Tag: yoga

How Yoga Can Improve the Quality of Your Sleep

Posted on by Lisa S

Sleep is an essential component of our overall well-being. However, due to the fast-paced nature of modern life, many individuals struggle with achieving high-quality sleep. Are you curious how to improve the quality of your sleep?

In recent years, yoga has gained significant recognition for its ability to reduce stress and promote relaxation. But can you use yoga for improving sleep quality? Let’s find out. We explore how incorporating yoga into your daily routine can enhance the quality of your sleep.

1. Stress Reduction

Yoga is widely recognized for its stress-relieving benefits. Regular practice of asanas(yoga postures for better sleep) helps release physical tension and calms the mind. The conscious focus on breathing during yoga triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and reduces stress hormones like cortisol. By incorporating yoga into your daily routine, you can effectively manage stress levels and clear your mind before bedtime.

2. Improved Sleep Patterns

Inconsistent sleep patterns can disrupt our circadian rhythm, making it challenging to fall asleep and maintain a deep sleep throughout the night. Practicing yoga regularly helps regulate our sleep-wake cycle, allowing our body to naturally follow a sleep routine. As we perform gentle stretches and conscious breathing exercises, our body adjusts to a predictable pattern, leading to more regular sleep and wake times.

3. Enhancing Mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness during yoga cultivates a heightened sense of awareness and presence. By focusing on the present moment and the sensations felt during each asana, we become more attuned to our body’s cues and needs. This mindfulness spills over into our sleep routines, helping us become more aware of our sleep patterns and the factors that may disrupt our rest. With increased mindfulness, we can make necessary adjustments to our sleep environment and habits, setting the stage for improved sleep quality.

4. Relieving Physical Discomfort

Chronic pain or discomfort can significantly impact the quality of our sleep. Yoga for the neck, shoulders and lower back can help significantly alleviate discomfort and promote relaxation. By incorporating gentle stretches and strengthening exercises into our daily yoga practice, we can reduce pain and physical discomfort, allowing for a more restful sleep.

5. Calming the Mind

A racing mind is often a significant contributor to sleep difficulties. Through the practice of mindfulness and meditation techniques within yoga, our thoughts become more centered, and our mental chatter decreases. By developing a focused and calm state of mind, we can switch off from daily worries, allowing for deep relaxation and improved sleep quality.

Yoga’s benefits for sleep and anxiety are well known.  By reducing stress levels, establishing regular sleep patterns, enhancing mindfulness, relieving physical discomfort, and calming the mind, yoga can play a pivotal role in achieving a restful and rejuvenating sleep.

Embracing this ancient practice as part of your daily routine not only promotes a healthier lifestyle but also leads to a more balanced and energized existence. So, unroll your yoga mat, and explore yoga for better sleep, insomnia or deep relaxation. Dedicate the time to practice yoga before bed, and prepare to embark on a transformative journey towards improving the quality of your sleep. For marketers, looking for a yoga studio management software or website design to promote their services, My Best Studio is your top choice.

How Many Calories Can Yoga Burn?

Posted on by Lisa S

How many calories you burn during a yoga class depends on a number of factors. The intensity of your workout, your age and weight, and the duration of your session all play into how many calories you can expect to burn during a typical yoga session.

How many calories can yoga burn?
The good news is that yoga has been shown to burn more calories than other forms of exercise, including walking or running. And if you want to know exactly how many calories you burn doing yoga, you only need to know one thing: your body weight.

To figure out how many calories you’ll burn in a yoga class, take your body weight and multiply by 0.19. That’s the number of calories you’ll burn for every pound that you weigh in an hour-long class. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, that means that each time you go to yoga class, you’ll burn around 3800 calories per hour!

The exact number varies depending on what kind of style of yoga you’re practicing—but don’t worry about getting too scientific with this calculation! Just make sure that when it comes time for your next workout session, make sure there’s plenty of water on hand so you can stay hydrated throughout!

Does yoga burn more calories than walking?
In order to get an accurate sense of how many calories are burned during yoga sessions, researchers from Piedmont Technical College studied 10 different types of poses and found that each pose burned anywhere from 24-40% more calories than walking at 3 mph for an hour without any breaks (or rest).

Does yoga burn calories differently than other exercises?
Yes! According to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, people who did 30 minutes of vinyasa flow yoga burned about 300 calories. That’s about the same amount that an hour on the treadmill or elliptical will burn—but not quite as much as a high-intensity interval training session or weightlifting routine will yield.

It comes down to how your body uses energy during each activity. When you’re running or biking or lifting weights, your body uses more energy by burning fat and carbohydrates quickly. But when you’re doing yoga, you’re using oxygen more efficiently and shifting into an aerobic state (meaning you’re burning fat more slowly).

As a yoga studio owner or instructor, you can help clients reach their weight and strength goals through efficient calorie burn. My Best Studios yoga studio management software can help you manage the administrative tasks of your business, so you can spend more time on what you do best.

Can Yoga Align Your Spine? Find Out!

Posted on by Lisa S

You’ve probably heard that yoga can be great for your body, but did you know that it can also help align your spine?

Why is the Spine important?
The spine is made up of bones called vertebrae that protect your spinal cord—the bundle of nerves that carries messages from your brain to your muscles and organs. The spinal cord also connects to your brain through a bundle of nerves called the brain stem. Your spine keeps you upright and stable by allowing you to bend forward and backward, side-to-side, and rotate left or right without hurting yourself.

The practice of yoga is commonly associated with flexibility and strength, but it’s also known to improve posture and alignment. If you’re interested in learning more about how yoga aligns your spine, read on!

How Does Yoga Align Your Spine?
Yoga is a physical activity that involves the whole body. It focuses on breathing, balance, and strength—all of which have been shown to have positive effects on the spine.

The practice of yoga involves stretching and strengthening muscles, which helps improve posture by lengthening muscles and increasing flexibility. This increases mobility in the spine, including its ability to move freely from side-to-side or up-and-down.

Yoga also strengthens ligaments that support joints in the body. This helps keep joints stable while still allowing them to move freely when needed (like when walking). As a result of these benefits combined with increased flexibility in all directions (front-to-back, side-to-side), yoga helps align spines—especially those who suffer from scoliosis or other spinal deformities like kyphosis (hunchback).

How Does Yoga Practice Help?
When you do yoga regularly (like twice a week), it can help align your spine by improving muscle flexibility throughout the body as well as increasing blood flow to the discs between each cervical vertebrae. This helps keep them healthy so they can absorb shocks better when we’re walking or running around

Final words
The benefits of yoga don’t end there—they also include improved flexibility and balance, which can lead to better posture. When you stand up straight with good posture, your spine naturally becomes aligned.

So if you’re looking for a way to improve your health and strength through exercise, consider adding yoga into your routine! And if you are a yoga instructor, check out My Best Studio to learn how you can manage your classes more efficiently.

3 Ways Yoga Can Help With Your Weight Loss Goals

Posted on by Lisa S

You’ve been working so hard to lose weight, and you’re seeing progress! But you know what could help? A little yoga.

Yoga is a great way to ease into a healthier lifestyle, and it’s an excellent addition to your current exercise routine. Here are 3 ways yoga can help with your weight loss goals:

1. Yoga helps you build strength and flexibility.
Yoga strengthens core muscles like abs, back muscles, and even glutes so that you feel more stable when standing tall or sitting cross-legged on the floor while meditating. This means that you’ll have more energy and be able to move around more easily. You’ll also be better able to keep up with the physical demands of your daily life, which will make it easier for you to stay on track with your weight loss goals.

2. Yoga can help reduce stress levels and improve mood
This makes it easier for you to stick with healthy habits like eating right and exercising regularly. Stress has been shown time and time again to cause people to eat more than they should or skip exercise sessions altogether; by reducing stress levels, yoga will make it easier for you to stick with these healthy habits over time. Yoga can help you reduce the impact that stress has on your body and mind, which makes it easier for you to manage those stressors and get back on track with your weight loss goals.

Yoga has been shown to boost endorphins, which are the chemicals responsible for feelings of happiness and well-being—and they’re also what keep us motivated to exercise in general!

3. Yoga helps you develop mindfulness and mental focus
This makes you less likely to reach for unhealthy foods when you’re stressed or anxious (and we all know how easy it is to eat when we’re stressed!). It helps reduce depression symptoms (like anxiety), which can sometimes lead people who are trying their best at losing weight back into old patterns of behavior. It makes it easier for us as humans to feel happy in general—and being happier makes us want to eat less food because we’re not constantly looking for comfort

Yoga can help you feel better about yourself, which can lead to better self-care and better eating habits.Ready to take your weight loss goals to the next level? Try adding yoga to your routine!

If you are a passionate yoga instructor with your own yoga studio, discover how you can improve your customer relationships, grow your business and boost your revenue with a yoga studio management software from My Best Studio.

5 Signs You’re at the Right Fitness Studio

Posted on by Lisa S

You’ve made the decision to join a gym. Now what?  If you’re looking for a fitness studio, it can be tough to know if you’re at the right one. There’s so much out there—what do you look for in a fitness studio? What makes one place better than another? We’ve compiled a list of 5 signs of the best fitness studios that can help you find your perfect fit.

1. A friendly staff:
If they’re not willing to help you, they don’t deserve your business! The right fitness studio business will have the kind of staff that will ask questions about your goals and make sure you feel comfortable. It’s so important that you feel welcomed and supported by the other members of the studio.

2. A clean facility:
If the fitness studio is dirty and smells bad, no matter how good the equipment is or how great the trainers are, you won’t want to go back! The equipment should be lifted regularly and cleaned thoroughly, especially between clients and classes to prevent the spread of germs or other contaminants..

3. Variety of classes & equipment:
Do they offer yoga, cycling, weightlifting, and more? They should!  Is the equipment in good shape, and well-maintained? These are questions you should ask.

4. Open on all or multiple days of the week:
Having access to your gym whenever you need it is important!  Classes that are offered at convenient times for your schedule will make all the difference.

5. Affordable membership fees:
Of course cost matters—you don’t want to spend more than you have to on something like this!

Finally, and most importantly, make sure the fitness studio is a place where you enjoy yourself! If your workout feels repetitive or boring, chances are it won’t stick with you long enough for it to make a difference in how you look or feel, physically or emotionally. Look for studios that offer classes with different types of movement. Once you find the right fitness studio, you’re likely to make great progress on your fitness journey and achieve all or most of your goals.

If you want to make sure your fitness studio business is the best it can be, sign up for a consultation with My Best Studio today.

10 New Ways to Motivate Yourself to Hit the Gym

Posted on by Lisa S

If you’re anything like us, you have a hard time trying to motivate yourself to go to the gym. We’ve all been there: you’re sitting on your couch in your pajamas, watching TV, and suddenly you realize that it’s been hours since you’ve moved your body. And you’re asking yourself ‘How can I get the motivation to work out?’. All the gym marketing and advertising isn’t working on you!

Then the fear starts setting in. You start thinking about all the things that could happen if you don’t go to the gym. You might get fat! Or gain weight! Or be too out of shape to play sports! And then what will happen?

So we did some research and found out how to motivate yourself to exercise. Here are 10 new ways to motivate yourself to hit the gym—so that when it comes right down to it, all those fears will be banished from your mind forever.

1. Picture yourself as one of those people who looks amazing after they work out (and admit it: they always look amazing). See how with just a few simple changes, you can become one of those people too!

2. Listen to an audio book or podcast while you’re working out—it’ll make time fly by even faster than usual!

3. Get a friend to go with you—it’ll make exercise more fun and help motivate each other!

4. Decide what kind of workout will be best for you – yoga, pilates, martial arts, or dance fitness. Which of these or others are aligned with your fitness goals?

5. Make a list of all of the reasons why you want to work out (or why you want to feel good in general

6. Wear your workout clothes to bed. That’s one less thing to do when you wake up and you’ll be guilty for changing out of them if you skip your workout.

7. Get excited about how much better you’ll feel after your workout. The adrenaline-pumping effects of exercise are a real high!

8. Get some great music going before your workout starts and use that time to dance around like nobody’s watching!

9. Take advantage of any free classes at your gym—you can use them as an excuse to get moving!

10. Remember that everyone else at the gym is probably having as much fun as they are working out—so go ahead and smile

How Yoga Can Help Your Depression

Posted on by Lisa S

Yoga is an ancient practice and it is believed to help people cope with their depression in a natural, healthy way. Because of the mindfulness inherent in yoga, it can help distract you from your problems and focus on yourself instead. It also helps relax you so that you get a good night’s sleep.

For some people, starting out small can be beneficial in helping alleviate mild symptoms of depression. Yoga’s benefits for mental health have been proven. Studies have shown that five minutes of yoga per day can be beneficial for mental health. It isn’t any wonder that the yoga business today is flourishing!

Yoga can ease your racing thoughts and allow you to relax.
Oftentimes, people with depression have racing thoughts about the past or worries about the future. Yoga is a great method for bringing these thoughts to a halt and letting you be present in your body.

There are several simple yoga postures that can help you calm your mind and enjoy this moment. If you’re feeling anxious, try sitting in hero pose, with your knees pressed against the floor and your feet tucked behind your butt. Train yourself to sit still while focusing on how your legs feel as they touch the floor. If you get distracted by worrisome thoughts, redirect yourself to concentrate on what it feels like to breathe and sit still in that position.

Another posture that is often used for relaxation is the corpse pose (lying flat on your back). While doing this pose, focus on each breath as if it were a wave from an ocean that was just coming up onto shore—and then receding back out towards sea again—and let yourself be carried away by each breath until you fall asleep or wake up again energized and ready for whatever comes next!

Breathing exercises are calming and can help you feel more engaged with the world.
To do this, focus on your breath. Breathe in from your nose, hold it for four counts and breathe out through the mouth for eight counts. This helps calm the nervous system. You can do this anywhere, anytime, whether you’re at work or brushing your teeth before bed. You’ll start to notice that as you focus on breathing deeply, your mind starts to clear.

Yoga is a natural, safe, and healthy way to cope with depression. Unlike prescription drugs, yoga does not come with harmful side effects. This particularly makes it beneficial for people who must exercise caution when taking new medications. It’s also a holistic approach: Yoga’s benefits extend to the body and mind, meaning it can address both physical and mental symptoms of depression.

Meditation stops your thoughts from wandering into the past or future and enables you to focus on the present.
Meditation is a central aspect of yoga. It allows you to be in the moment and clear your mind. Meditation can help you feel more connected with the world. This can reduce feelings of isolation that sometimes accompany depression. You may even find that you’re better able to focus on things and feel calmer after incorporating meditation into your life.

As with any new practice, meditation takes time and effort to master, but it’s worth it!

Is yoga good for depression?
Of course! The benefits of yoga for depression, anxiety and stress cannot be overstated. It may not be the only solution and is never a substitute for therapy, but it can certainly be an aid in your journey to overall well-being.

Best Yoga Positions For Pregnancy

Posted on by Lisa S

Can yoga help you get pregnant? The simple answer is ‘YES’. Although most women are aware of the physical benefits that yoga brings such as toning, strengthening and stretching, many do not realize the benefits of yoga for pregnancy. The postures taught in yoga classes for pregnancy can help a woman become pregnant and improve fertility.

Yoga’s benefits don’t stop at relieving stress and helping you shed the pounds. Ten minutes of the right poses in a day helps fight infertility, increases chances of conceiving, and also strengthens pelvic muscles to ease delivery.Pregnancy yoga positions have been shown to improve fertility in a number of ways, and many women who have trouble conceiving use yoga as an important part of their treatment.

Yoga for pregnancy is more than just exercising. It is said that 1 out of 3 women with irregular menstrual cycle becomes pregnant after practicing natural type of therapy like body alignment, meditation, and positive attitude. This is because these therapies optimize the energy flow that ultimately helps one achieve pregnancy easily

Here are 5 of the best yoga positions to get pregnant – positions that can help improve your fertility:

Chair pose
Chair pose one of the best yoga asanas to get pregnant. It strengthens your thighs and helps stabilize your knees. It is considered a strengthening and heat-building asana. Chair pose brings different parts of your body together into a powerful whole. In order to perform the chair pose properly, one needs to combine the strength of the legs, arms, and torso while lifting the core muscles and lengthening the spine.

Warrior pose
Warrior pose in yoga is termed as ‘Virabhadrasana’. Being one of the most effective yoga asanas, this posture improves blood circulation and makes the body flexible, which helps stimulate the reproductive system and helps women conceive more easily.

Bridge pose
Bridge pose is an excellent asana or yoga pose for women who believe in the power of yoga to become pregnant.Some of the benefits are stress relief and a sense of calmness, improved posture as it stretches the shoulders and upper back muscles. Most importantly it results in increased blood circulation in the body, especially to the abdominal region, thus helping in ovulation and conception.

Handstand
There’s so much that handstands do for women having fertility issues. Handstands help stretch the whole body, including loose shoulders and hips, tight hamstrings, tired back, and stuffed intestines.

Modified bridge
This is one of the easiest yoga asanas to conceive a babyand can significantly improve your chances of conception.This two-benefits yoga pose can help a woman conceive a baby as well as relieve her from common pregnancy complaints.The modified bridge pose is a great stretch for the lower abdominal area, pelvic area and hips, which are all key areas in getting pregnant.

If you are a yoga instructor, yoga studio owner or fitness entrepreneur who is passionate about showing women how yoga helps with pregnancy, click here to learn how you can help your business grow with the right support.

Last 10 Years Fitness Trends

Posted on by Lisa S

As we move towards the end of 2019 we also move to the end of another decade. These 10 years have shown immense growth and diversity in the methods and techniques of different workouts and trends. This one is for the last 10 years that have got us here today.

2010

Fitness boxing and specialty classes such as Zumba, Bollywood, Afro-Cuban, and ballroom dancing grew in popularity – encouraging more people to become involved in physical activity, but in a slightly different way. This period saw personal training to increase significantly in popularity (and continues to be up until this day). It was less for the rich and famous, and more for the everyday gym user, and as a result many gyms and fitness centres moved away from having ‘floor-based’ gym instructors to service their clients.

2011

It was during this time that the age demographic of those involved in physical activity began to broaden quite dramatically, with a large focus on providing fitness programs for both older adults and children. With obesity at epidemic levels for both children and adults in Australia, more families were looking for programs to help them lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

2012

trends like intermittent fasting, low carbohydrate and gluten-free diets became popular to follow (and continue to be up until this day). The first examples of successful wearable technology were also starting to hit the market at this time, giving people an insight into information about their health and fitness that was previously unobtainable.

2013

With the functional fitness movement becoming increasingly popular, traditional gym equipment was still being used, but was now sharing space with innovative equipment such as kettlebells, battle ropes, suspension trainers and many other unique tools that could be used as a part of an exercise program. Primal, body-weight training, movement-based, whatever you want to call it, functional fitness was at the forefront during this time.

2014

This period also introduced the world to a new type of ‘fitness centre’, one that was determined to capture the atmosphere of large group-training while incorporating high intensity strength and aerobic based exercises – all in short, pre-determined and repeatable workouts.

2015

High Intensity Interval Training was trendy and there are lots of people seeing fabulous results in the fitness club and with home regimens using these high and low intensity moves. Strength Training remained a popular form of exercise workouts, especially among males interested in fitness and better health. More and more women continued to hit the fitness clubs for various strength training exercises as well, in the hopes of building or improving their strength.

2016

Bodyweight training included the use of minimal equipment makes it a super convenient and affordable do-anywhere workout. And it’s not limited to just push-ups and pull-ups-put a fresh spin on bodyweight exercises with different routines.

2017

Group Training.
Some things are just more fun in a group. Group exercise instructors teach, lead and motivate their students through classes designed for a specific intention. Experienced and educated group instructors help people of varying levels achieve their fitness goals. They use a combination of leadership, teaching and motivational skills to accomplish this. Group programs appeal to a wide demographic because of the variety of choices available, camaraderie and social aspects. Thus group training was immensely popular in 2017.

2018

Wearable Technology
Activity trackers, smart watches, and heart rate monitors were as popular as ever in 2018 for people who—were into seeing their workouts by the numbers, wearable technology can give them interesting feedback about how you move. Many estimate your steps, sleep, standing time, calories burned, and time spent working out.

2019

Yoga
The ancient practice has been on the list for many years. ACSM notes that in 2019, yoga has taken on many forms, like “Power Yoga, Yogilates, yoga in hot environments,” and more. Now that we’ve seen goat yoga, who knows what other forms of yoga the future holds? Yoga became immensely popular with a 32% increase only in 2019. It is on of the hottest forms of workout right now and will continue to be for some time.