The benefits of yoga are there for anyone who has the desire to make a change.
Yoga is the most ancient and holistic system for physical, mental and spiritual well-being in the world. It is a complete lifestyle system that includes exercises, breathing practices, diet and meditation. Yoga exercises have become a mainstream means for physical activity in today’s society. Whatever the exercises might be, there is plenty of variety for all age groups from beginners to advanced.
Whether you want to try out yoga to boost your physical activity, to learn to have greater focus, or to relieve stress, there are many benefits from yoga exercises that will extend beyond the mat. Many of the benefits from yoga include:
- Improves flexibility
- Builds muscle strength
- Perfects your posture
- Increases balance
- Increases blood flow
- Makes you happier
- Helps to focus
- Relaxes your system
- Encourages self-care
- Reduce anxiety
There is often a stigma surrounding yoga. One that you must be extremely fit, stretchy or flexible to participate. This cannot be further from the truth. Although it is true that you might build up a bit of a sweat in our classes and stretch your body farther than you normally would. As you will soon see our yoga studios are both hygienic, beautifully lit and our instructors will make you feel completely at ease. Not only that, you’ll make a load of like-minded friends who, like yourself, are looking to improve their fitness, lose weight, clear your mind and increase your flexibility and energy levels.
Physical Benefits
So now that we have established that yoga is a totally natural practice and has many benefits, lets take a further look into the physical benefits that come from yoga:
Develops strength
If you’re looking to increase strength and increase muscle mass, then yoga can be a great option. Strong muscles do a lot more than just look good. They also protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain. When you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility, this in itself can be very beneficial. Instead of lifting weights to achieve strength training, yoga uses your own body weight to help build muscle.
Improves flexibility
Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. As you learn to bring yourself to your edge and go deeper into the stretches and poses within the yoga sequence, you will generally increase your flexibility. You will also tend to notice that aches and pains start to disappear, this is as you loosen up your body and muscles.
Increased Balance
Within yoga, finding balance both physically and mentally is a requirement for many of the poses that are held throughout a yoga sequence. This mindful movement encourages and develops balance as you transition through your yoga sequence.
Perfects you posture
Poor posture can cause back, neck and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. Yoga exercises all of these muscles in the right way and can correct your posture.
Mental Benefits
Along with the physical benefits of yoga, there are also some mental benefits:
Increases concentration and focus
Yoga requires physical and mental concentration as you learn to bring focus to your breathing and move through a sequence of poses. Bringing in an awareness of your body and breathing is a useful tool that can be used off the mat as you increase your concentration in your day to day activities.
Gives clarity and calms the mind
As you learn to concentrate on your breathing during your yoga practice, you will also bring your awareness to the present moment – releasing thoughts about the past and future. This practice is one that is developed over time, however, clarity and calmness of the mind is often developed when we can release the thoughts that come from our busy lives. Instead of getting caught up by the stresses of daily life that flood our mind, yoga helps us to observe our thoughts and release those which are not serving us well.
Reduces anxiety
According to a study on the effects of meditation, when we engage un in meditative practices we are actually rewiring the neural pathways in our brain. As you meditate, the neural connections between these two areas of the brain begin to loosen. After meditation, when a fear response is induced, you will no longer have such strong neural pathways that tie that sensation to you, meaning that you will be able to more clearly see the problem for what it is without automatically thinking you are at fault – ultimately resulting in reduced anxiety.
Bonfire Yoga attracts the world’s leading yoga teachers who will guide you on your journey to increased wellbeing. Our studios and facilities are incredible! Cast away your preconceived ideas of dark, smelly, intimidating yoga rooms; at Bonfire, you’ll be blessed with clean studios and friendly staff and be surrounded by happy, like-minded yogis.
To find out more about our yoga classes or to sign up, please click here.
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