The Benefits of Yoga Classes in the Winter Months

If you live in a cold weather state, during the winter it is difficult to get motivated to work out. This is why group fitness classes are so good, and yoga classes are the best to get you moving! Yoga classes are easier to bring yourself out of the warm comforts of home and keep you energized during the winter.

Yoga provides what I call group dynamics without the need to prove anything or keep up with anyone else. You get the benefits of being in a group with a teacher led class but you have no pressure to keep up like you would in a step aerobics class. Study after study proves that group fitness gets significantly better results than trying to do things alone.

The winter time does make most of us eat more, and not necessarily the best foods either! So by taking yoga, we not only gain flexibility and strength, but we also get a good level of calorie burning and cardio vascular training with. It is the best type of fitness workout there is for the total package of strengthening, stretching, and cardio.

During the winter the body tends to need more sleep and yoga has been researched to help people get people sleep. Many times people suffer from the inability to get lots of deep sleep and taking yoga classes allows them to sleep much better almost right away. The ability to help stretch and relax the body does wonders for the body, mind, and spirit during the cold seasons.

One of the biggest benefits of taking yoga classes is that you can work at your own level. After a holiday season of Christmas and New Years parties, most of us have slipped in the food and exercise departments. Getting started back into a routine is difficult and a group setting is what makes yoga so much better than a typical gym membership.

Sometimes with bad winter weather it is required to stay home and work out. That becomes a very difficult task unless you have something portable like yoga! Throw your yoga DVD into the player and you can do at least most of what you did at class. Again, yoga is best done at a yoga studio with an instructor who can teach you if you are a beginner but doing it at home in between classes and when you can't make a class is a great way to keep to your fitness routine and goals. I have found the most successful people who really accomplish their New Years goals do it through yoga classes as opposed to all other types of fitness.

Mike Coleman writes about yoga and is online at cincinnatiyoga.net cincinnatiyoga.net with more information about yoga classes and yoga benefits