Manage Stress & Build Your Body with Yoga in Baltimore
Named one of 2017’s top 10 fitness trends by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Yoga is an ancient discipline that is appropriate for people of all ages and abilities. If you have not tried it yet, you are missing out! Here’s a closer look at five great reasons to sign up for a beginner yoga class.1. Reduced stress levels
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Yoga,a mind-body practice,is considered one of many types of complementary and integrative health approaches. Yoga brings together physical and mental disciplines that may help you achieve peacefulness of body and mind. This can help you relax and manage stress and anxiety.” How, specifically, does yoga impact stress levels? Explains Harvard Medical School, “By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal – for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body’s ability to respond to stress more flexibly.” And because yoga classes are available for everyone from beginners to longtime practitioners, just about anyone can immediately begin reaping its stress-reducing benefits.2. Enhanced fitness, flexibility and overall wellness
Think you’ve got to spend hours on a treadmill to improve your fitness? Think again. According to research published in Med Care, “Compared with usual care, yoga resulted in significant improvements in exercise capacity and a mean improvement in health related quality of life.” These findings are echoed by research examining the therapeutic effects of yoga on quality of life published in the International Journal of Yoga: “Results from this study show that yogic practices enhance muscular strength and body flexibility, promote and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function, promote recovery from and treatment of addiction, reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, improve sleep patterns, and enhance overall well-being and quality of life.”
Improved core strength is within your reach with yoga.