So, you might’ve been thinking about doing a cleanse for a while, or eying the 21-Day Body Makeover, but a few reservations have kept you away. Let’s talk about one of those today. Exercise. Moving your body is an important part of cleansing, but there are many roadblocks to doing it. Often there is a lack of energy, time and motivation. Others find exercise boring or don’t like/can’t afford a gym. The good news is that exercise doesn’t have to be exhausting, boring or intimidating. If you don’t like weight lifting or cardio, try something else. Exercise can be restorative and life changing if you find the right kind. This, of course, requires trying something new, like one of the most popular forms of exercise today, yoga.
Yoga has been around for thousands of years and has become popular in modern times because it offers all the benefits of traditional exercise with some added perks. Yoga is about moving the body with awareness. It’s about slowing down and finding rest in the movement. It’s about stretching the body, mind and spirit.
While yoga practitioners tend to mostly be women, men can reap great benefit from this exercise by practicing an alternative approach to movement. Yoga, unlike traditional exercise, is not about pushing through your limits, it’s about finding balance and letting go of tension. If done right, you can get the same benefit from yoga as you do from meditation.
If exercise is done with too much intensity, it can become an additional stressor, keeping the body from repairing itself and depleting energy reserves instead of building them. If you’re someone who strives and pushes too hard, yoga is the perfect exercise remedy.
It can be therapeutic. Many stressed out, pain wracked, overworked men have found relief through their yoga practice.
Different styles of yoga focus on different goals. Ashtanga and Vinyasa styles are sweaty, fast and invigorating, while meditative and calming styles like Yin Yoga, Kundalini and Iyengar focus on breath, alignment and melting tension.
The hardest part of yoga is walking into a room of highly flexible women and not being able to do the poses. The intimidation factor keeps men away, in particular, and brings out their competitive nature.
The beauty of yoga is that it teaches people to approach challenge without ambition or striving. It’s not about stretching further or mastering that difficult pose, it’s about facing thoughts, emotions and limitations with acceptance. The benefits of this go beyond getting in shape, they are downright therapeutic, helping melt away life’s overwhelm and stress.
Yoga is a great choice for people who work too hard or sit all day. And it’s a great way to combine movement with meditation and develop connection and awareness to the body.
And if the intimidation of walking into a class is too much, start your yoga practice at home with online classes. There are many low cost or free yoga classes on line and some offer a free trial period. Once you become familiar with the postures, you can try a live class, where the teacher can help improve your alignment.
The best part of yoga is that it incorporates rest and recovery. The last pose is called Savasana, and done laying down. This is when the benefits of exercise integrate into the body and bring restoration.
If you’re a man or woman who’s been curious about yoga, try it for 3 weeks during the 21-Day Body Makeover, to discover it’s gentle power. Unlike regular exercise, yoga encourages you to slow down and take it easy and who doesn’t need that reminder in today’s hectic world?
