Let’s talk about a topic that may feel taboo even though it’s extremely common — menopause. Every year, menopause affects the lives of over 2 million women in America. With menopause, work becomes harder to concentrate on, leisurely activities lose their luster, and restful sleep fades away.
Fortunately, yoga for menopause can offer relief. In addition to relieving uncomfortable symptoms, yoga classes in Dayton, OH, bring added benefits such as improved health and well-being. This lets you focus less on menopause and more on enjoying life to its fullest.
How Menopause Affects Your Mind and Body
The average age for women experiencing menopause is 51 years, and although menopause affects each person differently, here are some of the more common symptoms women experience:
- Hot flashes
- Mood swings
- Lack of sleep
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
Many of these symptoms can even start a chain reaction of one worsening another. For example, the stress and fatigue you encounter at work can increase how many hot flashes you experience with menopause. Hot flashes can disrupt your sleep, leading to fatigue. It can feel like a cycle that’s hard to break out of — and that’s where calming yoga and mindfulness come in.
How Yoga Helps with Menopause
Although menopause has no end-all cure, you can add mind-body exercises to your daily or weekly routine to reduce its impact. Yoga for menopause is one of the most effective options for finding relief and improving your overall quality of life. Research shows that yoga significantly reduces hot flashes, which are a symptom 64% to 80% of menopausal women experience.
Practicing yoga stretches your joints and muscles through various poses, each targeting certain parts of your body. These exercises bring a sense of lightness to your body as it becomes stronger and more flexible over time, leading to a more positive and confident mental state. In a 2008 study, 120 women who practiced eight weeks of moderate yoga reported reduced menopause symptoms, like night sweats and sleep disturbances.
Yoga, in general, lowers your stress levels. Deep, controlled breathing when performing yoga exercises calms the nervous system, leading to decreased stress and anxiety levels. More specifically, yoga increases the blood flow to your brain, shutting out external distractions while you focus on the exercise at hand.
The Best Yoga Poses for Menopause Relief
As helpful as yoga is for relieving menopause symptoms, it’s not as simple as performing random yoga poses and calling it a day. Ask an instructor to guide you and start with low-impact activities so your joints can ease into the routine.
Here are some great poses when doing yoga for menopause relief:
- Reclining hero pose
- Reclining bound angle pose
- Standing forward bend
- Downward-facing dog
- Legs up the wall
- Child’s pose
Find Relief From Menopause Today
Yoga provides a wide range of benefits for women managing menopause symptoms, and we’re here to help. At Ignite Yoga, we make yoga easy for you with tutorials, virtual studio sessions, and educational resources, such as how yoga helps with anxiety.Reach out to Ignite Yoga in Dayton, OH, at (937) 558-8800 today!
