5 Benefits of Yoga That Men Don’t Know About!
5 Benefits of Yoga that Men Don't Know About!
Author: Joel | March 16th, 2018
Here are a few mind-blowing reasons as to why more men should practice yoga!
Yoga might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you consider a manly activity. However, don’t let the common perception that it’s meant for girls or old people to deter you from trying it out. Yoga is an ancient philosophy that has evolved over centuries and yoga is now revolutionizing lifestyles worldwide.
The practice of yoga brings several benefits to one’s body and health – physical and mental, as well as psychological. Certified yoga training classes can open the doors to a new world of strength, flexibility, and overall consciousness. Being a guy in a yoga class brings several benefits and could also be the start of an incredible experience.
Here are five attractive benefits this approach offers men.1. Building Strength
When one venture into yoga, it surprises many to discover how much strength many of these poses require. Yoga in general, stresses on building core strength, developing a better posture and improve muscle tone.
Balanced poses like the tree, or vrikshasana, build up strength in the muscles of your core, groin, thighs, calves, and ankles. Other poses similarly use body weight resistance to build strength in other parts of the body.
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2. Enhance Flexibility
Yoga provides an excellent base for building flexibility and strength that one can incorporate in other sports and activities. It is not about the seemingly complicated contortions that lend this flexibility, but the basic stretches also contribute immensely. One can utilize this in your regular life, work or in other hobbies.
Men who indulge in any sort of physical activity realize the importance of one’s range of motion. Limitations in the range of motion - say, basketball can result in exerting only a few muscles – thus restricting your overall functionality. Practicing yoga will remove the limitations that such tight muscle groups can impose on the body.
Yoga postures can relax muscles and loosen stiff joints in the shoulders, hips, hamstrings, glutes etc., resulting in increased flexibility and improved range of motion. Combining yoga practice classes with other fitness routines will help in the co-ordinated development of muscle groups, smoother movement, and better posture.
3. Competitiveness
Incorporating yoga into one’s fitness regimen can improve sports performance by building flexibility and the ability to recover more quickly. Yoga is an active recovery regimen. It aids muscle recovery through stretching and improved flexibility. Well-stretched and toned muscles or ligaments tend to heal sooner after a sports injury or strain. It also helps in preventing injuries from occurring in the first place, as the muscles will be more effective in handling movement and impact.
After all, isn’t prevention better than treating damaged muscles or torn ligaments? Engaging in this activity a few days per week can give your body the capability to perform better in sports. Your muscles will gain strength and elasticity, which will help you perform more efficiently.
4. Stress Relief
The rhythmic breathing techniques in Yoga serve are very effective in stress management. Yoga is largely about coordinating one’s breath with the rest of the body. These methods are effective in reducing the stress hormone, cortisol. A fitness regimen that incorporates yoga will help relieve stress, calm the mind, stimulate brain function and result in deeper and longer sleep cycles. It helps in reducing blood pressure and prevent wear and tear on the body. Practicing yoga before or after a workout can add to the exuberant feeling of training.
Yoga is a very effective method of relieving tension – both mental and emotional especially for those who tend to internalize such feelings. Regular practice can help a man to let go of stress factors and cope with daily problems better in an effective and healthy manner.
5. The Virtue of Patience
Yoga is an ideal calming routine for busy people who juggle work, relationships, family and life in general. It imparts the principles of tolerance, patience, and persistence that can sustain you throughout your regular life.
Learning to take some time off for yourself, to abandon the hassles and stresses of life can considerably improve multiple aspects of your life. One learns to deal with everyday struggles in a calm and patient manner thanks to regular yoga practice.
Mindful meditation is also a practice that is excellent to clear the mind and letting go of frustrations. This is an exercise that dates all the way back to centuries past. It focuses on increasing one’s presence in the current moment instead of holding onto thoughts from the past.
Yoga can make one fully aware of his present and the environment – a skill one can use to maintain calm even in stressful situations. It is an overall means of improving one’s mental health and becoming more confident and self-assured.
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Final Words
Never let perceptions or biases – be it your own or others stop you from reaping its amazing benefits. For starters, contrary to the common perception, yoga teacher-led training classes are not meant only for the fairer sex or the physically frail. It is actually the epitome of strength, energy, and efficiency – from the inside-out.
It’s the reason yoga is extensively used in holistic addiction treatments, as a method for becoming conscious of oneself, expanding mindfulness, mental abilities, concentration, coping mechanisms, and physical health. Yoga is not about making each and every pose perfect, but rather about being present where you are while also enhancing and strengthening one’s well-being.
Yoga can help office workers, physical laborers, weight trainers, bodybuilders, athletes, stay-at-home dads…virtually every kind of man is it at a Yoga teacher training in Bali or the Big Apple.
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