This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at American chapter.
As collegiettes we are all constantly busy with schoolwork, sports, clubs, activities and internships. It is often challenging to find time to relax and unwind. Yoga provides a relaxing, stress-free environment while giving your body a workout. Plus, anyone can do it, so you’re bound to enjoy it!
- Fights food cravings: When you start craving a piece of chocolate mousse cake or you are tempted by that bag of Halloween candy, move into a simple relaxation yoga pose. The best poses to cure cravings are forward bend and child’s pose. We typically suffer from food cravings when we are bored or stressed and our body becomes tense. Through yoga movements, the body’s muscles become less tense and your judgment becomes clearer. Put down the bag of m&ms and take a stretch.
- Powers the brain: Coordination, memory, reaction time and even IQ levels have all been shown to improve through regular yoga practice. Yoga requires practices to focus on the present, not the future or the past. By doing this, you learn to be less distracted off of the mat and in real life, allowing yourself to demonstrate a higher problem solving skills and long-term memory.
- Strengthens and protects the spine and joints: Yoga routines give full motion to your joints. Since the cartilage in your joints experience squeezing in atypical ways, they are strengthened as they soak up new fluids and nutrients, which helps prevent degenerative arthritis. In addition, asana practices with bends and twists help keep spinal desks flexible.
- Lowers risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease: Most people recognize that yoga helps the body and mind to relax, but many are unaware that it does the same for the heart. A study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine reported that adults with hypertension, coronary artery disease and diabetes who incorporated yoga in to their daily lifestyle found improvements in blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
- Perform better in the bedroom: Yes, even your sexual health can benefit from a few downward dogs and pigeon poses. Balance and abdominal contraction poses increase blood flow and strengthen your core. Strong pelvic muscles and an increased sexual desire will lead to a more pleasurable and long-lasting sexual experience. In addition, yoga builds self-confidence, helping you to be more assertive in the bedroom. Check out womansday.com for more bedroom enhancing poses.
- Loosens your lymph nodes. Moving through yoga postures contracts and stretches muscles and increases drainage of the lymph nodes. A strengthened lymphatic system is able to more aggressively fight infection, dispose of toxic waste in the cells and destroy cancerous cells. Next time you feel your lymph nodes in your neck begin to swell, try a yoga routine to help combat the oncoming cold.
Improve your health and start practicing yoga! With a $65 semester pass through the AU fitness center you can attend an unlimited number of yoga classes run through the university. Check out the full group exercise schedule here.
Photo Credits:
http://www.yogaclass.ie/vinyasa-flow-poses.php
http://www.wellesley.edu/sites…