Posts In: September 2022

If you turn up to a yoga class, you’ll find that most participants are women. However, men are missing out on a lot from the exercise, as a study recently found it can provide a number of mental health benefits for males. 

Deakin University in Australia wanted to ascertain whether practising yoga could help guys cope with stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as a quarter of Australian males have had a mental health disorder before the age of 55. 

“In our study, we asked men who were engaged in a yoga practice, what mental health benefits, if any, they experienced,” associate professor Melissa O’Shea stated.

While most men revealed turning up to a yoga class was “intimidating” at first, as they felt like they were “the only man on the mat”, once they had got over their nervousness, it felt like a “safe space”.

Dr O’Shea stated: “Participants reported initial physical health benefits that often extended to mental health benefits, including stress reduction.”

Of the 14 males who participated, 11 only started practising yoga after they turned 40, as they viewed it as an exercise they could continue to do as their body got older.

The associate professor said the study showed yoga is an “effective means for men to self-manage their mental health”, which is why it is important to raise awareness of yoga among male groups. 

This study comes ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10th), aimed at raising awareness of how to stop people feeling so desperate before it is too late.

Males aged between 45 and 49 had the highest suicide rate of 23.8 per 100,000 in England in 2020. 

Do something positive for your mental health and enrol in beginner yoga in Marlow today. 

There are many people who practice yoga, either to help with mindfulness, as an effective physical and stretching exercise or both.

However, there may be some who may have asked the question; “I have noticed a studio practising hot yoga near me, but is hot yoga right for me?”

Hot yoga is a system of yoga exercises performed in a very hot and humid room, which turns what is often a very meditative and focused set of stretches into a vigorous exercise designed to build up the heart rate and muscle groups alike.

The concept originated from a yoga guru attempting to replicate the humid climate of India, believing the heat helped prepare the body to move more.

Whether hot yoga is the right class for you depends on how much you can stand the heat. Initially practised at 40 degrees Celsius, hot yoga, as with any exercise undertaken with intense heat, is prone to causing dehydration and heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke.

For most people, so long as they keep hydrated and listen to their body if they feel sick, lightheaded or dizzy, hot yoga is intense, demanding, challenging but immensely rewarding, relying on long sustained contractions of major muscle groups throughout a fast-paced 90-minute session.

The heat helps improve flexibility, but because of that, it is important to be mindful that this can sometimes make it easier to overstretch.

As well as this, because hot yoga will intentionally lead to more sweating, make sure you wear moisture-wicking exercise gear that is as lightweight as possible, as this will avoid more overheating.

Naturally, make sure to drink a lot of water before, during and after the session, and bring some warm clothes for after the session, as the contrast between the hot yoga studio and the relative cold outside world can lead to rapid muscle contractions.