5 Reasons You Should… Try Yoga
People might think yoga is only for women, but those that aren’t doing it because of that stigma are depriving themselves of something that has taken the world by storm, and rightly so. Yoga has been proven to help both your mind and body, and every man and woman has those — so what’s stopping you?
We believe now is the best time to give yoga a shot, but if you’re not convinced yet, here’s five reasons why you should be:
1) It’s great for dealing with stress
Whether you let it get to you or not, everyone deals with stress. In today’s society, we often just accept it as ‘one of those things’, but the reality is that stress can be very harmful to our bodies, and we shouldn’t just accept it.
Through physical poses, breathing techniques and forms of meditation, yoga has been proven to help people deal with stress and anxiety. Even the sceptics can’t ignore that it lowers heart rate and blood pressure, and even a little bit of yoga once a day can help you manage your day-to-day life.
2) It’s a great work out
While yoga is a mind-body practice, and we believe the ‘mind’ aspect of yoga is what makes it so invaluable, there is no denying that it is also great for your body.
The variety of yoga poses and techniques mean that you can tailor a session to your liking to fit your capabilities perfectly, and the fact that some of these techniques use the weight of your own body to build strength means that you can easily build your muscles through squats, push ups, leg lifts, and more.
3) It can help you sleep better
Another important aspect of mental health is sleep, and doctors have talked for years about how important getting the right amount is to our health and mind-set. Similar studies have shown that light movement before bed, such as yoga, can help us fall asleep quicker — which generally means an improved sleep, and more of it.
Reports also suggest that looking at screens before you finally shut your eyes can be really harmful to your sleeping pattern, so even just an excuse to look away from your phone or television might be all you need.
4) It makes you more flexible
Whether it’s on the tennis court, between the sticks on a football pitch or even in the bedroom — being flexible is always important. Since so many poses and postures involve the spine, yoga is great for working out any kinks you might have.
This also applies to your arms and legs, too, and if you spend a few minutes a day doing yoga techniques, you might start to see the results pretty fast.
5) It can bring people together
While you can’t practice something like tennis or rounders in your house, you can definitely do some yoga - provided you just have enough room to lie down. To really get the most out of it though, we recommend you attend a local yoga class.
The professionals can tailor a specific regime for you that suits your current fitness and ability, but you can also meet great friends at these classes too. At Hoops, we’re firm believers in ‘the more the merrier’ when it comes to exercise and sport, and this is definitely the case for yoga too.
This seems like too perfect a moment for us to resist, so we should also mention our app that can help you find the nearest classes to you, other people interested in yoga, and if you’re a trainer, can even help you organise classes yourself.
We’d love to invite you to a private beta test here, where you can try our app out for free before anyone else gets the chance.
Let us know why you do (or don’t!) love yoga in the comments below, or you can even tell us on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Don’t forget to hit those like and follow buttons while you’re there to stay up to date with everything Hoops, but until then — see you in class!
