10 reasons you should try yoga with us at AJFitness.
Yoga is not just about becoming fit and flexible. Yoga is also about improving your mind. It can help reduce stress and increase concentration as well as helping to improve your posture.
Still need convincing?
1. beginner-friendly exercise
You can do as much or as little as you like. If you want to sit out for a couple of rounds you can. Exercise should be away of being nice to you body, not seen as a punishment.
2. Stress relief
A study published by Oxford University Press discovered that yoga could be an effective intervention for reducing stress and back pain at work. Study participants were split in to two groups of 37: the first performed a 50-minute yoga session every week for eight weeks, while the control group received no intervention. The yoga group reported significantly lower stress, back pain, sadness, and hostility than the control group. They also reported feeling self-assured, attentive, and serene.
3. Increased concentration and motivation
A study by the American College of Sports Medicine found that yoga can improve concentration, enhance motivation, and reduce anxiety within two months. Study participants completed three assessments during the second and ninth week of the study to measure concentration, motivation, and anxiety. According to the study authors, the improvements in all three areas were “dramatic.” This should come as no surprise, since yoga is regarded as a mindful discipline in the East.
Another study by the University of Illinois that appeared in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health found that yoga can improve focus and brain function. Thirty study participants took tests measuring their ability to focus, retain, and use information. One group performed aerobic exercise (walking on a treadmill), while others participated in a yoga class that concluded with a brief meditation and deep breathing. Those who performed yoga had a higher ability to focus, learn, and retain new information than those who walked.
4. Improved balance and stability
A study published by the Department of Veteran Affairs in the journal Stroke found that yoga improves motor function and balance after having a stroke. Three-quarters of all stroke survivors suffer from falls (which could break bones or end lives), so this is welcome news. Try out the yoga balances for beginners below if you’d like to move with grace.
5. Improved flexibility
A more flexible body capable of moving through its full range of motion is less susceptible to injury.
6. Corrected posture
Spending your days sitting in front of a computer is a sure way to wreck your posture. Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns - including obesity, increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels.
7. Sleep better
A study by the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School observed the effects of yoga on patients suffering from insomnia. They practices a 45-minute yoga sequence, including deep-breathing and meditation, every night for eight weeks. Participants reported statistically significant improvements in sleep efficiency, total sleep time, total wake time, number of awakenings, and quality of sleep.
8. Improved strength
Yoga helps to strengthen muscle which are being used to move through the different ranges of movements and to hold each pose whilst supporting the weight of the body. Muscles are also being strengthened by engagement for balance and support in lots of movements.
9. Feeling happier
When you practice, you raise seratonin, oxycotin and GABA levels in your body- Feeling “happy” has everything to do with the chemical reactions in your body. Practising yoga can also help to reduce blood pressure and cortisol, the stress hormone.
10. Benefit from having some you time
It's a challenge to let ourselves take some time out or some time to slow down. We seem to have a complex about busyness in our culture. Most of us do have time in our days that we could devote to simple relaxation, but we convince ourselves that we don't. Most people feel like if they take time out or take time to do nothing, that they are wasting time. Yoga class is a great way to do something and nothing in parallel.
Want to know what we mean? Contact us today to book your first class.