How yoga works

Practitioners are lead through a series of physical postures and controlled breathing, that enhance flexibility, improve concentration, increase blood flow and circulation, develop strength, and promote a sense of calm. This cost effective exercise provides freedom from cumbersome weights and machines, and builds confidence through weight bearing exercises that rely on resisting your own body weight. Yoga uses a series of physical postures to encourage correct alignment of the body, promoting stability and relaxation. Correct alignment also opens and frees the body, allowing energy to move along its axis-spine. By focussing on breathing the body is freed of blocked energy in the form of tension, and a constant flow of uninhibited energy is created.

Modern yoga's uniqueness is rooted in a set of principles all related to developing inner awareness: the breath, gravity, and the spine. Following the movement of breath through the entire body turns the focus inward, encouraging present and mindful physical awareness. Gravity like breath, is one of the fundamental constants of life. Little attention is often paid to the moment to moment effect on the body incurred by these two constants of life. Yoga presents the opportunity to recognise and develop an appreciation for the interconnectedness of all our parts. An awareness of aligning the body with gravitational pull encourages the release of superficial tension.

For the body to function efficiently, it is important that it works with gravity rather than against it. For this reason instructors stress the importance of not yielding to gravity by collapsing into postures, but rather working with it by relaxing and breathing into every newly assumed position. The majority of yoga postures concentrate on the spine, as it is essential for movement and the nervous system. Postures that keep the spine supple, allow it to open out in two directions from the area around the navel and create greater mobility and a sense of openness.