I was introduced to yoga in college and fell in love. It was a brief affair that ended rather abruptly when I decided it was boring and all the spandex was uncomfortable. This was before the days of LuLu Lemon and cute yoga pants that you can see in mass quantities everywhere from the school drop off line to the grocery store. It was sweats and gaucho pants. It was camel toe and stinky feet. You get the point. It wasn't hip yet. Pilates was, so I dropped yoga and switched my mat in for a thicker one.
Anyhow, in the last few years I've began picking up my practice again. Sidebar: it has always irritated me how yoga is referred to as practice--I have no idea why, but it does. I revisited yoga in 2011 when I was pregnant with Norah, the little darling was breech and laying right on my sciatic nerve. It sucked. I started with YouTube videos and a DVD I bought back in college when yoga studios weren't conveniently located next door to every Starbucks on every street corner. I filled the third trimester days with yoga, then quite once the baby came. I picked it up once again this past pregnancy and have stuck with it. It has been almost a year of several times a week sessions and I really do feel great!
This article lays out five health benefits of yoga that you may not know about. You don't need to go to a fancy yoga studio or pay for classes in the park, you can check out DVDs from the library, watch for free on YouTube, even check out on demand. I haven't seen any on Netflix, but Amazon Prime has some decent ones. You will be able to see what movements and poses work for you and which ones cause pain. You will begin to see a change in your strength and flexibility along with many other things.
Give it a try, it may be boring at first, but it will bring some positivity and balance to your life and fitness regime. Just because you aren't dripping buckets of sweat doesn't mean it isn't benefiting your body.
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