Workout Classes Jasper: Benefits of Yoga

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Benefits of Yoga

August 21, 2018

The wonderful thing about fitness and working out is that there is not just one way to do it. There are endless options that can keep you physically active. From going for a run or lifting weights to playing basketball with friends, there are so many different ways to stay fit.

Even gyms don’t offer one machine or workout style. When you join a fitness center, you will have a huge variety of workout options available to you. You will have access to weights, cardio machines, swimming pools, basketball courts, workout classes, and more. This is the exciting part of working out, if you don’t like one thing, you may like another! Or if you get bored with your current workout routine, you can switch it up easily.

Next time someone uses that excuse that they get bored working out, we give you permission to roll your eyes. Or better yet, tell them to try something new, like a Les Mills workout class!

At BodyPlex Fitness, you will never get bored with our endless options of exercise machines and workout classes! We offer the Les Mills group workout classes that are fun, exciting, and will definitely make you break a sweat. We also have a ton of workout equipment for those days you don’t feel like joining in one of our classes. With locations in Woodstock and Jasper, you can find the gym closest to you!

While we offer a ton of Les Mills fitness classes, we are going to focus on one today. BODYFLOW™ is the yoga-inspired Les Mills fitness class. In this blog, we are going to talk about BODYFLOW and the benefits of yoga. If you have never tried yoga but have considered trying it, read on! We will convince you that you need yoga in your life.

The first thing you should know is that the benefits of yoga are not just physical. Yoga can provide mental, emotional, and overall health benefits.

Physical Benefits

Yoga is a type of workout that seems calming, relaxing, and, as some may assume, easy. But if you have ever done yoga, you know that it is not easy. Yoga can offer many different physical benefits. Let’s take a look at some of these!

Improved Flexibility

This is one of the main benefits of yoga. As you begin yoga and do it more often you will notice your flexibility improve. Suddenly, you will be able to touch your toes. While you may be asking yourself, why is becoming more flexible such a big benefit? An article from Yoga Journal mentions that having tight muscles can lead to pain in different areas of the body and when you have inflexibility in your muscles and connective tissues, you can have poor posture, which again, attributes to pain.

Improved Strength

Yoga can also build strength in your muscles. As you hold yourself in different positions for a while, you will start working your muscles more and more and gaining more strength. While building muscle can help you look good, it can also help protect you from back pain and other conditions, such as arthritis. Yoga offers a combined benefit of strength and flexibility. You would not get these benefits at the same time if you simply went to the gym to lift weights.

Improved Core

Your core strength affects a variety of different things in your life. An article from Gaiam mentions that the best way to build core strength is to do isometric exercises. Isometric exercises are basically workouts that you do while holding a position for a while, like a plank or any other yoga position. Good core strength can help improve both balance and flexibility.

We could go on and on about the physical benefits yoga has to offer, but since we bragged about the mental and emotional benefits we need to cover those too! Along with these physical benefits of yoga, you can also expect:

Increased endurance
Improved posture
Better bone health
Protects joints
And more!

Okay, now that you know more about the physical benefits, let’s move on to the others!

Mental and Emotional Benefits

While working out in general offers a ton of mental benefits, we are going to look at yoga specifically and how it can help your mind!

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Boosts Emotional Health

According to Everyday Health, a study from Duke University Medical Center, yoga could benefit those with depression, schizophrenia, and other psychiatric conditions. Yoga is also great for alleviating stress. Stress causes a lot of problems and health issues and reducing stress is a must! There are many yoga poses that are calming and relaxing, which help reduce stress. And in turn, that will help your overall mood and health.

The Yoga Journal article mentions a study that found that doing yoga consistently helps improve depression and can lead to a significant increase in serotonin, while decreasing cortisol, the stress hormone.

Improves Insomnia

If you have trouble sleeping and have tried everything to get a good night of sleep more regularly, yoga may be the answer. The Everyday Health article mentions that yoga proved to be one of the most effective forms of complementary and alternative medicine strategies to help with insomnia. Certain yoga positions can help relax your mind and body on a sleepless night. If you are having trouble getting to sleep one night, try laying on your back with your feet up the wall. This is just one position that can help calm your mind and body and help your sleep for the night.

Improves Focus

During a yoga session, you are forced to focus on the present, on your breathing, and on your body. The Yoga Journal article mentions that studies have found the regular yoga practices can help improve focus. Constant yoga can also help improve coordination, memory, reaction time, and IQ score. This could be due to the fact that yoga practitioners don’t have as much on their mind and are less distracted by thoughts!

These are some of the mental benefits that yoga can offer. Now, let’s take a look at some of the overall health benefits!

Overall Health Benefits

Exercise, in general, offers a variety of health benefits, but yoga may be even more beneficial. Read below to learn more about these benefits!

Improves Eating Habits

While doing yoga is not going to instantly make you crave salads over donuts, it will help make you see food differently. An article from Fitness mentions that a research from the University of Washington found that people who practice yoga regularly ate more mindfully than those who did other workouts. Yoga is very mind, body, and soul focused. It forces you to think about your body, your breathing, and the sensations you are feeling. This means that you pay more attention to the sensation of hunger. You will begin to see food as fuel for your body and you may even notice you are not snacking as much. You will also likely be more conscious of what you put into your body.

Fertility Aid

While there is not enough information to say that yoga is directly linked to conceiving a child, many couples have been using yoga as a way to reduce stress and to increase their chances of getting pregnant. But reduced stress is not the only way that yoga can help with conception. Yoga can help with infertility because it helps the mother-to-be relax and open energetic channels. It can also increase blood flow to reproductive organs, which can improve the organ function and hormone function. If you are looking for fertility aids, give yoga a try.

Some other overall health benefits that yoga has to offer are mentioned in the article we highlighted in this blog. Some of these benefits included relieving hangovers, ease symptoms of asthma, reduced symptoms of PTSD, boosts the immune system, eases pain, and so much more.

While you may look at yoga as a simple workout for those who don’t actually want to put effort into their fitness routine, you are wrong. First of all, yoga is tough. Try it once and you will agree. Second of all, yoga offers so many benefits that you would be silly not to try it and add it to your fitness routine! Join BodyPlex Fitness in Woodstock or Jasper and start attending BODYFLOW classes. You will not regret it! Contact us with any questions and start a free trial membership now!

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