Woman yoga helps women balance the various responsibilities and tasks in their lives. It boosts metabolism, helps women manage weight and teaches them to relax.
Women-centred yoga focuses on tailoring the practice to reflect cyclical changes in a woman’s body and life stages. For example, a practice may look different during menstruation, ovulation, pregnancy, postpartum and the menopause.
1. Mental Health
Women often seek group workouts like Yoga classes rather than hitting the gym on their own. This may be because they are more comfortable working out with other people. They are also likelier to take a multifaceted approach to exercise that includes aerobics training, some strength training and mind-body practices.
A yoga class is a great way to release pent-up energy and relieve stress. Yoga can also help you build a strong sense of self-esteem and reduce anger. In fact, a study found that practicing yoga reduced verbal aggression in adolescents.
Studies on mood have found that a 10-week yoga treatment significantly improves positive affect and decreases psychological distress. In addition, a wait-list control study showed that regular yoga practice significantly improved depression symptoms in a prison population.
2. Physical Health
Women are powerful and successful in the workplace but balancing work, life and home can be exhausting. Practising yoga can help maintain physical and mental health, avoid chronic medical conditions and improve overall health.
It also helps with the balancing of hormones that come with menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. This makes it easier for women to cope with the symptoms of these hormonal changes.
This empowering practice can also boost the self-love that leads to courage and strength, enabling women to be their own warriors. This self-empowerment can be useful for women in navigating the challenging patriarchal world we live in. A word of warning though: it’s not a good idea to be the class clown in yoga! A recent study found that people who attend regular yoga classes have better cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and psychological health than those who don’t.
3. Pregnancy
Throughout the lifetime of women, their bodies undergo a series of hormonal fluctuations – including puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. Yoga can help balance these hormones and make symptoms like bloating and mood swings more bearable.
A recent study found that yoga was effective at reducing physiological stress levels in pregnant women. The group that did yoga had lower values for both anxiety and depression and less symptoms of physical discomfort than the control group.
It’s important to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise during pregnancy. Some yoga poses are not recommended for pregnancy, such as inversions (where your head is below your heart) and deep twists. You may also want to avoid poses that move your legs apart if you have pelvic girdle pain or separated tummy muscles (diastasis recti).
4. Adolescence
Adolescents face a lot of stress, and yoga can help them deal with it. The emphasis on flexibility can reduce the risk of injury and can help them feel empowered in their bodies, as they are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
In one study, teens who did yoga showed higher mean values on positive statements about themselves compared to their peers. Moreover, the participants who practiced yoga also had lower mean values on negative statements.
Girls who do yoga also learn to focus on the present, which can help them cope with the stressors of adolescence. In her classes, Chryssicas has her students imagine a light shining down on them during poses to encourage this mindfulness. This helps break down barriers as students realize that they’re not very different from their peers.
5. Ageing
Women are expected to keep multiple balls in the air – family, career and a social life – with a gracefulness that belies their inner super powers. Yoga helps them to juggle their responsibilities with confidence and ease.
Most yoga practitioners are women, and yoginis (female students of yoga) are often the faces of yoga. Women are the majority of yoga teachers and most students in teacher training.
Women who regularly practice yoga have higher body satisfaction levels and better control over their weight, than those who do not. Women find that yoga melts away their damaging competitive spirit, and they learn to respect the needs of their own bodies. This also makes them more comfortable with vulnerability, an aspect of the practice that men tend to find difficult.