Fairy starting Yoga

Hello.

So this morning I woke up and I decided that I want to start yoga again...

Over 2 years ago when I was teaching poledance classes I also had yoga/pilates classes for beginners. I have to admit that I really enjoyed the combination of relieving the inner tension and stretching the whole body. When I was younger I always thought that yoga would be something grannies do, as  I believed that it wouldn't be hard at all, but I proved myself wrong.

Why?

As already mentioned I enjoyed the fusion of stretching and relieving stress ,which is unconscious in most cases. What you need is only a pair of comfy pants, a shirt and a yoga-matt , you can also do it on the floor if you have a carpet. (I wouldn't advise to do your yoga routines on cold tiles because you should feel comfy and not freezing hihi.) So you don't even have to leave the house to switch off the world and the stress, which is great especially on such rainy days. 

Plus, yoga brings along a lot of benefits that can really improve your health, like:

• A refreshing outlook: Doing one hour of yoga raises the level of your brain by 27% compared to people that only read quietly. 
• No more aches: If you are suffering lower-back pain (like I do) , yoga is the right thing for you. Even a 90minute yoga class once a week can help you to get rid of 56% or the soreness, while pain meds only lessened the pain by 16%. Doing yoga poses improves your posture and strengthens your back muscles to keep back-aches at bay.
• More and better sleep: A study found that insomniacs who did a 45-minute yoga routine for 2 months fell asleep 15 minutes faster and slept even 1 hour longer each night. Yoga will help you to relax and makes it easier for you to switch off. 
• More confidence: Yoga may be your ticket to love your own body. A research has shown that 20% of those women who practice regularly are more satisfied with their body than those who took aerobic classes. The secret could be that yoga helps you to tune in to how your body feels and what it can do, not how it looks. 
• Toning: Dumbbells and Kettlebells aren't the only way to sculpt a beautiful body. Yoga can also become a strength training as you are using your own body weight to form posture to posture. In certain poses, you even lift every pound of it. 
• Inner calm: Yoga the stress away. If you go to the mat once a week for 2 years you will release 41% more tensions that normally make you feel tired and moody.

If you are not sure how often you should practice yoga, here some advice:

- If you are a beginner and want to lose weight, increase your flexibility,strength and relieve stress I would consider 3 times a week for about 1 hour. Along with some cardio 2-3 times a week (e.g 20-30min HIIT) and a healthy diet you will have great results and feel way better. 

- For advanced yogis I advise a heated power yoga session 5 times a week and 1 yoga routine to chill and calm down and of course 1 complete rest-day. If this is too much for you, just decrease your yoga-practice to 3-4 times a week. 

- To build strength after an injury,stretch muscles weak from lack of use a smooth combination of yoga and stretching 3 times per week would be your ticket. 

But always remember to listen to your body. Yoga is not about forcing nor tearing your ligaments. It should be your moment where you will be able to switch off the world, relieve tensions and find your inner peace and ease. In case you have no idea where to find good yoga videos or channels, check our Adriene's youtube channel, they are pretty good and well explained. 

I wish you all a great and easy week.