Yoga and Health

Infertility Yoga – How It Can Help You Conceive

If you are worried about your infertility problems, you will find infertility yoga to be a real ray of hope. This form of yoga focuses on strengthening the reproductive organs by relaxing your body and mind. The ancient Indian tradition of yoga is practiced mostly for enhancement of health and well-being and it has been found to be extremely effective in dealing with problems related to sexuality and fertility.

Benefits of Infertility Yoga

Yoga involves active participation of both, your mind and body. This practice brings balance between your body and mind by providing exercise to the body and relaxation to the mind. Yoga is extremely beneficial in cases of fertility challenges, such as hormone imbalances and blocked fallopian tubes. Yoga helps women to relax and reduce stress and prepares them physically and mentally for conception, pregnancy, and childbirth.

Infertility yoga consists of asanas that seem to be for women alone, but in fact, they are very effective for both men and women. Doing these exercises with your partner or spouse is a great idea. Most asanas focus on strengthening the pelvis and hips, which are required to support the body. Moreover, the pelvis and the hips are the places where human emotions and both mental and physical tension concentrated in the body. These asanas enhance blood circulation and improve the body’s hormone balance.

Tips for Couples

Couples who have never tried yoga are usually worried that they will never be able to get these postures right. The main tip here is you do not have to be as perfect as your yoga teacher. Infertility yoga postures are rather simple and gentle on your body and you do not have to strain yourself to get these postures right. Your body becomes more flexible with practice, and the more you practice, the better you will get with time.

In yoga, breathing and posture go hand in hand. These two aspects of yoga help you relax and increase blood circulation. While practicing yoga, you should breathe slowly and deeply and maintain the same rhythm throughout the yoga session. You should feel your stomach expanding when inhaling and contracting when exhaling. As you your breathing pattern gets normalized, observe your body mentally. This will help you identify tense spots and relax them consciously.

How Yoga Can Help You On Your Weight Loss Journey

Yoga is well-known for its multiple health benefits, one of them being weight loss. Although it is not necessary for you to practice Yoga to lose some weight, it certainly can support your efforts in various ways. What is even more, if you find Yoga to be interesting and love the activity, it could prove to be the best way for you to shed those extra pounds, while enjoying the practice. Yes, that is true, Yoga makes it possible for you start a journey towards a completely new slimmer you.

Yoga is composed of various asanas (postures) and easy breathing exercises. When these two come together, the resulting exercises are extremely effective in helping you become aware of your own body, connect with your true inner self and experience deep relaxation.

If you want to focus on the state of peace and calmness, you will need to start practicing Yoga regularly, about 3 to 4 times per week and you should definitely see some positive results in just a few months. As yoga invokes self-awareness in you, it becomes easier to nurture your body and take good care of it. When your mind goes through such drastic changes, psychologically it becomes a lot easier for you to stick to a healthy diet and exercise regularly, without any major effort on your part. This is mainly because your subconscious mind starts to accept the idea of a fit, healthy body.

Apart from that, when you start practicing Yoga, your endocrine glands get gently massaged, which immensely helps in restoring back the hormonal balance in your body. Since hormonal imbalance is one of the major causes for weight gain, this makes it easier for you to lose weight without much effort on your part.

As all of your major endocrine glands are connected to the important chakras or energy centers of your body, the simple massage that your body receives from Yoga, helps improve the flow of energy between these major energy centers. This is how Yoga brings in the much-needed psychological balance required for effective weight loss.

So go ahead, give yourself a new start, try out Yoga today and very soon you will see those pounds melt away!

4 Helpful Tips to Help You Find the Right Yoga Class

Yoga has become very trendy these days and many people are jumping on the bandwagon to practice yoga. You could be one of them; maybe you just want to try yoga out or you might have lost touch after practicing it for a while. Whatever the reason is, to practice Yoga effectively, you will need to find a Yoga class with good instructors. Below are four helpful tips that will help you find a right Yoga class near you.

1) Yoga Studio – Yoga studios are fitness studios set up specifically for Yoga practice. They have all the necessary amenities for you to have a peaceful practice. Look for the studios in your area in the yellow pages or do a search online- you might find one close to you, especially if you live in the metropolitan areas.

2) Local Gym – Although they are famous for their heavy fitness machines and weight training, many gyms also offer a variety of fitness classes. Generally, they offer class schedules – either handouts or online. It is easy to find out whether your local gym offers any kind of Yoga classes, just call them up and ask for details.

3) Craigslist - An online classified site, Craigslist gives you an opportunity to read and post classified ads at no cost. Do a search or browse through the existing listings and see if you can find any ads offering Yoga classes or private yoga instruction. In case you do not come across any ads promoting a Yoga class, you always have the option to post your own ad asking if there are any Yoga classes in your community.

4) Ask Friends – There must be people around you or some of your friends who are into Yoga, ask them if they practice on their own or take a class, and whether they can recommend one. This way, you will easily find the places offering Yoga classes, along with a first-hand review about the quality of their instructors.

In addition, you can always start practicing Yoga on your own by getting an instructional Yoga DVD or a video, allowing you to practice it in the privacy of your home which might be rather appealing to quite a few people. All you need is comfortable clothing that allows you to stretch and bend easily and a yoga mat. Also, a number of fitness TV channels show programs on various types of Yoga, therefore helping you getting used to this form of the exercise.