Yoga is a great way to help improve your posture! Bad posture is a result of not using the body enough and of creating muscular imbalances by using it “incorrectly”. Yoga is designed to bring muscular and postural balance- working all body parts in all directions, stretching tight areas and strengthening weak muscles. The concept of Bandhas or “Yoga Locks” (which may take some time to master) will help you develop a strong sense of “internal lift”, which relates to your core muscles and helps keep you upright. Additionally, the awareness developed in Yoga classes will be carried over to your day-to-day activities, reminding you to carry yourself more upright and with less build-up of tension and bad habits.
FAQs
Can Yoga help my posture?
What are the physical health benefits of Yoga?
A regular practice of Yoga can offers all kinds of physical health benefits. Some, like improved strength and flexibility, are clearly evident. Other may be more subtle and may take longer to develop, but are just as powerful!
Strength: Strength develops as a result of introducing a physical challenge to muscles to the edge of their ability. Many yoga poses do exactly that- they require you to support the weight of your own body in ways that your muscles are not used to, which “forces” your muscles to build strength to support the new task. Holding new poses over the course of several breaths will build up strength; Progressing to more difficult variations of the poses over time will ensure that your strength will keep developing even when you have been practicing for a while.
Flexibility: Modern day living and the natural aging process lead to decreased flexibility, which leads to immobility, tension and often pain. Moving and stretching in Yoga classes will help you become more flexible. Over time, you can expect to gain flexibility in your muscles and improved range of motion in your joints. This will help you move better and with more ease.
Balance: Improved balance is one of the most important benefits of yoga. Poses where you stand on one leg, balance on one hand and one leg or balance on your head and arms are extremely beneficial but must be approach with caution. Always practice at a level appropriate to you and if in doubt make sure you practice in a safe environment and maybe even with someone to support you if necessary.
Joint Health: our joints need to move to their full range and be exposed to appropriate physical demands (compression and de-compression) in order to stay healthy. Yoga poses offer the opportunity to do exactly that in a safe and progressive manner. Of course, you must always make sure you work to your own level and without any joint pain! This way you will see improvement over time.
Injury Prevention: Improved flexibility, strength and balance, improved range of motion in our joints and the ability to move more freely and in a balanced manner can help prevent the causes of many strain related injuries and pain. Tightness, weakness, poor physical control and even spinal compression, can all be addressed with yoga. Yoga also improves your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.
Better Breathing: Most of us take shallow breaths and don't give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to take deeper breaths, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages (helpful for people with allergies) and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.
What are the mental benefits of Yoga?
Yoga's combined focus on mindfulness, breathing and physical movements brings health benefits with regular practice. The physical health benefits may be easier to observe and measure but the mental ones are just as important.
Mental Calmness: Yoga asana practice is intensely physical. Concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing calmness to the mind. Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching the breath, learning to observe your “edge” and disengaging from your thoughts. The mental skills acquired in Yoga classes can prove to be very valuable in intense situations of daily life.
Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is very true of yoga. Because of the concentration required, your daily troubles, both large and small, seem to melt away during the time you are on the mat. This provides a much-needed break from your stressors, as well as helping to put your problems into perspective. The emphasis yoga places on being in the moment can also help relieve stress, as you learn not to dwell on past events or anticipate the future. You will leave a yoga class feeling less stressed than when you started.
Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often encouraged to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment and you are always encouraged to listen to your body and work to its limits on the day. Becoming stronger, more flexible and more aware of your own body will over time increase your level of comfort in your body, giving you a sense of confidence and achievement.
Should I do Yoga when I have aches and pains?
That depends. Often movement can ease aches and pains caused by stiffness, but with some chronic conditions one should not exercise to the point of pain or discomfort. If you have such a condition you should seek advice from your health care provider. If not… you should definitely keep moving but always be aware how things are feeling and not push yourself to the point of joint pain. Quite often if there is a pain or ache in one area, it can ease by moving somewhere else and generally ease off by moving the whole body!
It’s important to remember that Yoga can also be simply breath awareness and mediation, which is always good, so if you don’t feel like moving much, choose a very gentle class.
Is the Pelvic Floor supposed to be engaged in ALL exercises?
The question of Pelvic Floor (PF) engagement is the subject of many debates and workshops in the Pilates world… and the answer to it can be quite different from one school of thought to another. From my understanding, Pilates teachers did not really talk about the PF until about 15-20 years ago when Physiotherapy protocols started mixing with the traditional Pilates methodology, but nowadays some Pilates teachers can get quite hooked on the issue and “won’t let you move” until you know how to activate your PF.
I believe it is important to understand that whether we talk about it or not and whether we know exactly how the PF works or not, the exercises themselves- the movements you perform and the instructions you follow will all encourage the activation and the stretching of your PF muscles in the same way that they will for all other muscle groups in the body. The PF muscles will naturally engage with all movements in Pilates and so there is no need to worry about it too much. I personally prefer to think about the bones of the pelvis drawing together- the sits bones (the bones you feel when you sit straight on a hard chair) drawing towards each other and the hip bones drawing towards each other. These actions combined with “pulling your abdominals in and up” will get your Pelvic Floor working in harmony with everything else in a very organic way.
Clearly, if anyone suffers from a dysfunction of the PF, they should be seeing a specialist and should be given rehabilitation exercises that will help them recover and resume normal, healthy function.
I find it difficult to focus during the classes. Any tips?
Yes... I hear you... in today's world we constantly rush from one thing to the next and always seem to be thinking about the next thing instead of "being in the moment" and focused on what we are actually doing.
Here are three tips that can help you while doing your home practice with yoopod:
Before starting the class, put your phone on silent and eliminate other potentially distracting gadgets. This is YOUR time and you deserve not to be disturbed for a while!!
Focus on the teacher's words with intent. Listen carefully and follow the instructions, ideas and images as best as you can. When you are immersed in what you are doing you are less likely to lose concentration and think about something else.
Focus on your breath- this can really help you be in the moment and connect with the rhythm of the exercises. You can even try to breath more out loud then you normally would in a way that makes you very aware of your own breathing.
Does Body Asymmetry Matter?
Having some asymmetry in our bodies is natural and by no means necessarily a problem… Most of us live very happily in an asymmetrical body without having any idea it is the cases. Most of us are either strongly right or left handed, and have a preferred foot/leg too! Simple exercises such as standing on one leg or sitting back into a chair (alternating the leg that is in front) will reveal your preferences very quickly!
This is not a problem when our bones and joints stay well aligned and our postural and movement muscles are strong and flexible. However, if our posture and movement patterns have been poor, we are much more likely to suffer an unhealthy shear or twist, and excessive wear and tear in the joints.
Pilates exercises were designed to bring balance and harmony to the muscles and the whole musculoskeletal system as well as our internal organs. There is great emphasis in the work on stretching muscles that tend to be tight and strengthening muscles that tend to be week. Most of the people in western society suffer from similar imbalances due to our life style and postural-movement habits we develop from young age.
To help regain balance and harmonise your body, pay attention to your alignment during the classes. Notice your body’s relationship to the mat, the floor and objects around you; you will gradually develop better sense of awareness (proprioception) and will perform the exercises in a way that will help you regain more symmetry. When doing exercise on one side most of us feel one side stronger than the other and one side tighter than the other. Feel free to add a few more repetitions to the weaker side and add extra time to stretch the tighter side.
I am overweight and out of shape, but would like to start a Pilates routine. Any advice?
You can start doing Pilates no matter what your weight or fitness level is! I have worked with overweight people who understood the work and were able to perform the exercises much better than a lot of other people!
The important thing is to start gradually and progress at a pace that is appropriate to you. if you are out of shape and have never done Pilates before you would need to start from step 1. Our Complete Beginner section offers pre-pilates classes that will help you prepare for the “real thing”. Follow these classes until you feel ready to move on to the Beginner’s Course classes. These classes offer variations and modifications that will allow you to learn the exercises at a level appropriate to you and progress gradually and safely.
If you want Pilates to help you re-shape your body and help you feel better you will need to schedule regular classes so that you take at least two to three classes per week. Only with regular practice your body will start re-forming itself and change from inside out. And it is the regular practice that will also give you the boost to be more active through-out the day and maybe even take on board other forms of exercise such as walking or cycling.
I am over 70 years old and not sure Pilates is right for me and how it can help. Can you please advise?
Thank you for writing to us. Unless you suffer from a specific condition that stops you from exercising, then the answer is definitely yes… Pilates is not only right but actually quite wonderful for you!
If you have any doubts then please talk to your doctor about exercise and see what he/she recommends. Assuming they are happy for you to commence classes I would recommend starting from the very basic level classes (Pre-Pilates, Beginner’s Course and Basic level classes) and working your way through the classes to find which work best for you. It is a good idea to save classes that suit your needs and make you feel good in your “favorites” and take them regularly. We have recently added classes by the wonderful Alan Herdman that you might find appropriate and interesting.
As for how the classes can help you- I could talk about it all day as I just love working with seniors and seeing how they get better, stronger and healthier… but instead I will quote some scientific data that you might find reassuring: A 2013 investigation found that following a Mat Pilates program, both male and female seniors (average age of 69 years) showed improvements in strength, postural control and dynamic balance. The study also demonstrated that those who continued practicing regularly, continued to improve even one full year after the initial study.
These studies do not usually quantify things like sense of achievement, joy, feeling energised and motivated… but I have no doubt that the participants in the study felt all of the above as well J
Am I too old to try Yoga?
At any age and most specifically as we age, it is vital to keep our joints mobile and stable and our posture upright. Yoga does exactly that. Additionally, with awareness of the breath and its focus on continuous and fully expressed breathing; Yoga provides our bodies with much nourishment on a cellular level.
Yoga is so varied; I believe it is good for everyone, no matter the age. Saying that, some of the more physical aspects of the practice would not be appropriate to people with injuries and limitations. If you are fit and well and have been involved in physical practice continuously over the last years and decades then certain physical classes should be appropriate to you. If you have not been physically active and your movement availability is restricted and/or you have considerable limitations, yin and restorative yoga would be good options to try as well as the more meditative Yoga Nidra classes.