As a Venice Nutrition Coach for many years, I’m all for trying anything that promotes a healthier, fitter body.   Yet, whenever anyone attempted to persuade me to try yoga, I was skeptical.    After all, I’ve always been that girl in the gym sweating it out, lifting ridiculously heavy weights and sprinting until my hips ached, silently telling myself, “no pain, no gain”.  I looked good but felt fatigued, sore and unbalanced.  Regardless, I kept living by my motto until I actually got hurt in the gym.  I mean really hurt.    This pain was certainly not worth any gains I’d ever achieved.   My injuries were so bad, I had to stop all of my workouts and start extensive physical therapy.  Without realizing it, a lot of the strengthening and stretching moves that my physical therapists recommended to heal my muscle imbalances, core weakness and misaligned back and hips, were actual yoga moves.  It was time for me to change my ways and most importantly my way of thinking.  It was time to create a healthy body, mind and soul. 
 
Though I’m very much a “newbie” to yoga and I’ve only lightly scratched the surface of all that it has to offer, I’m tremendously grateful that yoga has become a part of my life.  I’m also completely astounded at the seemingly infinite list of benefits that yoga has to offer.  My research felt endless simply because the facts just kept piling up! 

What intrigues me most about yoga is that it’s a great workout for the body and for the mind.  And despite popular notion, it’s not all about twisting your body into a pretzel!  Ask any seasoned yogi why they love yoga so much and chances are they’ll admit to being absolutely addicted to the mind/body connection and the mental clarity they feel after they practice.   The way their body feels (and looks) because of regular yoga practice seems to be just an added bonus.   Do I think that every well rounded workout includes resistance training and cardiovascular exercise?  Yes.   But throughout my own experiences and extensive research, I now firmly believe that a balanced workout routine should include yoga too.  Here’s why (just a heads up...you are about to be very pleasantly surprised):

Yoga can:
 
1.  Increase your strength.  Don’t believe it?  Try holding a yoga pose in perfect alignment.  I'm willing to bet you'll shocked at how challenging a workout it can be.   On another note, there are so many forms and levels of yoga that it can easily be adapted for beginners (read:  no contorting your body into a pretzel) all the way to advanced students.

2.  Increase your flexibility.  Stretching the body safely and moving gently from pose to pose is fantastic for mobility and releases lactic acid build up that causes pain, tension and fatigue.
 
3.  Increase lubrication of your joints, ligaments and tendons. 

4.  Increase your muscle tone.  Muscles that are weak (there are so many neglected muscles that are hardly worked throughout your regular day or exercise routine) are used extensively as you move through a series of yoga poses.

5.  Increase your core strength.  Yoga can help you to develop deep core strength because the majority of the poses rely on those core muscles.

6.  Improve your posture.  Increased strength, flexibility and body awareness can help you to improve your posture in both standing and sitting positions.

7.  Improve your energy levels and awaken the mind.

8.  Relieve chronic pain (such as neck, joint or back pain).  A seasoned yoga instructor or therapist can help you adapt postures to avoid further injury and release tight muscles, strengthen weaknesses and re-align imbalances.

9.  Help you to avoid injury by keeping the body mobile and strong.

10.  Promote circulation.

11.  Improve your lung capacity and respiratory health through deep breathing exercises.  This can also be a very powerful benefit for athletes who wish to improve their endurance levels.

12.  Improve your outlook on aging by making you look and feel younger.

13.  Help you relax and handle challenging situations more effectively.

14.  Can encourage self acceptance and positive thinking.

15.  Drastically improve your stress levels and help you to feel a sense of calm.  Yoga practice includes meditation which teaches you how to ignore the endless “mind chatter” that leads to stress.  The result is also biochemical; practicing yoga decreases stress hormones.

16.  Reduce your depression and increase your happiness.
 
17.  Increase your focus

18.  Lower your blood pressure and slow your heart rate, and especially help those with hypertension, heart disease or stroke.

19.  Boost your immune system function.

20.  Decrease cholesterol and triglyceride levels

21.  Increase your body awareness, which helps you to correct your posture or alignment.  This awareness allows you to gain the most benefits and prevent injury during other workouts and even throughout your everyday movements.

22.  Help alleviate medical conditions such as asthma, insomnia and arthritis.  Research in the US is still being done on this topic, but medical researchers are hopeful and suggesting therapeutic yoga as a form of treatment for sufferers.

23.  Help with learning and memory.  Some studies are suggesting improvement in these areas with regular yoga practice.
 
As you can see, the benefits of yoga are vast and quite powerful!    Anyone, no matter their age, lifestyle, goals, or limitations has something wonderful to gain from practicing yoga.   If you are interested in incorporating yoga into your lifestyle, I would recommend finding a beginners or foundation class to get started.  Always make sure to let your instructor know of any health challenges or injuries you may have so he or she can modify the poses to best suit your needs.

Namaste!

My best,

Valerie Cogswell
Lead Nutrition Coach and Head Chef

*info derived from healthandyoga.com, spine-health.com and webmd.com