The Power of Yoga

Those of you who know me, know that I love to workout. You'll also know that I love kickboxing, along with any other type cardio exercise. However, over the past month or so I have been taking yoga classes! It's a real change in pace for me, but I absolutely love it.  It is very important to switch up your routine so your body doesn't get used one specific type of exercise, and a great way to do that is through Yoga. Yoga is built on three main structures: exercise, breathing, and meditation. Hatha yoga is the basic form, slow-paced and perfect for beginners. It focuses on poses that stretch your muscles to release lactic acid build up that causes stiffness, tension, pain and fatigue. It also includes different breathing and meditation techniques to stimulate relaxation.  Ashtanga yoga is more fast-paced and helps improve circulation and muscle tone through synchronized breathing and a series of postures that produce intense internal heat to detoxify the muscles and organs. Lastly, the most intense form of yoga is bikram, which is performed in a heated room. Although each form is very different, they all have incredible benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, and relieving symptoms of arthritis, back pain and asthma. Some people dismiss the idea of yoga because they think that a cardio workout isn't a good workout at all, but that's where they're wrong. Practice it on your days off  from doing a cardiovascular workout and you will see great improvement in your abdominal strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance during a long run. After taking only a few classes, I am definitely including it in my weekly exercise routine and I recommend you do too!