Yoga is one of the most popular forms of exercise in the United States. A survey conducted in 2016 revealed 36 million people in America practiced yoga. Majority of people who practice are women, but more and more men are improving their flexibility and trying to shed some weight through yoga. In a span of four years, the number of men who practiced yoga increased by as much as 150 percent.
Do you want to find out what are the benefits of yoga for men? Do you want to know what to wear to your first yoga class?
The following article enlighten you on all of these things and more. Learn the health benefits of yoga for men, ideal men’s yoga clothes and great poses for beginners.
Why Should You do Yoga?
Many people are focusing on improving wellness now more than ever. If you’re tired of weightlifting and similar workouts, you may be considering whether to take tai chi or yoga. If you’re having trouble deciding, you may want to know the benefits of yoga for men. This ancient exercise has both mental and physical effects that will improve your life.
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Yoga Enhances Your Flexibility
Most exercises aimed at male participants focus on bulking up and building strength. However, muscle mass isn’t everything. Yoga focuses on limbering up your body, expanding the range of motions of your limbs and spine. A study discovered that just 10 weeks of yoga improved the flexibility of male college athletes by a significant margin.
Improved flexibility can greatly increase your skill for certain sports, like soccer, basketball or martial arts. If you play these or similar sports, you can supplement your usual workouts with yoga sessions to free up your body.
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Yoga Improves Body-Awareness and Balance
Yoga is built on the philosophy of centering yourself. Unlike other exercises, which may emphasize ignoring physical sensations to prolong your workout, yoga aims to create more awareness of your body. When you do yoga, you must have complete awareness of the position of your limbs, the speed of your breathing, and your body’s center of gravity.
Enhanced body awareness helps improve your balance, which can be affected by everyday activities like sitting at a desk or certain weightlifting exercises. Improved balance gives you more agility and makes your movements more coordinated.
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Yoga Helps Reduce Stress
Perhaps one of the most well-known benefits of yoga is its usefulness as a stress reducing activity. Many components of yoga are conducive for stress management and calm. Yoga emphasizes controlled breathing, which can calm down a racing pulse. The poses themselves purportedly help manage the flow of your body. Yoga studios and spaces also often use soothing smells like incense and essential oils to put you in a tranquil mental state.
Studies have discovered that yoga does indeed help people regulate stress and even pain response. After a day filled with tackling work issues or resolving personal conflicts, you may find that an hour or two of yoga is just the thing to melt your anxieties away.
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Yoga Makes You Sleep Better
Having a regular sleep schedule is important, especially when you’re trying to boost your immune system. One of the benefits of yoga for men is better sleep patterns. Continually practicing yoga prevents light noises and disturbances from interrupting your well-deserved rest, letting you sleep for much longer. Men’s yoga also makes it easier for you to fall asleep in the first place, letting you go to bed at reasonable hours.
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Yoga Boosts Your Sexual Performance
Taking up yoga can also do wonders for your sex life. Because yoga focuses holding poses for prolonged periods and breathing rather than weightlifting, you’ll develop amazing stamina. The improved flexibility yoga gives you also opens new possibilities in the bedroom, if you’re feeling adventurous.
The Journal of Sexual Medicine published a study in 2011 that claimed men who did yoga for just three months didn’t just experience improved sexual performance, they also enjoyed sex more. So if you want to spice up your sex life, roll out a yoga mat.
When you want to enjoy the benefits of men’s yoga, you need to be prepared. You need to have the appropriate wardrobe for the job.
What are Men’s Yoga Clothes?
The tenets for buying great men’s yoga clothes follows a lot of the basic principles for workout clothes. It’s important that you wear the right clothes and accessories if you want to really get all the benefits of yoga for men.
These tenets are as follows:
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Comfort
Yoga is about feeling your body relax, being in the moment, and enjoying the flow of breath through your being. You’ll have a hard time feeling these sensations if you’re too distracted by how itchy the fabric of your top is or how your underwear is starting to ride up.
Find clothes that are made of comfortable, breathable material in sensible designs. You don’t want anything too tight that you can’t breathe or too thick that you’ll feel stuffy after a while, especially if you’re joining a heated yoga class.
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Mobility
Yoga poses are designed to stretch your limbs and your body. You’ll need maximum mobility to perform all the forms, especially the more complicated ones.
Sleeveless tops are perfect for yoga because they free up your arms while also being comfortable. If you’d rather not go sleeveless, any top that offers freedom of movement for your arms will do just fine.
For bottoms, some men can wear basketball short with compression shorts underneath to prevent accidentally exposing yourself. Or you can purchase fitting but stretchable yoga pants.
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Practicality
Remember that aside form being a meditation aid, yoga is a workout routine. Most of the factors that apply to regular workout clothes apply to your yoga ensemble.
For example, yoga can get intense, and your body temperature can go up while you perform exacting poses. Sweat wicking fabric will help you stay comfortable and dry during your session. Basically, if you can’t wear it for another type of exercise, you probably shouldn’t wear it to a yoga class.
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Accessorize
Like any other workout, you can make the most out of yoga if you accessorize properly. Sweatbands are recommended, especially for more intense and prolonged sessions. You may also want to look for the best fitness tracker for yoga in the market. Such a device can help you monitor your heart rate and how many calories you’ve burnt, making it easier to keep track of your fitness.
Find the best accessories that meet your goal, whether that’s to improve comfort or increase the efficiency of your exercise.
Now that you’ve got the perfect getups for your first yoga sessions, what are great yoga flows for beginners?
What are Good Yoga Poses for Beginners?
There are as many over a dozen types of yoga popular in the United States right now. Although you can choose any of them and gradually work your way up to the most complex poses, some forms of yoga are more suited for beginners than others.
If you’ve just discovered the benefits of yoga for men and are only beginning to do yoga, here’s what you should know about some of the most popular yoga styles.
Yin Yoga Poses
Yin yoga emphasizes holding poses for prolonged periods, anywhere between one to five minutes at a time. Yin yoga poses focus on improving your circulation, especially through your joints, and enhancing your flexibility.
Yin yoga is great for men who’ve just started doing yoga, especially because it’s also perfect for helping your body recover from working out. After you hit the gym, you can go to a yin yoga class and improve your flexibility and strengthen your connective tissues.
Vinyasa Yoga Poses
Vinyasa yoga or flow yoga is one of the most common styles of yoga out there. The core of its yoga flows is to connect your breathing and poses to ensure a synchronized flow through your body.
Vinyasa yoga poses are designed to be as calm and meditative as possible, all while keeping your body engaged through movement. It emphasizes mindfulness and dynamism. This style is the best option for men who want the physical and mental benefits of yoga.
Bikram Yoga Poses
Bikram yoga poses are differentiated form other the poses of other styles by the environment. Bikram yoga is a form of “hot yoga,” which is when yoga classes are performed in a heated environment. The heated room has to be exactly 105 degrees Fahrenheit at 40 percent humidity. There are 26 Bikram yoga poses are very demanding, especially in a heated studio.
Beginners should probably choose another yoga style before joining a Bikram yoga class.
Men’s workout routines aren’t just confined to weightlifting and cardio anymore. The benefits of yoga for men are widely documented and within your grasp. So put on your yoga pants, roll out a mat and strike a pose today.
