’re probably more focused on your form than the small signals your body may be sending you in the process.
Yoga is entirely about listening and connecting with your body. It’s not even necessarily about improvement, which is kind of a nice change! It’s an hour or so that you can be quiet and focus only on listening to how your body reacts to you and how you’re treating it. You may be surprised to find that you’re much tighter in certain areas or that you need to give some key joints a few day’s rest. Taking the time, paying attention and granting your bod some moments of TLC will reenergize you and help you make improvements in your primary physical activities.
Give Yourself A Goal To Do Something Active Each Day: It might not be your average workout, but try to get out and move for at least 30 minutes. Whether it be a walk around your neighborhood, or even housework like sweeping, mopping, vacuuming. You can stay active and keep your house in tip top shape.
Emotional Benefits Yoga cannot be discussed without taking a huge pause to point out the inner feel goods you get from the practice. We could go on and on about each one of these perks, but we think it’s more important that you at least know what they all are, so here’s a list: increases patience, improves concentration, grounds you, stimulates creativity, confidence booster, lowers stress levels, improves depth perception, calms nerves, decreases depression levels, boosts memory…and the list.goes.on. It takes a very dedicated person to even meditate “correctly”, which, instructors will say you’re doing it right no matter what, but chances are you want to do it perfectly which obviously means that your mind is totally blank, right? Wrong. The dedicated person who’s doing it right is the person that allows their mind to wonder and forgives themselves when it goes too far and they have to reign it in. Yoga teaches us to not only push ourselves, but also to remember that we’re human and deserve a break from our inner scorekeeper every now and then.
Tight Like a Tiger Ok, back to the physical realm. Let’s talk about those of us who want to check out yoga as our main source of exercise. Good news is, there is no appropriate age range or fitness level to get started. Every pose has several variations to accommodate any fitness level. Not to mention, yogis always seem to be, like, the nicest souls on earth, so if you’re nervous to attend your first class, don’t be. They’re dying to help you and think you’re awesome for even showing up. For real though, yoga can give you some seriously svelte muscles. Have you seen Jennifer Aniston? She’s credited yoga as the secret to her bangin’ body for years. Beyond the outward physical benefits, it does marvelous things for your insides, too. Think detoxing your organs, decreasing frequency of headaches, decreasing cellular aging (yes, please!), improving digestion, stretching and lengthening muscles, etc. There are dozens of yoga varieties from those that are solely focused on just breathing to super hardcore classes made to make you sweat! There truly is a buffet of choices when it comes to your yoga practice, not to mention, hundreds of online videos you can access for FREE.
So, whether you’re going totally yogi or just dipping your toe in the ohm pond, just do it. We promise you won’t regret it!
