By Jennifer Dixon MBA ERYT 500 – This is the first of a mini-series that will explain the way yoga can help improve your quality of life. I hope to show you that yoga isn’t just for the flexible, it isn’t just for the youngsters, and it can totally help YOU..regardless of where you are today. I hope you enjoy!
When you were younger, did you think about going out and exercising? My guess is probably not. If you had a mom like mine and it was summer or weekend or still nice out, my mother would ask why we were inside. She’d make sure we weren’t ill or that homework was done and then we were expected to be outside, “getting our wiggles out.” As was the neighborhood custom, right around sundown parents would stand on front porches and yell for their respective kids. Our next door neighbor must have moonlighted as a ball announcer because I swear to you, Mr.Johnson could be heard clear across town. My mother refused to yell for us, so our instructions were, if Mr. Johnson is yelling, we better come home too.
But I digress.
Movement was just a part of being young. Little did we know, movement was a part of health and wellness. In fact, our own government now realizes the importance of moving for kids in a study that said,
“Strong evidence demonstrates that higher amounts of physical activity are associated with a reduced risk of excessive increases in body weight and adiposity in children ages 3 to 17 years.”
Here’s the thing, physical activity shouldn’t end with adolescence. It MUST continue into adulthood–not just for the “adiposity” aspect, but also for the general overall improvement in quality of life, health, and general wellness in you and in everyone you love, regardless of age.
That same study showed evidence that regular physical activity helps improve everything from cognitive abilities, sleep, risk for falls, bone health, chronic diseases and so much more!
It stands to reason, therefore, that Every.Single.Body can benefit from physical activity, regardless of age.
That means YOU can benefit from physical activity! Here’s the thing, you don’t have to go out and run a marathon to get the benefits of physical activity.
Yoga can help with that!
A regular yoga practice can help you build strength, flexibility, endurance, bone density, lung capacity, sleep quality, and can help fight against fatigue, anxiety, stress and so much more–which all leads to improved overall quality of life!
Over the next several weeks, we will dive into these benefits and I hope that I can show you how when you incorporate a regular yoga practice into your life, that you can expect to see true improvement in your wellness. You can get these benefits without huge investments of money (you just need comfy clothes and a yoga mat) and you can see these benefits almost immediately. I welcome you to join us in the studio today or, if you’re not in the area and you’re looking to really focus on getting stronger, join us online in our supportive online community focusing on getting back our health as mamas. This online membership will challenge you physically while helping you to relax and stretch all while keeping you engaged and challenged well into the future. I hope to see you on the mat soon!