Are you ready for the beach this summer?
Summer is here in South Florida and the time is now. hi yoga etc. is ready to rescue your summer and kick your mind, body, and spirit into the best shape they have ever been. Aside from health and happiness, yoga is a perfect cross-training method for the active beach-goer. Your hi yoga etc tribe made the beach this weekend and extended our practice to the north side of Delray Beach. Aside from sun and fun, we mixed nature and nurturing asanas while focusing on core strength and balance.
Every yoga asana (pose) has a different name and includes standing postures, seated twists, backbends, arm balances, inversions, and core holds. The downward facing dog, for example, is in itself said to calm the brain, energize the body, improve digestion, strengthen arms and legs and be therapeutic for high blood pressure. Whilst these benefits come as a given with most postures, the practice of yoga as a whole provides many more benefits than you might think…
The benefits that yoga can have on and near the water are far-reaching. Most cite strength and flexibility as the key benefits of a yoga-powered surf, swim, or SUP season. You may not know that breathing is an overlooked positive change for water athletes. Utilizing core strength along with calming breaths lower average heart rates and yields less lactic acid build up.
Also, when facing a challenging situation, the mental benefit of yoga can help when facing an extreme current, a drop from a SUP, or racing to feed your parking meter. The focus of yoga moves you from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system, or from flight-or-flight to rest-and-digest. Yogis exhibit less anxiety and enter a more relaxed state. As soon as you start breathing deeply, you slow down out of fight or flight and calm your nervous system. Staying calm and relaxed is crucial and yoga can only strengthen the needed focus and calm in extreme situations.
Proper mental focus is just one of the benefits from practice with hi yoga etc…
Strength: Your own body is your yoga gym. Yoga is low impact and uses muscles you didn’t know you had. A prime focus is on spine strength, which is key to balance on and off the water.
Cardio: Your heart can work the same way doing yoga postures in a heated room as it does when running a mile, and you never even leave the mat. Particularly in postures when you are balancing and contracting your muscles at the same time. The way you stretch and compress your internal organs and glands also stimulates metabolism so you are burning calories quicker outside of practice.
Detox: hi yoga etc yoga helps you to stretch deeper, rev cardio, and also helps you sweat. Asanas are detoxifying for your muscles, organs, and glands while your body flows from one movement to another. Twists along the core remove toxins, sprinkled in with poses to stimulate digestion and the thyroid gland, build muscle, and get the digestive track moving.
Focus: You gain tremendous focus and determination via minimal time invested in yoga. The ability to focus carries over to your time active on the water, the work week, and daily life. Many cite yoga and the ability to focus as a key trait to excel in other areas.
Healing: The primary purpose of this yoga is therapy. With a regular practice, these postures can help to heal old injuries and also prevent them in the future. Don’t skip the postures that are slightly uncomfortable as yoga can help stretch the body past old limits.
hi yoga etc is ready to prepare for your next session at the beach via yoga made for you. Come dip your toes and give yoga a try.
Namaste,
hi yoga etc
