Guest yoga instructor Crystal Olry shares her Top Ten Reasons You Should Try Yoga
- Sexual Vitality
With regular practice, yoga can help give you flexibility, range of motion, and blood circulation, which can translate into enhanced performance! Yoga also focuses on self-acceptance of body and mind. When we start accepting ourselves right where we are, then others do too! Feeling better inside radiates, and that’s more attractive than any new pair of shoes! Although, I do love a new pair of shoes.
And if your libido is way off, check with your doctor…….chemical imbalances and circulatory problems are sometimes preliminary indicators for other chronic conditions.
- Stress Reduction
Through breath work, yoga teaches us how to calm the mind and the central nervous system while being in the midst of chaos. It’s very common to increase respiration at stressful times, this increased respiration causes an acid state of being, thus heightening receptivity. Maybe that’s great to have when being chased by a bear, but in everyday situations, keep calm and carry on……train the body to train the mind to decrease respiration and find peace.
- Improved Recovery Time
Let’s face it, good recovery time is essential, when you’re in the trenches of a good workout plan. After an intensely vigorous tabata class, for example, we can have sore and energy-depleted muscles. Yoga can help move energy (lactic acid for starters) through the body, thus decreasing muscle soreness and improving recovery time.
Oh yeah, nutrition’s pretty important also, have a tall glass of milk after that intense tabata class too…….cow or soy will do!
- Mental Focus
REALLY! How’s mental focus going to help me in my workouts? With regular yoga practice the mind will start to generate positive thoughts more often, instead of negative, judgmental, or unnecessary thought. Here’s an example of the mind at work in the middle of yoga class, The Mind:” I wonder if what I wore today looks good? I can’t do this crap, what does she think I am……FLEXIBLE!, Come, on come on, I need to get out of here…..I’ve got more work to do…….I wonder what we’re going to review in the meeting tomorrow at work.” The Trained Yoga Mind: “Wow this feels amazing, Inhale, Exhale, Inhale, Exhale, Inhale, Exhale, Oh a little tightness, ok, breath, slow down the breath, Ok, steady the mind again, relax tension in the face, breath, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, breathe.” Chitta-Chatta, be gone, Poof!
Oh, and by the way, removing all that chitta-chatta takes work! One of the hardest and most challenging mental workouts can be yoga…….but when we learn to tame the mind……..the mind will work for us instead of against us.
When we learn to observe our own patterns, we can start to remove obstacles that prohibit us from being our true authentic self and we can then begin to understand unique life potentials.
- It’s actually a COED practice
Yoga is just for girls! BZZZ, WRONG!!!!!!!! I find it ironic that somewhere along the way……lost in translation and across the seas, that yoga got morphed into a female dominated practice! when REALLY it was mainly a male associated practice in India nearly 5000 years ago. Women, were not invited to practice yoga in the beginnings. A female might have to stand on her head for two days or do something absurd like that before she was deemed worthy to practice yoga with other yogis. It has really been in the past 50 years that women have really embraced yoga in the West. Now, it’s time to take off the blinders, leave the stereotypes behind and realize that yoga is for everyone. The thing is about yoga……..there are so many styles and teachers, that if one particular class doesn’t speak to you, try another one! Here are some example of different class types…….Hatha, Vinyasa, Bikram, Ashtanga, Iyengar, & Restorative……….. We can also compare differing yoga types to different athletic types……..football, soccer, running, strength training, crossfit, tabata. Although we may have our favorites athletic type workouts, as well as our least favorites…….I think we can all agree that after trial and error and just plain exposure, we can have a deeper appreciation for each type of skill and physicality involved in each form or physicality whether sport or yoga.
- Injury Prevention
Water or Ice? When thinking about fluidity of muscles, I choose water! Yoga is designed to work the muscles around the joints, making them more stable and movable. I always say in class, “each joint deserves to go through a full range of motion every day!” However, if our muscles are really tight, then our joints don’t know what full range of motion is, thus causing stiffness, imbalances, and unhealthy joints. Yoga will offer the potential for length of muscles, thus allowing for fluidity of movement. Like water in a stream…….ahhhhh.
- Balance
Yoga is designed to bring us balance. Whether it’s standing on one leg or juggling all the day-to-day responsibilities, we have to PLAN balance into our lives. For example, most of us cannot stand on one leg for a whole minute…….while others say “my life needs more balance, without actively making a plan to incorporate those balancing elements. Well, let me give you a little tip, you’d better start practicing balance…….DAILY! Hang with me for a day in long term care and you will start to see how important practicing balance can be! Get the picture?
8. Overuse=Abuse
Overuse=Abuse
Yoga is designed to give physical balance to the body, as well as the mind. Strenuous exericse classes cause stress on the body. Repetitive overuse of certain muscles can cause tension and disproportion. When working out, we generally gravitate to work muscles that are already strong……..it’s kind of the ego’s fault really. “Like, Wow, or Like, Grrrrrrrr, my biceps are really strong, so I’m going to go pump some curls and see it I can up the anti today……… And while that’s ok, and sometimes actually encouraging……. And a LITTLE petting of the ego can be good. Don’t let the EGO get the best of you!
If you find a particular yoga posture or exercise is pretty darn difficult, it might be because of weak muscles, or other supporting muscles have not yet been trained. Digging into new territory could be exactly what the doctor ordered to avoid overuse and injury!
9. Yoga Buzz
Ever heard of yoga brain? Yoga is designed to rev up your brain enhancing serotonin, dopamine, and other happiness endorphins. I’m not going to say that I don’t love good beer from local Bloomington establishments like BBC and Upland from time to time, but sometimes that buzz fades away too quickly and leaves us in a less than optimal recovery state. The yoga buzz feels like “life is good”, “peace to all mankind”, “I feel alive”, and life starts to make a little more sense. Let me know when you get the yoga buzz. It may take several classes, so be patient. It’s kind of like if you’ve ever experienced runners high, but it’s not going to happen your first run out. So, keep working, be consistent, and have fun!
10. Prevent Chronic Conditions
Yoga, like other forms of exercise is designed to prevent, maintain, and possibly reverse chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. Did you know that exercise is like a free shot of insulin for type II diabetics. And by that I DON’T MEAN to alter your medicine on my account………but if your blood sugar is high after dinner……..a 15-20 minute walk with bring your blood glucose down approximately 100-300mg/dL. YES! Keep it in check!
So, there are instant benefits of exercise and long term benefits too! With practice, dedication, and consistency, body weight will be more manageable and stress levels will decrease. Then your blood and it’s beautiful circulation will dance around your body like Michael Jackson in Thriller!
Join Crystal for yoga on Wednesday nights from 7:30-8:30 p.m. at NGPT.
Crystal Olry M.S. Registered Dietitian
Destination Yoga Retreat Coordinator
Owner of Ekah Yoga-Ekahyoga.com
Thinking about a Spring Break vacation? No? Well you should be! Join us in Costa Rica March 14-19th for a Costa Rican Yogic Life Retreat. Find out more at ekahyoga.com.
