Ever wondered what’s stopping you from getting that toned yoga body? Maybe it’s your diet, your overloaded schedule, or perhaps you struggle to find that perfect balance between managing everyday life. But before we get into the yoga poses, it is important to understand the holistic synchronisation between yoga’s effects on the mind and body.
BENEFITS OF YOGA ON MIND +BODY
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- Mind - Having to balance school, work and social life is difficult and often impossible for many of us busy people, leaving us with no time for ourselves. By combating this, yoga improves the psychological/mental wellbeing within our mental health, helping reduce anxiety levels and fuelling signs of concentration. It achieves this by decreasing the body’s stress response and boosting the levels of the feel-good brain chemicals, which are responsible for feelings of relaxation and contentedness.
- Body - You’re probably reading this wondering how you can possibly shed that extra roll of belly fat, on top of adding some lean muscle. Unlike many sports, yoga works as a form of compound exercise by improving overall flexibility, strength training and posture. Pretty much killing two birds with one stone. The toned yoga body is achievable!
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Triangle pose (Trikonasa)
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- The Trikonasa is a simple, yet effective yoga poses that engages in every part of the body through the strengthening of the core, whilst giving flexibility towards the groin area, hamstrings and hips.
- Holding this pose for 1-2 minutes, with a repetition of 3-5 times from both sides will help relieve back pain and stiffness in the neck area.
- For beginners, it’s good to practice on a wall, by positioning your back heel or back torso against a wall if you feel unsteady in the pose.
- For those who don’t have time for the gym, prefer to do exercises at home, whilst wanting the lower body of a Kardashian, then this is the exercise for you.
- As an exercise designed for muscular strength, it is recommended to do around 2 sets of 8-12 repetitions on each side of the leg in order to target those hard to reach glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps muscles.
- For beginners, make sure you are tensing your abdominal muscles and butt muscles, whilst keeping your body pitched forwards from the hips so that the work is in the butt and not the lower back.
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Cobra pose (Bhujangasana)
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- Most of the time, first impressions count and a good posture is what people automatically seek in a confident individual.
- By getting rid of the ‘hunchback’, the cobra prose helps with improving posture by strengthening the spine, opening the chest and stretching the hamstrings.
- For beginners, it’s vital to relax and elongate your back neck, whilst gently inhaling and pulling your hands towards your back as you open your chest forward.