Yoga, What’s All The Fuss About?

Did you know that Yoga originates as a Hindu spiritual discipline? It uses breath control, simple meditation and bodily postures to aid health and relaxation. Although it is deemed to be somewhat trendy, it can actually provide tangible benefits to us all!

Most of us just think that Yoga is just advanced stretching, but it has its place in helping to develop your strength, flexibility and stamina through moving into and holding poses or postures.

There are many different poses and postures which you can move into in Yoga, all providing different benefits. The poses and postures can also be formed slowly or quickly to provide additional benefits. Moving into poses quickly will warm the entire body and muscles up and improving strength; alternatively moving into the poses slowly will help to increase your balance and stamina across a whole range of muscles.

The way in which people practice yoga will vary depending on their teachers and technique. The great thing with yoga is that there is no right or wrong way to do things and that you are always in a position to improve how you practice. Techniques which work for one person may not work for another so having a varied experience with others who practice yoga will, as with any activity, help you to find a technique and practice which suits your body.

There are many ways in which you can begin to learn yoga these days, from self-taught books, the gym, yoga holidays and clubs and even the Nintendo Wii. Gym classes will typically be focussed on the physical element of the activity, helping you to build up muscle strength and stamina; whereas, yoga holidays and clubs may take a deeper look at techniques, relaxation, traditions and the spiritual elements of the sport.

For those who want to begin yoga a little research definitely won’t go amiss. There are different styles of yoga and you may decide you want to practice a particular style.  After that you will want to find a class; be conscious of what you want to achieve from yoga as this may help to determine whether you attend a gym class or a yoga club, it will depend what you want from it. Once you have done this find out a bit more about what is involved and what equipment you are going to need to take part; luckily it’s just you and a matt in most cases!

Adventure Yogi specialise in active Yoga holidays, like Skiing, Snowboarding and Surf Yoga!