Yoga: The Building Block to a Healthier Life

Breathe in and out. Now reach up and back to the heart.

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that combines physical posture, breathing exercises and meditation.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health released that in 2017 9.5 percent (21 million) of U.S. adults participate in some form of Yoga.

Yoga, as of late, has taken the world by storm.

Different sports, schools, and organizations are adding yoga to training and programs.

There are more than 100 different forms of yoga. Yoga can range from gentle and slow to power yoga which is faster and much more challenging.

Runners are using yoga apart from their winter training to improve strength, flexibility and mental focus.

Yoga has many more positive effects when it comes to your overall well-being. According to runnersworld.com, yoga helps reduce stress, aids weight loss, eases the pain, helps people stick to an exercise routine and can even improve running times.

By increasing your flexibility, running becomes more efficient and injury free, said Adam St. Pierre, a coach, biomechanist, and exercise physiologist for the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine.

There are many different reasons that people try yoga for the first time. In a report by forbes.com, 61 percent tried yoga for flexibility, 56 percent said it was a stress relief and 49 percent said it was for general fitness.

In a recent study by Harvard Health, yoga can reduce the emotional and physical fatigue that is brought on by cancer treatment.

Yoga may also be increasing in the U.S. due to the fact that stress levels of Americans are at an all-time high, according to The American Psychological Association.

To fight the increasing levels of stress, elementary schools are implementing yoga into their daily routine.

Psychologist, Katherine Stone, said that children don’t have the same coping skills as many adults, with the daily ups and downs that life brings.

According to a study by Harvard Health, yoga can help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Jessica Gershen, a certified yoga instructor, said in an interview with Harvard Health, “Through yoga, kids start to realize that they are strong and they are able to take that strength, confidence, acceptance, and compassion out into the world.”

Either through child or adult yoga is making an impact on life across the country and becoming more a part of daily life.

Breathe in and out. Now reach up and back to the heart.

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019 by Victoria Fowler Categories: Senior ProjectTags: health, mental health, physical health, relax, spiritual, strength, yoga Leave a comment

90 percent mental

​Running, a seemingly monotonous task to test physical strength is pushing many runners to see how far they can really go.

5K, 10K, half marathon, 25K, 30K marathon, ultra marathon, people are running harder and farther than before.

According to runnersworld.com, running is just as much as a mental exercise as it is physical.

Doctor and author of Lore of Running, Tim Noakes, mentions that it is the brain that allows or limits endurance performance rather than the body.

The brain is the machine that runs the show and orders the body on what to do and what not to do.

A study from the University of Birmingham in England created a theory saying that it is possible to trick the mind to allow the body to work harder.

When doing any endurance type activity there is always that extra push each person has in them even when they feel that they have nothing left.

If your muscles were truly exhausted, then doing that extra push wouldn’t be possible; it’s all a mental game.

The brain must be trained just as hard as the rest of the body when it comes to running and many other endurance exercises.

Noakes said in his book, “If you want to be competitive, you have to learn how to deal with the discomfort. A lot of the heavy, good physical training is about training the brain to cope with discomfort.”

An easy way to train the brain is to include training as a top priority to the list of things to do in the day. Having training scheduled in each day, allows your brain to think of it as a normal activity and not a painful experience.

Although, this isn’t something that is fixed after the first try, according to runnersworld.com practice makes perfect and with practice, you become more convinced of your ability to handle mental stress.

Professional athletes have put in hours of research into finding the perfect training regimen, not everything will work after the first minute of effort.

Another way to improve mental strength when it comes to physical strength is by keeping a record of what you’ve done.

According to Pew Research, only 60 percent of U.S. adults say they track their weight, diet or exercise routine.

Keep track of what you’re doing and push yourself more each day.

According to runnersgoal.com, you don’t have to have a PR every time you run, but practicing pushing yourself harder each time will increase mental and physical strength.

Mental fatigue generally comes before physical fatigue. Running is 90 percent mental; train your mind as much as you would train your body. ​

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019 by Victoria Fowler Categories: Senior ProjectTags: exercise, fitness, health, mental health, physical health, running Leave a comment