Yoga is a physical activity. It is often believed that it is just a question of sitting and mumbling “ommm” while inhaling puffs of incense. But yoga, we move! Before you begin, you must first take stock: where am I physically? Take a notebook, which will be your yoga roadmap, and answer these questions:

Sport: Sport and me, is it a true love story? Do I regularly practice one or more physical activities?
Is sport missing in my life? Do I have a gym card that I never use?
Am I the kind to start new activities (swimming, running …) without sticking to the long term?

Weight: Does my weight suit me? Do I want to lose (5 kilos, or 25 kilos)?
Am I trying to gain weight, to be more muscular?

Health: Am I in good health?
Do I have fragile health?
Do I need to recover from an injury or an operation?

A softer body

Working flexibility is simply stretching one’s muscles. Forget the tonic exercises from gym to school; in yoga, no one is going to push you in the back so that you are able to touch your feet. Everything will go smoothly, by repetitive exercises, progressive and executed in all conscience, not mechanically. Aside from circus performers, gymnasts and ballet dancers who train for hours from an early age, flexibility is not something we are used to working with. The lack of flexibility can interfere with some yoga postures and in everyday life: when I started yoga,

The benefits of a softer body 

Joints healthier. Ankles, knees, hips, elbows, wrists: it moves better, with more fluidity, and it gains mobility. A more relaxed body and a better general posture. The tensions are relaxed!

You may think that you will look ridiculous if you are not flexible. But that’s not a good argument for not getting into yoga: would you give up learning tennis just because you do not know how to hold a racket? Flexibility, it works. Slowly but surely. And it is not because we are not flexible that we do “bad” yoga: everyone’s rhythm!

I am too flexible! If you are already very flexible, yoga will help you to engage the muscles so you do not hurt yourself and take care of your joints.

Stand up, then slowly and as you exhale, bend over to your feet. Your hands do not touch the ground? Bend your knees and put your hands on your shins. Let your head and arms go to the ground, relax your neck. The lower belly rests on the upper thighs. Breathe in this forward flexion of the body. Say hello to the muscles in the back of the thighs that have surely started to manifest! Without doing anything, little by little, the weight of your body takes you to the ground. This passive exercise makes the flexibility of the back of the thighs work.

A more toned body

One of the effects of yoga is to physically strengthen, while softening and lengthening muscles. When one comes out of his first yoga class, the effects on the following days are obvious: aches! Even in unsuspected places … Aches and pains are muscular pains caused by unusual exercises for the body or prolonged stretching.

Exercise: The posture of the chair

Stand up, then bend your knees, lower your hips and buttocks backwards as if you were going to sit on a chair. Raise your arms forward and keep them close to the ears, in line with the bust. Point your gaze to the floor and make sure you always see your toes – if you do not, back up your thighs and buttocks.

How do you feel after 2 or 3 breaths in this posture? The thighs heat up. Breathe, stay a few moments in this posture called the chair. Then slowly release and lean forward while exhaling, in passive stretching posture – standing forward flexion. After a few slow, deep breaths, return to the chair posture.

A thinner body?

The body loses weight when the energy expended by all the activities one does is greater than the energy consumed (by what one eats and drinks). Some activities use more energy because they require more muscle and heart – like running, swimming, cycling, cross-country skiing. These are sports that solicit all muscles for a long time.

In yoga, the “sun salutation” – a warm-up exercise that connects several postures – is the exercise that comes closest to the “cardio”. Depending on the course, it lasts 5 to 20 minutes. This is not enough activity to spend a lot of energy. Yoga is not aerobics.

If losing weight is your goal, I advise you to accompany your yoga practice with a dynamic physical activity such as brisk walking, running or swimming. A healthy and balanced diet is also necessary: ​​yoga, by reducing stress, can help to naturally find a balanced diet. By regaining consciousness of his body, working to do good, I also want to feed myself better. Leaving a yoga class, I rarely want to eat a hamburger at McDo.

And if I sweat a lot, do I lose weight?

In Bikram yoga, we sweat a lot: the room is heated to 40 ° C and the humidity rises to 40%. Twenty-six postures are chained for 1h30. To tell you that we sweat a lot! Other classes than Bikram yoga can also make you sweat, even if the room is not heated! Is sweating a sign that I’m doing more, and therefore burning energy? Sweating is a process that allows the body to cool down when it is too hot. Sweat is mainly water. Sweating does not burn calories, even if we could believe that sweating = melting fat. In addition, if you sweat a lot, you have lost a lot of water: remember to hydrate yourself then.

Better digestion

The yoga class had started for a while, everyone was calm and focused on the mat. The following posture was a twist. Sitting on the ground, the teacher guided us: “Stretch the spine on the inspiration, and on the expiration, turn towards the back of the room. This posture is perfect in case of constipation, you massage your internal organs. I was new to yoga, and to hear the teacher talking about such prosaic things, I burst out laughing!

Talking about “evacuation” is a recurring subject in yoga. Perhaps you were expecting great philosophical considerations, but know that yoga is among other things a great way to improve your transit! Because when things go wrong, it’s the kind of things that are a priori insignificant that can poison your life. With all postures done in class, including torsion postures, and abdominal breathing, your internal organs are entitled to a good massage. This is one of the benefits of yoga that is certainly not very glamorous, but that will make your life easier!