If you’re a passionate Yoga Class attendee or Pilates class advocate you’ve probably noticed some mind and body benefits—maybe you’re sleeping better or feeling stronger, less stiffness or better focus!! However, if you’ve ever tried telling a newbie about the benefits of Yoga, Pilates and YOGALATES classes you might find that explanations like “It increases the flow of prana” or “It brings strength and stability to your spine” fall on deaf or skeptical ears. Let alone getting them to try a YOGALATES class!
I have experienced YOGALATES healing power in a very real way……YEARS OF working in PHYSIOTHERAPY, as a PILATES consultant AND teaching Pilates and YOGA classes HAS ENABLED ME TO REALLY UNDERSTAND how Yoga and Pilates sequences and exercises have effective application as movement therapy. I have used Yoga and Pilates as treatment techniques, fitness regimes and a way to enhance lifestyle.. With continued practice participants develop their own body awareness by listening to their own physical and emotional messages and develop their own footprint on the mat. This deep immersion into self helps to cultivate that strength openness awareness in life both on and off the mat.
Pilates & Yoga Class = Yogalates
Yogalates is a brilliant fusion of the physical, mindful and spiritual postures of yoga combined with the core strengthening and alignment of pilates. The flow and sequence can be adapted to any level of fitness and tailored to physical requirements, injury and emotional state. Energising, strengthening, stretching, calming and nurturing. It has been described as a meeting place of east and west, effectively merging the ancient practice of Yoga from the east and the posture enhancing dynamics of Pilates from the west.
As it happens, Western science is starting to provide some concrete clues as to how Yoga and Pilates works to improve health, heal aches and pains, and keep sickness at bay. Once you understand them, you’ll have even more motivation to step onto your mat, and you probably won’t feel so tongue-tied the next time someone wants Western proof. Both Yoga and Pilates has been found to improve quality of life, reduce stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression and back pain. It has also been found to lower heart rate and blood pressure. It has been shown to improve fitness, strength and flexibility, according to the alternative medicine center. Dec 30, 2013
My experience with my own wellbeing and that of my patients and clients inspired me to look over the scientific studies to help identify and explain how yoga can both prevent disease and help you recover from it. Here is what I dug up about yoga class!
1) Helps Reduce Chronic Pain
Good mobility is Key to maintaining healthy joints and a pain-free body because, with age, you gradually lose range of motion, strength, and flexibility when you don’t stay on top of it. Too often we take for granted our ability to easily move around and function in daily life, keeping your body moving is the greatest way to prevent age-related physical issues. Yoga and Pilates sequences allow us to move safely with our body to create more space and joint freedom — all while strengthening weak and underused muscles, and eliminating pain.
2) Improves flexibility
Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of YOGALATES. During your first class, you probably won’t be able to touch your toes, but once you’re consistent with the dynamic stretching and asanas, you’ll notice a gradual loosening, and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You’ll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. That’s no coincidence. Tight buttock muscles and connective tissue can strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the legs. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. And inflexibility in muscles and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can cause poor posture, neck and shoulder problems. The Dynamic stretch sequences in YOGALATES are simple movements that put your muscles and joints through a normal range of motion…. increasing the circulation of blood flow throughout the body, Having a positive impact on flexibility over time by increasing muscle and joint elasticity, thus increasing the depth and range of motion for daily life and performance in sport…
3) Yoga Class Builds muscle strength
Strong muscles do more than look good. We require strong gluteal ( butt) muscles to stabilize our pelvis when we walk and run, we need strong abdominals to support or spine, prevent lower back pain, strong quadriceps (thighs) to get out of a chair or up stairs and strong back muscles to hold us up and maintain a posture… just to name a few! Each muscle has an important function and requires the right balance of strength, stability and flexibility. The combination of flowing dynamic exercises, sustained postures, muscular co contraction and body awareness enable good body biomechanics and build our strength
4) Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown
Each time you practice yogalates you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by “squeezing and soaking” areas of cartilage that normally aren’t used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.
5) Betters your bone health
It’s well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in Yoga and Pilates classes require that you lift your own weight. And some, like Chatarunga, downward facing dog, or wild thing strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. Through our YOGALATES practice we develop the ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol (see below) which may help keep calcium in the bones.
Strong bones mean preventing loss of bone mineral strength. The magic number of a 1 percent loss per year seems to be the considered average of how fast our body’s bones get thinner and weaker. Once again, though, exercise such as Yoga and Pilates is the key to maintaining your bone health. The specific form of exercise required for bone strength involves resistance training to build muscle which pulls on bone and strengthens it… YOGALATES does this through lifting our own body weight as well as props such as bands and balls.
6) Anti ageing
HUFF AND PUFF
Your aerobic capacity is your body’s ability to work at maximum capacity by getting oxygen from the air to your body’s tissues. Ordinarily, people lose about 1 percent a year of their aerobic power or, if you’d like to do the math, 10 percent per decade. If you start calculating at the age of 40, this means that people can lose 30 percent of their maximum aerobic capacity by the time they reach age 70. That’s a lot of unnecessary huffing and puffing.
AGING SKIN
Why do some of the fittest 60-plus women look younger than their age? The answer lies in the question. A recent study from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, found that women over 65 who worked out for a minimum of two hours a week for three months had the skin composition of women 20 to 30 years younger. It seems that sweating, moving and breathing leads to pumping myokines, a group of proteins secreted by muscle cells and diffused throughout the body. The result: younger-looking complexions.
IMMUNITY
Boosts immunity even short-term exercise programs can reverse some of the deleterious effects of aging on this sensitive, complex, and crucial regulatory system which controls so much of your everyday health.
7) Makes you smarter
Part of the reason exercise enhances cognition has to do with blood flow. Research shows that when we exercise, blood pressure and blood flow increase everywhere in the body, including the brain. More blood means more energy and oxygen, which makes our brain perform better.
Exercise such as YOGALATES helps trigger endorphins, which improve the prioritising functions of the brain. After exercise, your ability to sort out priorities improves, allowing you to block out distractions and better concentrate on the task at hand.
It’s even possible that exercise can help slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease by improving your glucose and fat metabolism because some of the brain alterations found in Alzheimer’s disease may be due to abnormalities in these processes. Memory also benefits from a general lowering of cortisol, the stress hormone, associated with the improved mood and anxiety levels you experience from your regular workout .
8) Improves your sex life
Keeping your muscles active through use helps promote the demands placed on your endocrine glands to produce more hormones. With more muscle mass comes greater stimulation to produce androgens, which help both men and women maintain their sexual functioning. You are also likely to feel more fit and be fitter from your YOGALATES practice which in turn will benefit your interest in and ability to carry out sexual activity. Your emotional resilience will also be greater if you exercise, which also benefits your relationship.
9) Increases your blood flow
Yoga and Pilates can enhance our Cardiovascular system (heart and arteries)! The postures and asanas are isometric, which means they rely on holding muscle tension for a short period of time. This improves cardiovascular fitness and circulation. Studies show that regular yoga practice may help normalise blood pressure.
Yogalates sequences and asanas get the blood flowing. Also, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga class and Pilates also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Shoulder stand, legs up wall and other inversions encourage venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated.
10) May Reduce Inflammation
In addition to improving your mental health, some studies suggest that practicing yoga and Pilates may reduce inflammation as well. Hormonal imbalances can increase inflammation, which in turn can further disrupt hormone production. When your adrenals over-secrete cortisol, other hormones, including insulin, become disrupted, leading to chronic inflammation.
Regular yoga class exercise reduces fat mass and adipose tissue inflammation which is known to contribute to systemic inflammation. This kind of exercise also increases muscle production of IL-6 which is known to reduce TNF-α production and increase anti-inflammatory cytokines. The right amount and kind of exercise can positively impact nearly every hormone, including positively influencing insulin levels. Exercise can also boost growth hormone, your “fountain of youth” hormone that keeps you lean and energetic
11) Drains your lymphs and boosts immunity
When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga and Pilates postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning
12) Yoga Class: Perfects your posture
Poor posture can cause back, neck, and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain, headaches and degenerative arthritis of the spine.
13) A vigorous yoga class ups your heart rate
While not all yogalates is aerobic, if you do it vigorously or take flow classes, it can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range. Studies have found that yoga practice lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, and can improve your maximum uptake of oxygen during exercise. One study found that subjects who were taught only pranayama could do more exercise with less oxygen! There’s a lot to be said for breath awareness..
14) Regulates your adrenal glands
Yogalates lowers cortisol levels. High or excessive cortisol has been linked with major depression, osteoporosis (it extracts calcium and other minerals from bones and interferes with the laying down of new bone), high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. High cortisol also contributes to weight gain and the risk of diabetes and heart attack. Yoga and Pilates lowers blood sugar and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and boosts HDL (“good”) cholesterol. In people with diabetes, yoga and Pilates has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways: by lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, and improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin.
Yogalates encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (or the fight-or-flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming and restorative; it helps to slow breathing and lower heart rate, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs
15) A regular yoga class promotes better sleep
Though the way it works is not clear, yoga has been shown to increase the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep and wakefulness. Yogalates also has a significant effect on anxiety, depression, chronic pain and stress — all common contributors to sleep problems.
16) Relieves stress, Anxiety and calms the nervous system
Improved blood circulation, easing of muscle tension and the act of focusing the mind on the breath all combine to soothe the nervous system. Long-term benefits include reduced stress, anxiety and fatigue, better concentration and energy levels, and increased feelings of calm and wellbeing. This is because concentrating on the postures and the breath acts as a form of meditation.
Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, according to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress.
It’s not entirely clear exactly how yoga is able to reduce symptoms of anxiety. However, it emphasizes the importance of being present in the moment and finding a sense of peace, which could help treat anxiety.
17) Improves your balance
Regularly practicing yoga and Pilates increases proprioception (the ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space) and improves balance. Some of the asanas and sequences in leg standing on one leg such as tree pose, half moon pose and stork pose. Other sequences involve weight transference and traditions into and out of postures, all of which enhance our balance and mobility.
18) Makes you happier
A study found that a consistent yoga class improved depression and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. The feel good hormones, endorphins, are also secreted during movement and breath, enhancing our mood and our happiness.
19) A weekly yoga class helps you focus
An important component of yoga and Pilates is focusing on the present. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves coordination, reaction time, body awareness, breath awareness, memory, and even IQ scores.
20) Reduces stress and Gives you peace of mind
Yoga is a renowned antidote to stress. Over time, yoga practitioners report lower levels of stress, and increased feelings of happiness and wellbeing. This is because concentrating on the postures and the breath acts as a form of meditation.
Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, according to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress. And since stress is implicated in so many health problems.
21) Improves Self Esteem
When you practice regularly with an intention of self-examination and betterment—not just as a substitute for an aerobics class—you can access a different side of yourself. You’ll experience feelings of gratitude, empathy, and forgiveness, as well as a sense that you’re part of something bigger. Yoga, Pilates and meditation build awareness. also increases your ability to step back from the drama of your own life, to remain steady in the face of bad news or unsettling events.
It’s all connected!!
As you read all the ways yogalates, yoga class and Pilates classes improve your health, you probably noticed a lot of overlap. That’s because they’re intensely interwoven. Change your posture and you change the way you breathe. Change your breathing and you change your nervous system. This is one of the great lessons of yogalates! Everything is connected—your hipbone to your anklebone, you to your community, your community to the world. This interconnection is vital to understanding yogalates… and helps us maintain motivation to see and feel the benefits of attending a YOGALATES or yoga class!
Multiple studies have confirmed the many mental and physical benefits of both yoga and Pilates.
Incorporating it into your routine and prioritizing the time to practice yoga or take a Pilates class just a few times per week may be enough to make a noticeable difference when it comes to your health.
www.healthline.com/nutrition/13-benefits-of-yoga
www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/pilates-and-yoga-health-benefits
See you on the mat.
Lisa x
