Women are the heart of our societies. They are dynamic at work and doting at home. Yoga teaches them to recharge their own physical and emotional batteries.
Women-centred yoga focuses on tailoring your practice to the cyclical changes of your feminine body throughout puberty, pregnancy, menstruation and into menopause. This way you can stay connected to the echoed cycles of your body and nature.
Stress Reliever
Women have a knack for keeping many balls up in the air at once, whether it’s work, family or juggling all the other responsibilities of life. But all that multitasking can lead to stress, and the practice of yoga can help keep it under control.
Yoga’s meditative qualities, breathing exercises and physical postures all help to release stress. It can also improve overall health, from lowering blood pressure to improving the condition of the musculoskeletal system.
A good yoga class will be tailored to a woman’s needs, with the practice adjusting to her menstrual cycle and other key times of her life, such as pregnancy or menopause. This holistic approach to women’s wellness in yoga is called ‘women-centred yoga’ and it can improve physical, mental, emotional and energetic well-being. It can also be used to address common problems, such as menstrual cramps and bloating. It can even alleviate menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and insomnia.
Hormone Balance
Hormonal imbalance is a common problem that many women face. Certain yoga poses can stimulate the endocrine system and improve its functioning, which leads to consistent production of hormones and their proper distribution in the body. It also helps reduce stress levels, which contributes to hormonal imbalance in women. Asanas like Bhujangasana or Cobra Pose are especially beneficial for the reproductive organs and pelvic area.
As a woman moves through the various stages of her life, she experiences enormous hormonal changes in her body. From puberty to pregnancy to menopause, the right kind of feminine yoga can significantly help manage these symptoms.
Women who regularly practice yoga have a lower risk of developing certain health conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. In addition, this form of exercise can also boost the production of feel-good hormones that promote overall well being. Therefore, it is essential for every woman to include yoga in her daily routine.
Strengthening
A regular yoga practice strengthens muscles, helping you to feel more confident and powerful. This increased muscle tone can help to balance hormones and make periods less painful, while improving sleep quality too.
Unlike other exercise programmes, which tend to ignore gender and life stage differences, women’s wellness yoga takes into account the cyclical nature of not only a woman’s menstrual cycle but her overall health and wellbeing. This allows the practice to be adapted according to whether a woman is menstruating, ovulating, pregnant, postpartum or going through menopause.
Compared to age-matched women who did not practice yoga, women with a long-term yoga experience showed greater body build indices, lower blood pressure, higher heart rate variability parameters and better 6MWT values. They also had greater hamstring flexibility, shoulder ROM on the non-dominant side and hand grip strength, and a shorter sleep latency time. Yoga melts away a damaging spirit of competition and teaches us to listen to our own bodies, honouring what they can do rather than pushing them beyond their limits.
Relaxation
Women juggle many balls and yoga is an effective way of regaining balance and calm in their lives. Whether it’s prenatal yoga for mothers-to-be or restorative yoga for women, these forms of the practice help to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” part) which helps to slow breathing, reduce heart rate and produce a sense of well being.
If you are a woman who suffers from menstrual cramps, yoga can also bring relief. One study found that yoga improved sleep quality for women who suffered from menstrual pain and other symptoms associated with menopause.
A dedicated yoga practice can also improve the cellular response to stress, and lengthen the tail-end of genes called telomeres. These genes protect cells from degradation due to aging and chronic disease. Studies have shown that regular yoga practice improves cellular integrity and boosts the body’s immune function. Yoga is an ideal complement to traditional treatment of women’s health issues.