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woman doing yoga at sunset
woman doing yoga at sunset
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SBU | Wellness

Why I Love Yoga

Alexandra Iannarelli Student Contributor, St. Bonaventure University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Many people who know me, know my undying love for yoga, but not everyone understands why I love it so much. 

Since I can remember, I have always loved yoga. When I was growing up, I would spend summers at daycare with my older brother and friends. Of course, they had to keep us busy throughout the days while our parents were away working, but the beating summer heat got to be too much at times. That’s when they introduced us to yoga. 

One of the women that taught at our daycare would come in and for about 45 minutes every day, she would teach us yoga. 

This was always my favorite time of day; I always found it so relaxing and I truly believe that is what curated my love for yoga. 

We would start with beginner yoga poses, obviously, because you can’t expect little kids to do more experienced poses, and would always end with laying our backs flat on our mats as soft music would play in the background and our teacher would mist calming essential oil spray over our faces. 

Since then, I have gone to yoga classes in my hometown and since moving on campus, joined the yoga club. I have gone to every class here at school since the beginning of my first semester. Some days I try to drag a couple of my friends along with me because I believe that everyone should be doing yoga, it is such a stress reliever and even though it may seem simple, it is a very good workout to include in your exercising schedule. 

Throughout high school, I participated in many sports and weightlifting within my school. Exercise and fitness were my life. I just wish I could go back in time to then so I could start including yoga into my schedule, it has helped with my flexibility and balance that could have been a great attribute in my past sports. 

Not only can yoga help with your flexibility and balance, but it can also increase muscle strength and reduce chronic pain. 

Being able to hold these difficult poses for a longer period of time takes a large amount of muscle strength. Introducing yoga into one’s life can help increase this in such an easy and effortless way.

Along with making you stronger, it also helps reduce pains and aches one may have. Personally, I have always struggled with knee pain from playing volleyball for so many years. Going to yoga has helped strengthen my knees and has completely diminished the pain.

Yoga can be helpful in anyone and everyone’s life. Having strong functional fitness, the ability to partake in daily activities, is so important, especially as we get older.

So long story short, if you have ever considered doing yoga, put yourself out there and go! It gives you such a rewarding feeling and is such an amazing experience.

Alexandra Iannarelli

SBU '29

Alexandra Iannarelli is in her second year with Her Campus! She is a sophomore at St. Bonaventure and is majoring in public health, minoring in health science, and is in the occupational therapy masters program! Alex will be writing weekly articles about anything in her life or even silly things happening around campus.

So far she has been involved in Her Campus, of course, and SBU Power Yoga. Beyond the clubs she is in, Alex also works on campus as a math tutor and loves to help and teach people.

In high school, Alex played volleyball, ran and did hurdles for the track team, and for about 9 years was a competitive cheerleader! Although quiet at times she is pretty outgoing and loves trying new things when the opportunity arises. Traveling is her favorite and she hopes to travel the world one day! Little things about Alex include her love for collecting records! She has multiple genres of music in her collection and she hopes to continue to expand said collection. Another little hobby of hers is going to the gym and doing yoga. Alex is into yoga, pilates, and she has been going to the gym for a little over two years now. She has been known to be somewhat of a health-nut, in her dorm there are protein bars galore and many other typical healthy snacks. She can't wait to continue her years in Her Campus sharing her stories.