Why I Love Yoga

I’ve been doing yoga for about a year now, but I just recently got into the habit of doing it every day (or at least five days a week). I also do some cardio and weight training, but I don’t enjoy either of those as much as I do yoga. It’s just so relaxing, but I still feel like I got a really good workout in afterwards. In this post I am going to share the benefits of yoga, and also a little bit of my personal experience with each of them.

It makes you stronger and more toned. Yoga targets all muscle groups in the body with both static holds and dynamic movement. You’re constantly supporting your own body weight throughout the movements, building strength in the parts of your body that really need it. I can definitely tell a difference in how strong I have become since I started making yoga a part of my workout routine, especially in my core. I’ve never had the strongest abs or core, and yoga has helped improve it a lot. Sometimes if I do a particularly hard yoga flow, or sometimes even just out of the blue, I feel really sore in certain parts of my body, especially my thighs, glutes, and triceps. It takes a lot for me to feel sore after a workout, so I know that yoga is really working and making me stronger.

You will become more flexible. Yoga doesn’t only focus on strengthening your muscles, but also stretching them out. This helps with improving your flexibility, therefore improving your mobility. You will be able to complete everyday movements (like kneeling, bending, or reaching) with a lot more ease after practicing yoga regularly. I can definitely tell a huge difference in my flexibility. I was never a very flexible person (and I’m still not), but I can see big improvements, especially while I’m doing yoga. Becoming more flexible will also decrease your risk of injury. When you become more agile, you bend instead of break.

You will build self-confidence. Because yoga connects your mind to your body, it will bring you more self-love, and also bring your more self-confidence. Yoga is a challenge, and when you continually see improvements and are able to do more of the poses and movements, you will see yourself as stronger and more capable. It always makes me feel so good when I can do something in my yoga practice that I couldn’t do the day, or even week, before. It makes me feel strong and love my body even more. It also gives me motivation to continue. If I never saw improvements, I would want to quit and give up, but when I can tell that I’m getting stronger and flexible, I want to continue practicing yoga every day.

You will burn calories. There are so many types of yoga: yoga for strength, yoga for weight-loss, yoga for relaxation, and many more. No matter which type of yoga you choose to do, you will always be burning calories because it is physical activity. But, the added bonus of yoga is that the deep breathing will also reduce your stress, which is a big cause of weight gain. I do yoga to feel better and to get stronger, not to necessarily “lose weight.” I can say, though, that when I do yoga on a regular basis and eat clean, I can see a big change in the appearance of my body, especially around my stomach. That brings me to another point: doing yoga brings mindfulness to my eating habits and makes me want to eat cleaner. When I eat badly, I don’t see as many improvements, and sometimes struggle to get through my workout.

It will improve your posture. Yoga will give you a stronger core and more stability and mobility, leading to better posture. Better posture can lead to lower levels of anxiety, improves productivity, reduces back pain, and helps you breathe better. I can tell a big difference in my posture since doing yoga, and it definitely helps to make my back feel better, and also makes me feel more confident.

There are so many more benefits that come with doing yoga, but I didn’t want to make this post super long. If you want to learn more about it, google the benefits of yoga, and you will definitely see why people love it so much. I hope that this post motivated you to at least try it out, and if you do, I’m sure you’ll love yoga as much as I do. Thanks for reading!