7 Surprising Reasons Why You Need A Regular Yoga Practice

When life is hectic, finding time to practice yoga can feel really tricky. While it’s not as easy as it perhaps was in lockdown, getting on your mat for just a few minutes a day can have huge benefits for your physical and mental health. If you need a push to commit to your yoga practice in 2023, here’s 7 unexpected reasons you need a regular yoga practice.

1. Yoga is ‘as good as physio’ for back pain

Did you know one in six Brits suffer from back pain?

A regular yoga practice offers you a convenient affordable way to relieve back pain – in fact, one study found it to be just as effective as traditional physical therapy. Another study demonstrated that chronic low back pain could become significantly less painful through a 3 month yoga regular yoga practice.

2. Yoga can help you tone up

Whether you practice yoga fast or slow, both can help you tone up. Practicing a dynamic flow will build heat in your body can help you burn calories with a cardiovascular workout. Holding poses for long periods of time will also increase your muscle strength and tone over time.

Even restorative yoga can help you lose belly fat! This style of yoga is an extremely slow relaxing practice with long holds and lots of deep breathing was shown by the University of California to help overweight women lose belly fat.

Mixing up your physical practice with different styles can be a great way to help you stick to a more regular yoga practice. In the Worker Bee Yoga membership you can get access to a variety of different styles of yoga so you can choose a practice based on how you feel that day. The doors of the Worker Bee membership are currently closed, but will be opening soon! Click here to join the waitlist.

3. Yoga is good for your long-term physical health

Practicing yoga regularly has been shown to improve the health of your heart and lungs. It improves your blood pressure, can reduce your risks of heart attacks and diabetes and can help increase your metabolism. Think about practicing yoga ‘little and often’ as an investment in your long-term health!

Think about developing your regular yoga practice as investing in your long-term health!

4. Yoga helps you feel good!

One of my favourite benefits of yoga has to be that it can reduce your stress. Lots of research has shown people who practice yoga regularly have low levels of cortisol, one of the key stress hormones.

However, not only does yoga improve your stress levels but it also improves your ‘subjective wellbeing’, which means you actually feel better, too. If that’s not an incentive to practice yoga more regularly I don’t know what is!

5. Yoga can improve your performance at other sports 

Yoga is excellent at helping muscle recovery after intense sport, with the combination of stretching and strengthening your muscles. You are also likely to use different types of muscles and move in different ways than you might in a typical cardiovascular workout like running or cycling. This can help you improve your overall mobility and reduce muscle imbalances.

Yoga of course also increases your flexibility and balance that can do wonders for your athletic performance…in one study, athletes did yoga twice a week for 10 weeks and experienced 'significant gains' in flexibility and balance compared to a control group who didn't practice. 

6. Yoga helps you get a good nights sleep

1 in 4 of us lie awake at night. Yoga could be the answer! Research has shown participants who practiced yoga fell asleep quicker, slept for longer and felt more well-rested compared to people who didn't.

Yoga will help you fall asleep quicker and sleep like a baby in no time!

7. Yoga connects you to a supportive community

For me, this is one of the most underrated benefits of yoga and something that is at the heart of Worker Bee Yoga. Participating in yoga has been shown to help reduce feelings of loneliness and help you feel part of a community. Developing a regular group practice, either online or in-person can help connect you with likeminded people. Plus there’s nothing like a bit of extra accountability when you see the familiar faces in class!

Conclusion

So those were my top 7 surprising reasons to develop a yoga practice in 2023. Developing a regular yoga practice honestly does have so many benefits for your physical and mental health. I hope this inspires you to build a regular yoga practice.

If you want to develop a regular yoga practice then you might be interested in joining the Worker Bee Yoga membership. We come together as a supportive community of likeminded non-yogis to develop and deepen your yoga practice.

The Worker Bee Yoga membership doors are WIDE OPEN and welcoming new yoga students! Click the button below to learn more.