Give yoga a try and discover what it can do for body and mind.

A central premise in yoga is "everything is connected." That's clear when looking at the health and fitness benefits of yoga that have long been reported by practitioners and are now being confirmed by scientific research.

STRESS RELIEF. Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.

PAIN RELIEF. Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.

BETTER BREATHING. Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body's relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.

FLEXIBILITY. Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can't touch their toes during their first yoga class. Practitioners begin to use the correct muscles to make the movement and, over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles gradually lengthen and elasticity is increased. These gradual changes can mean that more and more poses are possible.

INCREASED STRENGTH. Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while the postures practiced in yoga strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT. Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.

IMPROVED CIRCULATION. Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body's cells.

CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING. Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

BETTER BODY ALIGNMENT. Yoga helps to improve body alignment, resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.

FOCUS ON THE PRESENT. Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved coordination, reaction time and memory.

"Yoga leads to a body that is easeful, a mind that is peaceful, which results in a life that is useful." -- Swami Satchidananda, a pioneer in bringing yoga to the United States.

 

Six guiding principles for Hatha Yoga technique

1. Breathe. Feel your breath and use it to center your mind. Initiate all movement from the breath, and let it sustain you in your positions. In Yoga, the breath is recognized as having energy or “prana” – meaning a “life force” like an energy field that is all around and permeates all the universe.
2. Allow yourself to stay grounded, releasing weight  into the floor to use rebound effect of gravity, anchoring while releasing excess muscle tension to find balance.
3. Your attention must be focused in a discriminating way in each asana until your focus of “effort” and your “perception” of what the asana feels like, join together to guide you to “perform the asana more correctly.”
4.  Through physical practice, we embody the physics of the universe. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Awareness of opposing forces and lengthening from both ends give us strength, balance and freedom in both movement and stillness.
5. “Perfection” in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached. Your ability to relax, aided by Yoga’s restorative poses, is vitally important to the practice of Hatha Yoga. All effort must be balanced with equal amounts of surrender in order to gain full benefits of practice.
6. Be open to trying new ways of doing Yoga to surprise yourself, thus enhancing consciousness and encouraging growth. But don’t let ego or pride enter into your practice, as this will lead to despair and impurity of faith.

 

Yoga for Women

 

A consistent Yoga practice supports women physically, emotionally, and spiritually – but adapting your practice to meet your needs at each juncture is vital. While you can enjoy a challenging yoga regimen at any age, you’ll get the most from a practice tailored to the present – in other words, customized for your stage in life and how you’re feeling on any given day. Taking time to be aware of what’s happening in your life, in your body, and with your emotions is the key to getting the most from what Yoga can offer you, all through your life.

 

Here is a quick guide to a lifetime of practice.

 

Adolescence. Start off with a dynamic sequence to release energy, then quiet the body and mind with seated poses and forward bends.

Childbearing years. Now’s the time to take up meditation. Studies show that 20 minutes of meditation twice a day lowers blood pressure, decreases anxiety, and improves both sleep and memory.

Perimenopause. Inversions can relive stress and insomnia, twists can relieve fatigue and depression, forward bends help ease irritability and anxiety.

Postmenopause. Weight bearing poses may help keep your bones strong and improve joint function. A consistent asana practice can help maintain your range of motion and flexibility.

Why guys should be doing yoga

1 Good for you

Research has shown that yoga can help manage and sometimes get rid of all those ailments that you are taking tons of pills for. Whether it is arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, stress, high blood pressure, asthma, depression, back pain, or other pains and problems, yoga can help and even cure it.

2. Helps you in your favorite sport

Yoga will help you in your favorite sport or other activity through the use of proper breathing, alignment, and awareness. When you can relax into a difficult pose or learn to breathe better while moving into a yoga position, your strength, flexibility, and balance improves. In yoga your practice doesn't end when you step off of the mat. The good habits you practice on the mat carry over and directly relate to what you are doing elsewhere throughout your day, and especially on the sporting field.

3. Boosts your self esteem.

There's nothing like seeing yourself improve day by day and that's what happens every time you step onto the yoga mat. Performing yoga helps you learn more about your body, in order to better yourself as a whole. And when you are doing yoga you learn to get out of your own way, and let your body learn and explore like it was meant to do. With this comes new, pleasant surprises and a better you.

4. Improves concentration and creativity.

Try standing on one leg and really focusing on your breath. Can't do that if you aren't concentrating. When we are in flow with our bodies and fully focusing on the breathing, and movement of our yoga, we create a wonderful habit that helps us focus on the tasks in our daily life. By removing the outside noises and achieving this concentration, we are opening ourselves up to a more productive and creative environment. And this new awareness just might help us get that big promotion or sink that difficult putt.

5. Helps the body help itself.

Doing yoga can stimulate the immune system and help us fight off nasty things like colds and other illnesses. A steady exercise program like Yoga has been shown to boost our immune capacity and help us fend off bugs.

6. Reduces stress and tension.

Cell phones, long commutes, the neighbor's dog and kids can all drive you crazy if you don't know how to deal with the stress. Yoga can show you ways to reduce your stress and even laugh at stress in the face. How's that for a 5,000 year old exercise program?

7. Lowers body fat.

Studies have shown that doing 30 minutes of yoga just four days a week coupled by a sensible diet can lower a body fat levels. Any  exercise done four days a week will lower body fat, but only yoga carries all of the other benefits along with it.