How to Get Started With Yoga: A Guide for Aspiring and Current Pro Cheerleaders
Yoga isn’t just a spiritual or philosophical practice of Ancient India. It is also a physical activity that brings physical and mental wellness into a practitioner. For aspiring and current pro cheerleaders, it is one of the best exercises that you can affordably do yet delivers a lot of benefits.
You can do yoga in your home, at the park, with friends, family, or even with other women in the pro cheer industry. All you need is a yoga mat and some fitting clothes. And if you want a reason to start practicing yoga now, it is a light exercise guaranteed to manage your stress in life.
What Are the Reasons You Should Start Doing Yoga?
1. Yoga develops your mental and physical strength.
While doing yoga, you’re working on your body’s strength. This allows you to sit for longer periods for meditation. Transitional poses improve your body’s flexibility and balance as well.
Even the breathing of yoga increases your lung capacity and strengthens your core like these workouts. Yoga also lets you focus on the moment. During your meditation, your mind is clear which helps alleviate your stress.
As current and pro cheerleaders, this is a double-win. Your body gets more flexible, stronger, and enduring for the pro cheer routines. And you’re also keeping a stress-proof mind from difficulties that life throws at you - in and out your pro cheer career.
2. Yoga improves your posture
It is common sense that pro cheerleaders should stand upright and proud while in the arena or stadium. It is as if your entire job is to act like a Miss Universe candidate. The only difference is that instead of striding down the catwalk, you’re dancing, tumbling, and splitting on a sports arena - all done while maintaining good posture.
Yoga helps you to achieve this Miss Universe-level of form. Most breathing and seated positions require you to maintain a straight back to achieve a proper effect.
3. Yoga improves your sleep
If you suffer from interrupted sleeping or find it hard to sleep, yoga is for you. Some positions target problem areas where you experience pain symptoms that prevent a good night’s rest.
The calm nature and meditation of yoga are just perfect for clearing your mind before hitting the sack. Exercise is light that it doesn’t pump your heart faster making you energetic.
As a lot of articles suggest, a light activity helps in knocking you out faster, making yoga a perfect pre-bedtime routine.
How to Get Started With Yoga
1. Start with the Hatha-type
The first thing to do before starting yoga is to enroll in a Hatha-type class if you want to be in the company of a coach and a community. This yoga type is best for beginners because the movement is slow, simple, and done in a cool environment.
Once you’re efficient in Hatha yoga, only then you should choose a different type. There are 20 known yoga types. Some involve meditating in hot environments like Hot-yoga and others require chanting like the Kundalini-yoga.
2. Practice the proper yoga breathing technique
Proper breathing is one major key factor in making your yoga routine effective as it helps you stay focused. It also calms your mind and relaxes your nervous system. There are different breathing styles in yoga and each style offers a way into meditation.
One of the Prāṇāyāma techniques (breath control) is abdominal breathing or Adham Prāṇāyāma. Start by inflating your abdomen as you inhale. Then, exhale while trying to empty your abdomen of as much air as you can.
There are 5 Prāṇāyāma techniques but first, start with the basic abdominal breathing. You can practice this breathing technique on where you’re sitting right now.
3. Know the different positions to do at home
If you choose to do yoga at the convenience of your own home. It’s best to learn these ten poses now. Make sure that you’ve practiced Prāṇāyāma techniques in advance. When you’re confident about your breathing control, start to combine the breathing routine with the ten poses.
Before anything else, secure a thick yoga mat. If your yoga man is thin, you might incur some joint pains (especially the ankles) from sitting positions. Don’t worry about shoes, yoga is done barefooted. Make sure you wear close-fitting tops and stretchy pants or shorts.
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