For the last six months I’ve been kinda into something I never thought I would be; yoga. It all started when Kat from Tone It Up got her yoga teacher certification and threw out a few live yoga workouts. Y’all know the Tone It Up girls are my boos, so of course, I joined in. Despite the fact that prior to this, I always claimed to dislike yoga, I thought of it as slow and not worth my time. Mark my words, I was wrong.
One of the very first yoga workouts that had me hooked, was this live yoga tone workout. It was hard, made me sweat and oh my gracious I felt it the very next day. So I started to add in a least one day of yoga every week to my routine – and after years of working out I noticed changes in my body.
How Yoga Changed My Body in Six Months
1. My Flexibility Improved – Of course when you think of yoga, you think of a lot stretching. So, yes I immediately started to notice improvement in my flexibility. I tend to gravitate toward resistance training, and not enough stretching. So, my muscles tend to be sore and tight. After adding yoga to the mix, I’m more flexible, feel like I have better posture and have less aches and pains!
2. I’m Leaner – My 4’10” frame, just wants to be beefy. My love for weight training over the years, just added to that thickness – especially in my thighs. Which, I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of. We all have those little things that drive us crazy about ourselves, and for me, it’s my thighs. The grass is always greener on the other side, right?! I would kill for a pair of long, lean legs, but, the good Lord gave me nubby ones, and I’m working on loving myself just the way I am. When I started practicing yoga weekly and stretching those muscles, my thighs started to lean out, a little bit! So, for that reason alone, yoga is my new favorite.
3. My Core is the Strongest it’s Ever Been – Since having babies, I’ve really struggled with core strength. Like, I could barely do a sit-up, lol. Since adding yoga into my routine, I can plank like a beast and can visibly see my abs. I’ve noticed that the increased core strength has improved other parts of my workouts too, because I have better balance now. I’m sure the core strength helped lessen some of my back pain too.
So, six months later – I feel leaner, stronger and fully committed to keeping yoga in my life. I probably look a hot mess and a half actually doing it, but luckily there’s no one at home to judge me. (Just another benefit of working out at home!) I’m late to this game, so I know there are plenty of you out there who’ve been singing yoga’s praises for years. Where my yoga fans at?!
-Brooke
