Yoga has become increasingly more popular in recent years. But should YOU be doing yoga.
Yoga has lots of potential benefits including: improvements in flexibility, balance, reductions in stress, anxiety, depression and even research supporting its use for heart health, sleep and strength increases.
Many yoga lovers boast about its many benefits. But in comparison to what…? And are these benefits worth your time in comparison to other types of training and exercise.
Yoga is often recommended to those who need to work on flexibility/mobility restrictions. I would argue however, that yoga is a very broad and time-consuming method of improving YOUR specific mobility restrictions.
A mobility session targeting the key areas that are often lacking in mobility (hips, upper back, ankles etc) should take no longer that 10-20 minutes (if that). Not to mention that weight training through a full range of motion is one of the best forms of mobility training there is!
So why yoga? Well yoga has hidden reasons why it works and why I still think it has a place.
The main reason being that it’s a specific time and place to actually do your mobility work and chill out!
Mobility and movement training are often the first thing to be brushed under the carpet in someone’s weekly training routine (either because someone hates it or doesn’t actually know what to do…). Committing to a yoga class is one way to guarantee that you will be getting at least some mobility work in.
The second reason is its psychological benefits. Again… another example of something you probably wouldn’t get elsewhere (unless you meditate frequently). It’s ability to help you destress and reduce anxiety alone is enough of a reason to keep many coming back!
With all that being said, many people forget what yoga actually is… its not magic. It’s a low-intensity, sub-maximal exercise consisting of mainly isometric movements using a full range of motion, performed in such a relaxing fashion that it provides great psychological benefits.
I would personally recommend yoga to anyone looking for a place to destress and reduce anxiety or anyone who is struggling to get some mobility work into their week. Give yoga a go and see what you think!
