Yoga..aaaahhhh

As someone who realizes the importance of physical fitness and holistic healing I have wanted to learn yoga for years. I, however, like most Americans lead a go, go, go lifestyle and do not give myself much time to slow down and restore. My first pregnancy has given me just the push that I needed to give it a try. I despise aerobic exercise so up until this point I had always focused on more of a weight lifting routine to keep my body toned and in shape. Now with carrying another little life within me I became extremely limited in recommended physical activity. Like most pregnant women I was advised to reduce my work outs to walking, swimming, and yoga. I tried walking a lot and did not find it to be much of a workout. Living in Missouri does not afford many swimming opportunities outside of the summer months and yoga, well I did not know much about it. I began doing a little research and found the benefits to be endless pregnant or not. Focus on freeing your thoughts, controlling your breathing, stretching, and pushing your body beyond what you thought was possible is said to prepare women to better cope with labor and delivery as well as men and women looking just looking for a good strength workout with so many benefits.

I found yoga to be surprisingly challenging but overtime your body is able to adapt, lungs and muscles strengthening and stretching. The lactic acid that builds up with muscle use causing stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue is released through these yoga poses, or asanas. This will leave you feeling centered, much less stressed, more self aware, stronger, flexible and refreshed but this is just what I have experienced first hand after only two weeks. Other areas yoga is proven to help improve include self acceptance, relationships, learning, memory, posture, mood, heart function (lowering blood pressure and heart rate benefiting those who suffer from hypertension, heart disease, and stroke), immune system function, cholesterol, arthritis, asthma, insomnia, back pain, slowing the aging process, and improving energy levels. There is a reason for any and everybody to practice yoga. What’s yours?

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