Yoga is a Hindu discipline that includes breath control, simple meditation, and movement. When trying it, some of you might find it intimidating at first, especially seeing that impressive super elastic, pretzel-like body pose your partner routinely attends to every morning.
But don’t get insecure just because your partner can do the split and you can barely bend your hips. It takes time and dedication to be able to do those complex postures. And it is not the fancy poses that provide you with fundamentals of strength and flexibility – the most basic ones do.
There are many benefits that you can gain by considering yoga, and here are some:
Helps You Calm
In the middle of your busy schedule, having a relaxed yoga class session might be the only way for some people to breathe right. According to research, yoga helps relieve clinical depression. And also, a study in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health found that Hatha yoga stimulates the brain to function better than jogging on a treadmill.
A Great Stress Reliever
Going to gyms and punching the heck out of a heavy bag can only make you more aggressive and tired. While going berserk on a heavy load in the gym can level up your aggressor meter, Yoga, on the other hand, has many variations of relaxation techniques to offer, which with routine practice, will be able to make you calmer overall. Aside from training the body, yoga teaches your mind to see the bigger picture instead of panicking.
Flexibility
This seems to be a significant benefit, especially if you’ve been doing yoga for years. By doing yoga, you’re loosening many joints that make up your spine, which will do justice to your baseball, tennis and golf swing.
Imagine your body as a sponge filled with unfiltered sink water. Now twist the sponge, and it wrings the sponge and purges toxins.
Build Muscle
Hypertrophy is the essence of what men are seeking when they hit the gym. By definition, hypertrophy is an enlargement of an organ or tissue from the increase in the size of its cells (basically a muscle growth on a cellular level). Is yoga for men who're looking to build muscle too?
Kate Abate, a certified trainer and yoga instructor, says: “The fact that yoga widens your ROM (Range Of Motion), it would allow you to have more substantial hypertrophy in any muscle group”.
Adding your regular lifting program with a yoga class can activate hollow or ignored muscle sections. For instance, take the boxer’s muscle or the serratus anterior (located under the armpit and over the side of your ribs). This muscle provides stability for the base of your deltoids (the shoulder muscle) and pectorals. Give the athletic looks by having your serratus anterior pop and abs look ripped, and you can get all that with yoga.
Better Sex Life
This is by far one of the most incredible benefits yoga can provide. Yoga can seriously enhance a female’s experience in bed via more excellent lubrication ad, thus, more powerful orgasms due to strengthening the pelvic floor muscles. Meanwhile, yoga helps males reduce anxiety and stress and increase confidence. For this specific benefit, let’s get deeper into it (no pun intended):
Sex With Yoga
Most of the time, yoga is correlated with woman’s regular activity in the morning, given the benefits they seek, and this has come down to the most unpopular opinion; What are the benefits of yoga specifically for men?
Men should do more yoga, from increased mobility and strength to stress relieving medium. Aside from the essential benefits we discussed previously, yoga can improve your and your partner’s sex life. Research shows that a few minutes of yoga daily is linked to better and longer ejaculation and improves your overall sexual performance.
The reason being is due to specific yoga poses strengthening the pubococcygeus muscles. It is located from the pubic bone to the tailbone if you have never heard of it. Training this part of the muscles can lead to a stronger erection and help you last longer with your partner.
According to the book The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards, yoga can increase testosterone, thus enhancing libido, but there is still more research needed to confirm this.
Yoga Postures To Try
Now that you’ve discovered how yoga can benefit you, it is time to lay down on the mat and open your hips. Using the information below, you can do a yoga session on your own before your partner gets home. Alternatively, you can ask your partner to try these positions together as a sexy bonding activity.
Here are some beginner tips before you start:
- Get the back row
For your first try, open your mat and lay it down in the back row so you can see what the people around you are doing. This will help you learn by minimising your neck from straining to see around and get you a fantastic view of your mostly ladies' class. - Stay Calm
Yoga is not an overnight thing where you suddenly can do the destroyer of the universe's position. Do not freak out if your athletic level is getting in the way of some pose. Like everything else, it takes time and dedication, progress is meant to be slow and steady, and the most challenging parts are usually what your body should handle most. - Focus on breathing
Breathing deep with the abdomen is an essential part of yoga as it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This would allow your body to lower cortisol levels, a hormone that forces your body to hold on to belly fat. Breathing deeply through yoga can reduce stress and cortisol levels.
All right, so we got that out of the way. Are you ready to be stretched like never before?
- Cobra (Bhujangasana)
Why should you do it: The cobra pose is one of the best spine and core strengthening postures. You can trust and have complete control over your pelvis when you have a strong core, improving your performance.
How to do Cobra pose: Lie on your stomach, place your hands under your shoulders with your elbows facing straight back, and close your sides. Spread each of your fingers wide and relax the palms under the shoulders. Rotate thighs inward so the knees point straight down, and both toes touch the floor. Squeeze the toes, ankles, knees and thighs toward each other.
You can do this by pressing your pelvis into the floor, then using your core to stretch your spine forward and raise your chest off the floor as you inhale. Pull your shoulder blades down and in toward your spine, and then use your hands to pull (not push) your body forward and up.
Maintain the position for 30 to 120 seconds for one or two sets. - Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
Why should you do it: The bridge stretches the body's front side, spine, and rib cage. This pose opens the chest and upper back, increasing circulation and respiration. Squeezing your glutes together will help you to improve ejaculation and blood flow.
How to do Bridge pose: Lie on your back with your arms by your side, palms facing up. Bend your knees and bring your heels close to your glutes, with your feet about hip-width apart. Tighten your abs and engage the core as you exhale, push your feet and arms into the floor and lift your hips towards the ceiling.
Squeeze the hips, glutes and core to form a straight line from your shoulders to knees. Reach your tailbone towards your knee to lengthen the spine. Hold the posture, exhale as you lift your hips, and exhale as you tighten your core. Hold for 30 to 120 seconds, for up to three sets. - Tree (Vrksasana)
The same as any other standing poses, the tree pose will improve your focus level while strengthening the ankle, calves and thigh muscle area. As well as stretching the inner thigh and groin muscles.
How to do Tree pose: Focus on putting your weight onto the right foot and firmly press it onto the floor. Bend the left leg at the knee and put the sole of the left foot on your right thigh. Make your toes point towards the bottom. If you find this difficult, you can also place the sole on your inner calf. Bring your palms together in front of the pectoral area and keep the weight centre focused over the left foot. Press the right knee back to open the groin while keeping your hips narrow and parallel to the front of the room. Let the foot go and repeat for one to three sets. - Boat (Navasana)
This movement is an efficient, beginner-friendly yoga posture to improve pelvic floor muscles. While most of the time notoriously known for its ab-busting potential, the boat pose works the whole hip flexors up to the spine. When you add in the arms, even your shoulders will get stronger.
How to do Boat pose: Sit and relax on the floor, bend your knees and put your feet flat on the floor, with heels 2 feet away from the hips. Gently grip your knees with both hands, sit as uptight as possible and lean back slightly. Let your chest lift and your torso chill, and squeeze your hip flexors and abdominal muscles toward each other to engage the core. Loosen up your knees, and reach your arms forward and up.
Proceed to engage your abdominal muscles firmly and hip flexors, slowly get your feet off the floor, and flex your legs. Pull the sternum towards the ceiling while it is neutral. Hold the pose. Inhale as you lengthen the spine and exhale as you tighten the core. Hold for 30 to 90 seconds, for up to one to three days. - Locust (Salabhasana)
Why should you do it: This specific face-down pose is sure to strengthen the whole back, such as upper back muscles, low back muscles, glutes, hamstrings, and calves, and it would even stretch the chest, shoulders and thighs. The locust pose will prepare you for some more challenging backbends.
How to do Locust pose: Start by lying face-down with your arms by your hips. Before you move, focus on lifting the navel away, drawing a low belly towards the spine. As you exhale, lift your head, chest, arms and legs off the ground. Rest your weight primarily on your stomach, and lower the ribs and pelvis. As you inhale, stretch your head forward and your legs backward to lengthen the spine. You are creating a superhero-like position, flying above the clouds. Exhale to relax. Do this cycle with the breath 5 to 10 times, depending on your energy and stamina level. - Frog (Mandukasana)
Why should you do it: It makes the inner thighs, inner groin, and pelvic floor feel free, strong, yet supported. Most men tend to be tight around these areas, giving way to an immobile pelvis. The more accessible the pelvis is, the more free one will feel regarding sex.
How to do Frog: Begin with your hands and knees and slowly move your knees wider apart. It would help if you ended with your knees parallel to your hips and the backs of your knees bent. You added that your inner ankles, knees and legs should face the floor. As your knees go wider into the stretch, you might want to lower down to the forearm for support. You can use clothes, a blanket, or a mat to pad the inner legs, knees, and ankles. You can also alternate this pose by giving tilts, just like how you did the bridge position, play around with inhaling as you attempt to arch the lower back, then exhale and tuck the tail under, mobilising the inner legs, hips and pelvis. - High Lunge (Crescent Lunge)
Why should you do it: With this position, you may find it easier to keep your hips parallel to the front of your room, but your leg muscles will have the most labour to maintain balance. High lunge or crescent lunge strengthens your arms and stretches the groin muscles.
How to make High Lunge: Start on your hands and knees, with the hands just in front of your shoulders and knees below your hips. Push your hands firmly onto the floor. As you exhale, step your left foot forward between your hands, keeping your left knee over your ankle and your feet hip-width apart.
As you inhale, bring your torso upright and place your arms to the side and overhead. Try to get your palms together or if it’s too complicated, keep the hands shoulder-width apart with your palms facing each other. Press back with your right heel and lift it through the torso. If you wish to come out of the pose, place your hands on the floor as you exhale. Repeat on the other side.
Final Words
Yoga is a fun, relaxing, and beneficial activity that doesn't require much equipment. It eases the tension in your body, mind and soul by releasing the stress hormone and helps you get underneath the internal mental noise so that you can discover and realise the divinity within.
It is in this silence to be with ourselves that we know how to be guided by the source of clarity, authenticity and love. Regardless of the wide variety of yoga you choose, there will be some benefits.
With all being said, by now, you should understand the incredible benefits of yoga specifically; if you’re out here seeking for better sex life, yoga would be the answer. Besides, forcing yourself to unplug calls, texts and emails for an hour or two does not hurt.
