In early summer I wrote a post about running. In that post I mentioned many injuries, and they gave me chance to gain new knowledge. Because of running, I started training yoga. First time during my trip to the USA, then few months off and then I joined to gym club and yoga exercises. Now I’m after more than half a year with yoga in my life, once or twice times per week and I can describe benefits that gives me this activity. Just now I can say: I really recommend anyone to try yoga. It’s amazing, how can it help in many completely different areas.
My first yoga on the USA was something completely new, different and I didn’t know what to expect. It was relatively light workout with a lot of meditation and relaxation. First of all, what is yoga? For me, primarily it’s a kind of stretching, but everything depends on of yoga type and our goals. That training during visiting USA was focused on relaxation: we lay down a lot, listened to calm music, tried to rest mentally. My workouts in the gym are different: it’s more active yoga, with dynamic stretching and only small part of relaxation. My home practice is mixed, because I use YouTube videos to train and learn new Asana (positions) and gain knowledge about their advantages.
I made regular (daily, only few minutes, but every morning) stretching before, but yoga is different. It’s deeper, more efficient, more demanding workout – and I feel better after practice with yoga. Just as you may think, there are many workouts for different circumstances: yoga to start the day, yoga after office work, after workout, before sleep etc. You can choose everything you need, or just try many types without any strict plan – and I think it’s the best option, because then you can learn a lot of positions and stretch many parts of your body. I focus mostly for yoga after office work: because I work few hours at the computer and desk, my hips are “blocked”. Yoga allows me to unlock them, and also avoid contractions during bike or running workouts.
Yoga can be also a part of meditation. It’s not only activity, stretching, but also a philosophy: yoga tries focus our attention on the current moment. Not only because many yoga techniques use one position for a long time (for example 2-3 minutes), but also because breathing is also part of exercise: we should focus on slow, calm breath, and slow, calm exhaust. This may sound strange but… it helps a lot during difficult positions, because we don’t think about pain, but about calm breathing. In result, I can make all workout with better benefit for my body. It also teaches us, to use the same breathing technique during any other activity, or when we begin to be upset. Simple, but very practical and effective.
Small additional, but interesting thing is I got to know New Age music because of yoga. There was always music during all workouts, but I didn’t know it. I checked that and discovered New Age music and New Age philosophy. I’m not interested in that philosophy but music… it’s nice, I can listen to it during daily work and it does not distract me – on the contrary, it helps me to focus on my work and resolving developer problems. Now I listen to New Age and similar music very often. I know, it’s not strict part of yoga, but I decided to mention that fact, maybe you will try it and will like it. As I wrote above, I can only recommend yoga. Just try, one or two times.