Beginner's Guide to Yoga

Last Update: September 18, 2008

Video By: LIVESTRONG.COM

Find out why yoga is popular all over America. Learn how to start yoga in this video yoga lesson.

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  • Reduce stress
  • Tone muscles
  • Unite mind & body
  • Gain flexibility

About this Author

Cindy Mastry has practiced yoga since the age of eight, and also has a background in Jazz and Ballet. Active in the fitness industry for nearly twenty years, she teaches aerobics, kickboxing, and yoga at many fitness centers in the Tampa Bay area. Cindy trained with 84 year-old Master Yogi Monk, Baba Hari Dass at the Mt. Madonna Center in California and owns/operates "Yoga Etc Studio" in St. Petersburg, Florida. Cindy teaches yoga to people of all ages and experience levels and at very competitive rates.

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Video Transcript

CINDY MASTRY: Namaste. My name is Cindy Mastry and in this clip, we're going to discuss the beginner's guide to yoga. We live in a fast-paced world, fast food, fast cars, running from job to job, multi-tasking. It's no wonder that people look to yoga to reduce stress, maybe lose weight and get a little tone in their body, and yoga will certainly do that for you but it does so much more than that. Yoga, the word means "union", union of mind, body and breath and union with the divine. In Patanjali's yoga sutras, he lays out a step by step guide on how to live right and it doesn't conflict with any religion. In fact, it may just---you might just find it enhances it. There's more to yoga than just physical exercise, it also balances your mind. You don't need to be flexible. I hear that all the time, "I can't do yoga, I'm not flexible". Flexibility has nothing to do with it. All you're trying to do is bring blood flow to parts of your body that you don't normally get the blood going to in your everyday life. The benefits of yoga are way too numerous to discuss here but it's going to help every system in your body, respiratory, circulatory, nervous system, immune system, endocrine system, it will tone you, help you lose weight, give you endurance, strength and that flexibility that you're looking for. So yoga is a great thing to do. You don't have to be flexible. It means union, it will balance your body as well as your mind, and maybe you'll find it just helps you to live a happier healthier life. Namaste.

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