I really like yoga, and I think that a lot of the time people give it a bad rap. If you're going to spend time working out you might as well work really hard and burn a lot of calories right??? Wrong. Sometimes that's nice, but balance is a lot nicer. I didn't give much credit to yoga and stretching until I took a class down in Hawaii, and I've been converted ever since.
I've been thinking a lot about yoga lately because my back is really aching right now. Hauling around this big baby and his car-seat, and his diaper bag, and my bag... it's quite a lot of weight. So I've been trying to stretch it out and relax a little, and it's starting to help.
One thing that I have noticed in exercise is that variety is key. It takes a little bit of everything to build a strong body, and yoga will help you to do this. Yoga is good for your mind, your spirit, and your body. There is a huge list of benefits of yoga here, but I will just list a few of them:
- Anxiety and depression decrease
- Attention improves
- Mood improves
- Posture improves
- Pulse rate decreases
- Tones muscles and adds flexibility
If you are new to yoga I suggest that you start with doing a sequence called a Sun Salutation. It's a few different yoga poses done in a row, and repeated a few times. There is a great diagram of the sun salutation at this site. The actually show you a little guy doing all the moves, so if you have any questions you can follow him. Here he is doing my favorite pose, the downward dog...
If any of you actually try it, let me know how you like it!!! I'm going to make it a goal to do my sun salutations every night before I go to bed, I think that it will help me sleep better and work out these back kinks that are going on.
Sometimes you don't know of a good thing unless you actually try it out. So if you have never given yoga a chance, try something new today.
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