Some of the health, wellbeing and fitness benefits discovered through joining a u3a yoga group
- Yoga can change our moods within minutes by releasing our happy chemicals : Endorphin (helps you cope with pain), Dopamine (the jump for joy hormone), Oxytocin (the trusting others hormone) and Serotonin (boosting your self-confidence).
- Yoga provides accessible and safe aerobic exercise.
- Yoga enhances our strength, stamina and suppleness.
- Yoga reduces stress – helping us to relax, restore and revitalise our bodies, minds and emotions
- Laughter yoga connects people and enhances the quality of our relationships and quality of life. It increases our social confidence and helps us make and maintain friendships.
- Through yoga we learn to breathe effectively – it may sound odd to the uninitiated but it has huge benefits.
- Yoga strengthens our bones and muscles helping us remain active throughout life and halting the loss of muscle and skeletal tissue.
- Yoga increases our feelings of wellbeing, including zest for life, enthusiasm, vitality, confidence and contentment.
- Incorporating a bit of yoga into our daily life, like a Tadasana pose in the shop queue, helps us make yoga part of daily health routine.
- Members enjoy our yoga sessions – they really look forward to each session and come back again and again.
- When we feel at a loss, yoga can give us purpose.
- In stressful situations, we can draw on a yoga breathing practice to lower our heart rate and feel calm.
- Yoga can help us unlock long-term bad postural habits and muscular / joint tightness.
- Yoga teaches awareness which is useful in many situations and, in particular, can reduce the likelihood of trips and falls.
- Yoga helps us to maintain/improve our strength and joint flexibility.
- When we use props and modifications yoga can help us manage health conditions like osteoporosis, arthritis and high blood pressure.
- Yoga helps us to maintain and improve our range of movement – bending down, twisting, reaching up and balancing without strain.
- Students tell me that friends and family have noticed an improvement in posture since taking up yoga.
- A student reported much more range of movement in her shoulder, which she had not realised could change so much.
- I have noticed how all my students have improved their strength and flexibility over time.
- A student tells me she has been able to apply what she has learnt in Iyengar yoga classes to other yoga forms. It helped her understand what causes pain and how to avoid it, because of the detailed teaching and the way the poses are broken into steps.
- All my students appreciate the calmness that they find in their yoga practice.