Home > For the Body > Yoga

Yoga

Click here for a schedule of our Yoga schedule

Yoga, which derives its name from the Sanskrit word “yuj”—to unite—does just that, bringing together the mind, body and spirit. But whether you use yoga for spiritual transformation or for stress management and physical well-being, the benefits are numerous. Yoga’s benefits are numerous, a high payoff for the amount of effort involved.

Physical Benefits Include:

  • Flexibility: Stretching your tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. One playful example of this is practicing backbends. Bending in the opposite direction can open up the back and chest creating better posture for breathing or treating general back pain.
  • Strength: Many yoga poses require you to support the weight of your own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg or supporting yourself with your arms. Inversions like Handstand create strength in the upper body and core while calming the mind.
  • Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, you can expect to see increased muscle tone. Holding poses like Warrior 1 and 2 are great for shaping long, lean muscles and teaches students how to focus their attention.
  • Pain Prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the causes of some types of back pain. Yoga also improves your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.
  • Better Breathing: Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body.

Mental Benefits Include:

  • Mental Calmness: Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching how you breathe and disengagement from your thoughts, which help calm the mind.
  • Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of yoga. Because of the concentration required, your daily troubles, both large and small, seem to melt away during the time you are doing yoga.
  • Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.