2-Min Yoga Video To Relax Throughout The Day

Kathy Smith Yoga Pose

Yoga is an amazing ancient Eastern exercise that improves your balance, strength, coordination, flexibility, cardiovascular health, and physical confidence. And even better, anyone can do it. Don’t worry about having to become a Cirque Du Soleil performer and twist your body into a pretzel. Yoga works for all shapes, ages, sizes, and ability levels.

Before you strike a pose, though, you should know some things about why yoga is so effective:

• Flexibility

Few other exercise modalities emphasize strength and flexibility in equal parts. For example, the Cobra pose—lie on your stomach, hands at your shoulders, then push your chest up and arch your back but keep legs flat on the floor—engages your back muscles while also stretching, testing your flexibility.

• Range of motion

Many yoga poses include a twist or turn that pushes your range of motion. This training is important because, if you don’t have the ability to twist, then you run the risk of throwing something out.

• Mental focus

We’re conditioned to think moving faster means burning more calories and that equals a great workout. Of course, yoga burns calories, but that’s not the only benefit. This is one of those instances where technique is more important than speed, and in order to perfect technique, you have to concentrate.

• De-stressing

Do you feel physically spent at the end of a day? Typically, we tend to hold tension in our muscles and it starts to build up throughout the day or week. Yoga is a wonderful release because it makes you slow down. And, it’s a form of meditation because you’re focusing on breathing through each pose, which naturally relaxes you. Yoga is a regular part of my practice that I use to release tension throughout the week.

Strike a pose

Whether you suffer from tension in your back or hips, or just want to do something different, it’s easy to get started. Strike a pose with the two-minute video below to relax throughout the day and generate more energy.

Becoming a habit

Yoga can make the difference of a day with back pain or no back pain. Start—or end—your day with a sequence of a few poses, and make it fun—find music you like, sign up for a class with a friend, or do it in the peace and quiet of your home with the yoga videos in my ReShape program. Before you know it, you’ll feel the relief.