Have Your Yoga Pants Actually Been To Yoga?
Let’s face it. We all own at least one pair of yoga pants. They seem to be the perfect thing to throw on in the morning when you’re in a hurry, or for just walking across campus. Yoga pants are probably the most popular/comfortable article of clothing for your typical college girl, but here’s the million dollar question: Have your yoga pants actually been to yoga? If your answer is no, it’s okay! You’re not alone. Many girls don’t know about the many health benefits of yoga. As Collegiettes™, we’ve all experienced stress from school, work, boys, etc. and believe it or not, yoga can be one of the best ways to help with those problems. If that’s not enough motivation to get you to try the exercise, check out these 5 health benefits you can achieve from practicing yoga regularly:
1. Stress reduction. Studies show that yoga can help reduce stress and anxiety. The calming enviroment and movement indorses relaxation, which is naturally the opposite of stress. Yoga benefits the three features of ourselves that are often affected by stress: our body, mind, and breathing.
2. Posture. Recent studies have shown yoga to improve posture because it strengthens the core and lengthens the spine, enabling us to breathe easier and take in more oxygen. The spine is the thing that holds up our body all day long, so it’s important to keep it in tip-top condition! After all, what confident woman do you know without good posture?
3. Mental health. Yoga involves concentration on breathing and the body, which makes it a great way to soothe your mind. Yoga has the ability to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and improve respiration. It is also capable of helping you deal with and resolve anxiety and depression problems, improve your memory, and your ability to concentrate.
4. Flexibility. Yoga helps your flexibility in that it has positions that act upon the whole body, including those that get less physical attention in other exercises. Flexibility prevents injury from normal, everyday mobility like turning over in bed, getting out of bed, transitioning to standing from sitting, bending down to pick something up, or even walking up and down the stairs.
5. Balance. One of the most important principals of yoga is balance of both the mind and body.The practice of balance can require a lot of effort, but it is very important because good balance can protect us against daily falls and mishaps. Although some people consider balance to be an issue for elderly people, this is something that can (and should) be developed at any age!
Want to attend yoga classes at UAB? Click here for the Campus Recreation Center Schedule.