What’s the first thing you think of when someone says “Yoga?” Vegans. Health freaks. Moms who hand out bags of carrots for Halloween. Don’t you just hate them? Well, the time has come when a fellow carrot-giving-yogi tells you to become one of us. The health benefits mentally and physically are amazing.

One of yoga’s many health benefits is simple fitness. Its popularity in fitness is due to its ability to tone the muscles. Toned muscles can help prevent injuries in sports; professional football players such as Russell Wilson and Lebron James practice yoga. 75% of yogis practice yoga as a secondary sport (i.e. football, track, volleyball, or pilates comes first; yoga is used as a training practice).
It’s statistically proven practicing yoga and ballet can dramatically improve skills in other sports. Along with fitness-related health, yoga empowers people to live healthier. Exercise, obviously, is crucial for getting and/or maintaining physical shape.

Although yoga does not directly associate with healthy eating, it’s a side effect that comes along with the love of being healthy! That’s where we bring up the carrot-giving vegans, though a salad once a week won’t kill anyone. Being surrounded by people who genuinely care about their bodies and what they put in it is sure to motivate you to do the same.

Fitness related yoga is extremely popular in the United States, but in many other places, it’s used primarily as a mental restoration and/ or religious practice. It’s a large part of Hinduism and Buddhism, but that’s not all! Long, stressful days and restless, sleepless nights can be cured by meditative practice and yoga stretching (Yin Yoga and Restorative Yoga). Teenagers can truly benefit from its stress relief, especially when we engage in so many school and sports activities. The released endorphins combined with the deep breathing create an overall feeling of joy, benefiting mental health enormously.

17 million children and 21 million adults practice yoga for mental health reasons.

Practicing sports, in general, is incredibly important to kids our age. 31% of freshman, 31% of sophomores,  27% of juniors, and 25% of seniors in high school are getting the proper amount of physical activity they need to be healthy (an hour a day, at least). That’s 75% of children not getting enough exercise! Do you know what I have to say about that? Yoga, probably.

To get into this new groove, online / youtube classes are an amazing way to begin. Upbeat workouts and calming workouts are all over the place. After that, any studio will be happy to take in new learners.