We all know that yoga comes from India, and is over 2000 years old. Most classes these days focus on asana – physical poses – but going back to yoga’s roots, the oldest records of the practice make scant reference to any poses except seated ones.
I like to think of it as a practice that connects the mind and body with the breath, promotes mindfulness in action and intention and a deeper connection to the energy (prana) that drives all of us.
What benefits does yoga for beginners have for your mind?
Used to logging your reps and sets and celebrating PBs? Before we start, let’s just get this out of the way: yoga’s a bit different. Rather than counting your chaturangas, it’s time to think about how your practice feels. A good yoga teacher will encourage you to listen to your body and never push you past your limits.
Flexibility
Yoga promotes flexibility through the whole body through a combination of active and passive static stretching, as well as dynamic stretching in a vinyasa class or series of poses such as a sun salutation.
Yoga increases the elasticity of the connective tissue around every muscle and joint, as well as enlisting neurological mechanisms that allow muscles to release and extend. This all adds up to a bendier you.
Strength
Because you can’t stay in savasana forever. A balanced yoga routine will include bodyweight exercises – chaturanga is a tricep press-up, really – which will build bone and muscle strength and help ward off osteoporosis.
Related: The best yoga studios in Sydney
Back health
A key part of yoga is moving the spine in all directions. The movement boosts blood flow to discs – nutrients in, waste products out, boom!
What benefits does yoga for beginners have for your mind?
The most important, oldest yoga text, The Yoga Sutra by Patanjali, describes yoga as a practice designed to ‘calm the fluctuations of the mind’.
Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the ‘rest and digest’ response to life) through breath work and postures like child’s pose and savasana. Active relaxation contributes to the production of serotonin, the feel good hormone.
Related: The best yoga studios in Perth
Breathing for yoga for beginners
The simplest and most powerful way of getting started is by focusing on your breath. Being fully aware and awake to a smooth deepening of breath the process of mindfulness can begin.
The cultivation of slow, deep and mindful breathing is the cornerstone of any yoga practice. It has profound and proven effects on the diaphragm, the capacity of the lungs and overall health in body and mind.
So, breathe in slowly through your nose…
This article originally appeared on Women’s Health U.K.
