Fitness Book

The ancient techniques of yoga have been refined for modern times, bodies, and busyness. Its postures provide powerful techniques that can have lasting physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. Classes combine postures, breathing exercises, and meditation to produce a transformative effect.

Yoga strengthens muscles through holding various poses, knows as asanas. While at first you may find the asanas difficult, repetition through daily or weekly practice will strengthen and soften your muscles. Monitor your own body as you move through and hold the asanas. Your instructor may have ropes or blocks to assist you in navigating them to achieve maximum benefit without hurting your body. Some of the poses can be quite demanding – know your limits. Do not be embarrassed to ease a posture, do an easier level, or to sit quietly until the next pose. Your instructor should be sensitive enough to guide you to do what is right for your body.

Increased flexibility with improved range of motion

As your yoga practice deepens, you may find that you feel taller, your arms reach further, and that your stride is longer. Your muscles are not only strong; they are lean through so much stretching. This all contributes to a very graceful physique.

Better posture

Good posture is not about having a rigid back. It requires the full-bodied strength that yoga provides.

Natural weight loss

If you’re out to loose weight through yoga, go for one of the more vigorous styles such as Ashtanga. It is quick moving and will raise your heart rate. Another option is Power Yoga, often done at health clubs. It provides a cardiovascular workout that will help you drop the pounds. And last, is what is know as Hot Yoga. In this style, you are literally sweating your way through the poses because the heat is on. Literally. With Hot Yoga, your muscles will be more relaxed so you can sink deeper into your poses and those pounds will just drip off.

Greater body awareness

We all experience emotions in our body. After a fight with our spouse, we may find that our heart is racing, our stomach hardened, and that our palms are sweaty. This awareness can get very subtle. Maybe you haven’t noticed that when you are embarrassed you tense your thighs. Or that you look at your nails when considering something.
When we are relaxed in our bodies, we are also more attuned to our senses. Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch all give us invaluable feedback about our environment. A more heightened experience, a more graceful sensitivity to our surroundings can lead to greater levels of happiness.

Reduced stress and tension

It is known that exercise is good for stress-reduction. But yoga combines physical movement with breathing techniques, which you can use to deal with stress. Controlled breathing accompanies your movements through the asanas, which brings balance to the body and moves any stagnation.
By learning to attune and focus your mind on your physical movements and breathing, you can quiet your mind through yoga. But in daily life, through the repetition of your practice, yoga becomes ingrained and can help you reign in those thoughts that used to send you over the deep end. It can give you applicable and valuable de-stressing techniques that you can apply both on your yoga mat and in the moment, wherever you are.

Improved concentration

An untrained, undirected mind is clumsy, confused, and chaotic. By practicing on the yoga mat, you can train your mind to focus on the pose, your breath, or on anything you want in your daily life. There is less distraction and you can apply yourself more fully to the task at hand, becoming more effective in anything that you do.

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