Ten awesome benefits of yoga

If you have been doing yoga for a while, then I don't need to convince you of the benefits a regular practice can give you. For those of you new to yoga, chances are you are familiar with this popular practice, but may be less aware of the multitude of benefits that come with it — here are just a few amazing wins you’ll get from giving it a go!

1) Improved strength. Though weights training is one of the most common ways to get stronger, yoga is actually an incredible workout for building strength and power. During a yoga session, you lift your own body weight in a range of ways; from plank pose to headstand you are constantly supporting yourself and holding your entire body up with a mix of stability, focus and discipline. And when you build strength through yoga, you balance it nicely with flexibility.

2) Improved flexibility. Improved flexibility is one of the most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you may not be able to touch your toes, never mind do a backbend. But if you stick with it, you'll notice a gradual loosening, and over time, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You'll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. 

3) Improved posture. Yoga is great for improving posture. Your spine craves movement - it’s the only way it gets its nutrients and stays supple. Good posture is all about being aware of your body. And with so many of us slumped over computers most of the day, it's no surprise that our posture has a tendency to suffer resulting in aches and pains. Keeping a good posture throughout the day requires a strong spine and engaged core — regularly practising yoga helps to release tight spots and strengthens core muscles, improving your posture over time. 

4) Better all-round fitness. When thinking of improving your fitness, most of us think of huffing and puffing away at the gym. But cardio and weights are not the only way to work out. Yoga can offer some of the same benefits, but in a varied, peaceful, safe and more holistic way, especially if you are new to exercise. It combines aspects of cardio, strength and functional training all in one, providing great all-round fitness for life, sport and anything you need it for. What more could you ask for? The best part about this workout is that it can be done at your own pace, in your own home.

5) Lower stress and improves mood. If you are feeling a bit low, it's very tempting to want to treat yourself to a packet of biscuits, pizza, a glass of wine or buy yourself a new plant to perk you up. (Lockdown made me do it! Not sure how long I can get away with that excuse.) Before reaching for the biscuits or your bank card, try just 15 minutes of yoga; it can have amazing effect on your mood. Numerous studies have shown that it can decrease the secretion of cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which in the short term leaves you feeling calm and relaxed, and long term improves your overall health. 

6) Better breathing. Breathing techniques are a very important aspect of yoga. Your breath is intimately linked to your state of mind. When your mind is happy and clear, your breath is long and easy; when your mind is bombarded with anxious thoughts, your breath becomes shorter and shallower. When you work consciously with your breath, as you do in yoga breathing techniques, you automatically create an environment inside yourself that is conducive to clear thinking. Your breath is your most powerful and effective tool for clearing your mind in a short amount of time.

7) Releases tension in your mind and body. We all hold tension in the body, sometimes without even being conscious of it. For example, when we are driving and have our shoulders hunched up around our ears, holding onto the steering wheel with a death grip, or scrunching your face when staring at a computer screen. These unconscious habits can lead to chronic tension, muscle fatigue, and soreness in the wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, and face, which can increase stress and worsen your mood. As you practice yoga, you begin to notice where you hold tension and over time you become more conscious of these habits and able to change them for the better. 

8) There is a style of yoga for everyone. You may feel slightly intimidated about yoga, thinking that you need to be able to tie yourself in a pretzel-type knot to be able to even entertain the idea. Well, think again! One of the greatest things about yoga is how versatile it can be; there are so many styles of yoga to choose from, each with varying levels of difficulty and benefits to suit your goal. Whether you’re a beginner looking to experience your first downward dog, you’re after a recovery workout, or you’re looking for an intense strengthening yoga flow, this beneficial practice is open to all abilities, ages and genders.

9) Gives you some much needed time to yourself. If you are anything like me, then you definitely need some time-out from your daily routine and some time to switch off.  Life is very different at the moment and most of us are spending a lot of time at home with our significant others or family, and are possibly craving some alone time. Yoga is the perfect solution! As a practice that you can do at home with little or no equipment, a vast variety of styles to choose from and the fact that you can do anywhere from 10 minutes to 90, it's a wonderful way to escape and have some “you time”. 

10) It's fun and challenging. Whatever you do, don’t take it too seriously, it's only yoga! It’s accessible for everyone and is a wonderful practice that is both enjoyable and challenging; the perfect balance. Yoga strengthens and tones the body whilst calming the mind, but in a way that is also fun, otherwise, we wouldn't do it. Some poses come with higher thrill factors, and when you're in them, you can't help but giggle. Yoga can also help bring out that playful, child-like side of us, which in my opinion, we all need much more of!

Whatever you do just dont put too much pressure on yourself. With my yoga practice, sometimes I feel like a graceful swan, other times I feel like a baby giraffe trying to find its legs, but I'm ok with that because it is something that I love practising!

A heads up

The other day I shared a brief piece on Facebook about correct posture in common gym exercises, so I thought I’d expand a little more on it for those of you who may find it helpful. Nothing complicated, no fancy words, nothing too technical, just one key piece of advice that covers pretty much all exercises and will help to vastly improve posture during exercises, decreasing your risk of injury and making the exercise much more effective, meaning greater results.

Use your head

Your head is pretty heavy, around 8-12 pounds on average according to various reports. That’s a fairly reasonable chunk of your overall body weight and so its position can have big consequences for the rest of your body. It’s always going to be on top of your shoulders (hopefully) but how you align it during exercises might be more important than you know.

‘Head up’

If you’ve watched any fitness DVD, YouTube workout or spent time in a gym, you’ll no doubt have heard the trainer saying ‘keep your head up’ and that’s sort of right, sometimes, but not always.

Your head shouldn’t be up as such, rather it should be ‘in line with your spine’. The top part of your spine, known as the cervical spine, joins with your skull. The top two vertebrae, the ones directly underneath your head, are known as the atlas and axis, and they’re the ones that allow you to move your head up and down and left to right.

Atlas because it’s named after the Greek God that held up the world, just like this vertebra holds up your head. Axis because your head can rotate around on its axis.

What does this mean for movement?

As your head is so heavy, if it drops forwards, this can pull your spine out of its natural curve, rounding your upper back. If it tilts upwards, again you’ll alter your natural curve, this time by excessively arching the lower back.

In everyday life of course you need to move your head up and down; maybe to tie a shoe lace or to look at a bird in the sky, but when we’re loading the spine during exercise, it’s important to keep it in its natural curve and therefore your head position is key.

Let’s give you a few examples of where I see it done wrong and what you’re looking for instead…

Press-ups

You’ll often see someone doing a press-up and lifting their head so it faces forwards, maybe so they can check themselves out in the mirror, or maybe because that’s what the YouTube video showed them to do. In this exercise, the body is parallel to the floor and therefore the head should be the same, facing down and in its natural position above the spine.

Here’s a video of me and Vic doing some press-up variations. notice how the head stays in line with the spine whatever angle we perform the press-up from.

Squats and deadlifts

Similarly in squats and deadlifts, the head should stay in line with the angle of the spine. The difference here of course is that when you do these exercise, the bend at your hips causes your body to fold forwards slightly. That means your head should follow this movement, rather than tilting the head back to continue looking forwards like I see every time I visit a gym. If the neck tilts back, this forces the spine out of its natural alignment and places greater stress on your lower back. Aim to look forwards not up, like in the video below.

Core exercises

The same goes for crunches, back extensions and planks. The head should follow the line of the spine.

Crunches - as the spine bends forwards, the head should follow; at the top of the movement there’ll be a gap between chin and chest about the size of an orange and you’ll probably be looking at roughly the angle where the wall meets the ceiling. People often feel discomfort in their neck during sit-ups and one of the reasons is that they strain from the neck forcing the head upwards toward the sky, out of line with the spine which has flexed.

Plank - just like press-ups, the body is parallel to the floor so the head should stay down, eyes looking at the floor directly below.

Back extensions - in the video below, notice how it’s the lower back that does the lift. Your head does not move, it just stays in line with your spine.

If you’re after one simple way to remember it, that last tip is it…’head in line with spine’. Your head should simply follow where your spine goes, it has to because it’s attached to the top of it. Use your head right and you’re in for a much safer, much more effective workout with less stress on your neck and lower back in particular.

Stay balanced,

Paul

Deskitis

The average Brit spends 9 hours each day sitting

That's a big problem.

9 hours each day sat down. Over a third of our day; it's such a big problem that when the government last changed their exercise guidelines they felt compelled to add in a line saying that we should minimise the time we spend sitting. It's no wonder we're all suffering from 'deskitis'.

That's the term I give to the postures, pains and movement problems I see daily in clients who spend most of their day at work sat down. 

Ideally, we should have a naturally S-shaped spine which is termed 'neutral spine', with a small inwards curve in the lower (lumbar region) and another outwards curve in the upper (thoracic region). This helps to spread load evenly between the discs of the spine, makes movement easier and prevents wear and tear.

Unfortunately, sitting can cause tightness in some muscles and weakness in others and this leads the the spine being pulled out of this neutral alignment. Common problems include:

• Tightness in the chest and shoulder area, causing the upper spine to 'slump' forwards. The muscles of the upper back become stretched and weak and we can get neck pain and pain all the way down the spine as a result.

• An excessive forwards tilt of the pelvis, caused by tightening of the muscles at the front of your hips; the hip flexors, and those of the lower back. At the same time, your abdominal and bum muscles become stretched and weakened and instance of lower back pain increase.

What can you do?

The first thing to do is move. As often as you can, rise from your desk and wander around. This will help loosen the muscles and restore the balance of tightness and length.

If possible, work standing up when you can. Your postural muscles have to activate here to hold you upright.

You can also perform certain exercises that target the muscles, loosening the tight ones and strengthening those that have become weak.

Check out the workout section of the blog where there are loads of great exercises that will help you move better and stand taller.

If you have only a few minutes every day, try the three exercises in the video below.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: if you have any medical conditions or injuries, aches or pains and have not discussed becoming more physically active with a GP or physio, please do so before starting this or any exercise routine and follow their guidance as to what is safe and suitable for you. If you have any questions or queries about any of these exercises, please do get in touch and I'll be happy to help.

A few quick wins to help improve your posture and movement.

Yours in balance,

Paul