By Mark Berger, Ochsner
Think yoga is just for women? Think again. Here are seven ways a regular yoga practice can benefit men.
Builds strength
We all want to be stronger. Yoga brings us lean muscle by using our body weight, which helps builds core, balance and unilateral durability. It also increases blood flow to help the muscles grow.
Boosts productivity
Yoga helps to keep you focused and improves your memory. It gives you that boost of extra energy you need to tackle everything life throws at you with a little more clarity.
Reduces stress
When you learn to breathe and meditate through yoga, it allows you to stay calm in stressful situations. There are also poses that you can go into that will slow your heart rate or give you relief in places where you tend to hold stress.
Improves your sex life
Yoga helps you bring energy to your partner, adding more intimate and euphoric feelings to the experience. It also helps you to increase your sexual stamina as you improve your body awareness.
Prevents injuries, accelerates recovery time
Yoga helps improve flexibility, blood flow and gives you more proprioception throughout your body. The stretching and strengthening of almost all joints, tendons and muscles helps your body both before and after physical activity, providing healing qualities for any of life's activities, even sitting at a desk all day.
Promotes health and sleep
Yoga helps boost your immune, circulatory, digestive, excretory, respiratory, skeletal, nervous and endocrine systems. It also helps reduce tension, anxiety and stress, which can help you sleep better.
Encourages weight loss
Between moving, breathing, and reducing stress, it is easy for men to become more fit and shed some pounds through yoga.
Yoga helps men stay strong, flexible and balanced while simultaneously allows the body to relax and rest from the wear and tear we put on it.
Yoga is the best compliment to anything you do in life. As long as you can move and breathe, you can do yoga. Not flexible? Stretch more. Anxious? Learn to breathe. Suffering from injuries? Move with intention. Out of shape? Go at your own pace.
When you go to your first yoga class, remember that it is not a competition like other forms of movement. It is a time to make space for yourself. When you start to see some improvement, know that it's time to get back to your mat and keep putting it into practice. Stick with it and, eventually, yoga will become a way of life.
Obviously, the best motivation every Monday is a Saints win on Sunday but the NFL season only lasts so long. Motivation Monday will be a year-round feature on NewOrleansSaints.com as the Saints and Ochsner recognize we all have been through a lot the past two years and we want to do our part to improve the health and wellness of our Saints family. If you have any ideas or questions for our experts we want to hear them. You can email us atSaintsLiveWell@saints.nfl.com.
