Like this:

I’ve been athletically fit my whole life.  I played three sports competitively in High School, two sports in college, and since then I continue to workout and stay active.  But after college, I more or less stopped lifting weights, and I haven’t felt the need to go back to a weightlifting program to build muscle.

Instead, about two years ago, I found the perfect workout:  Yoga.

It took me a long time to discover yoga.  I let all of my stereotypes and prejudgments prevent me from doing yoga.  It’s not masculine. It’s for girls. It’s for hippies.  Things of that nature.  But once I finally got around to going to my first class, it changed my life.  After that first class I immediately started going three times a week.  Now I go about five times a week.

I do yoga because it makes me feel more relaxed, while also giving me energy at the same time.  But even more importantly for me, it has increased my muscle growth.  Yoga builds and strengthens connective tissues  in ways that weightlifting cannot. Yoga poses force you to assume positions that elongate and strengthen simultaneously while applying that torqued dimension of tension on the entire  body. I’ve never felt this strong before, especially in my core. Three years ago I was seeing a chiropractor for my twisted back, and now I’ve never been this flexible and pliable.

Benefits Of Yoga

1. I feel more relaxed
2. I feel more energized at the same time
3. A stronger core, a stronger spine, and better alignment.
4. Expanded lungs and better breathing practices.
5. Stronger muscles and stronger cardiovascular system
6. More awareness of my body.

The final point is probably the one that I had never realized before, which was self-awareness. It is amazing how much more aware I am of my self and my body.  It’s kind of hard to describe.

I wanted to write this post to emphasize how appreciative I am that I got over my  own stereotypes and I discovered yoga early on. I really don’t talk about it much with other people, especially the fact that I think yoga changed my life. but by this point I consider myself a yoga dork, and I can’t imagine not doing it five times a week. I encourage everyone to try it who hasn’t already.

 

I still can't do this though

 

 

 

 

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