Key Points
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Regular yoga practice slows down cognitive aging and mental decline.
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Developing improved emotional regulation skills goes hand-in-hand with consistent yoga practice.
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Those suffering from insomnia saw their overall sleep quality improve once yoga became a mainstay in their lives.
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Yoga makes you more flexible and limber, protecting joints, minimizing soreness, and contributing to a healthy body.
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Yoga has several sexual benefits, such as ejaculation control and longer orgasms.
What does it take to become the paragon of manliness in 2023? Does it stem from an established provider instinct? Perhaps it's about how brusque or gruff you naturally are. Maybe an affinity for sports should be at the center. There are infinite responses to this question because no two guys are the same.
Did you stop to consider physical fitness? You don't need a physique like Bruce Wayne or Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime to put a premium on taking care of your body. For some guys, physical fitness means weightlifting. Others emphasize resistance band workouts. Some steer clear of weight training completely, instead focusing on cardiovascular exercise.
Here's another fitness option guys seldom consider — yoga. Before you write it off or dismiss it completely, consider the benefits. Outpatient behavioral health organization SOL Mental Health discusses the numerous advantages of yoga in Psychology Today, stating, "Yoga has been shown to improve well-being and alleviate some mental and physical illnesses."
Did you know that World Yoga Day was on June 21, 2023? In celebration, GQ India released an article highlighting several prominent India and U.S.-based actors who swear by the innumerable benefits of yoga, including Jennifer Anniston and Gisele Bundchen.
Guys appreciate yoga just as much as these globally renowned female celebrities. Kevin Hart, an international superstar, often expresses his affinity for yoga. He spoke to Men's Health about his yoga routine and how uncomfortable his first session was (and finding comfort in discomfort in the aftermath).
This article dives into the nitty gritty of why doing yoga should matter to you as a guy — on an individual level and in the context of your intimate relationships.
Brain Boosts
Neuropsychologist Barbara Koltuska-Haskin outlines a host of cognitive boosts yoga provides to those who regularly practice, including but not limited to:
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Neuroprotective effect: Yoga practice contributes to drastically slowing the cognitive age and ensuing decline of the brain.
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Reduced emotional interference: Emotional interference is any emotional stimuli that has the potential to impair cognitive tasks. Regular yoga practice greatly diminishes these instances, especially while performing advanced executive functioning work. Execution function is all about the mental skills required to complete goals, display self-control, remain focused when distracted, and so on. A lack of executive functioning control usually leads to a pronounced inability to control your behavior, emotions, or thoughts.
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Therapeutic benefits: Practicing yoga provides numerous brain benefits for those with cognitive control deficits. Cognitive control refers to the processes that allow you to handle various forms of information and adapt your behavior accordingly.
Emotional Perks
It's imperative that you understand how to control your emotions, especially if you're in a relationship or a leadership role. No one wants to date or take instructions from someone who's emotionally unstable. Consider the following emotional perks of yoga when deciding whether or not this ancient art form is for you.
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Emotional regulation: Emotional regulation is the ability to manage challenging emotional situations. This is a core self-regulatory skill. Yoga practitioners make notable positive progress in this regard.
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Improved happiness: Yoga practice contributes to increased levels of happiness and satisfaction in life for a variety of reasons. For example, after a one-hour yoga session, gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels in the brain radically increase. Higher GABA levels contribute to lower levels of anxiety, depression, fear, and stress.
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Mindfulness: Mindfulness, a term thrown around a lot these days, is the quality of being conscious of something. This is an important attribute to any yoga session, whether private or public. You become aware of and open to everything that takes place on the mat.
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Stress management: Yoga is a great way to manage stress regardless of how intense your stressors are. Emphasize slow, deliberate yoga postures incorporating deep breathwork. The shallower your breathing, the more excited your nervous system is, leading to more stress. When you deepen your breath, the inverse happens, leading to more mellowness.
Mental Health Pros
Psychotherapist Dr. Tracy Hutchinson goes into detail about the numerous ways practicing yoga benefits your mental health, citing several studies and relying on empirical evidence to substantiate her claims. In other words, these mental health pros are valid and verified.
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Improves mood: Studies show that yoga reduces depression and stress in your life. For example, in 2013, a yoga study utilized a prison-based population, looking for any potential benefits from a 10-week long yoga class. At the end of the study, researchers noted reduced psychological stress in inmates.
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Improves sleep: In the first of two studies conducted in 2012, researchers used yoga to analyze postmenopausal women diagnosed with insomnia. Yoga effectively reduced their insomnia levels compared to the control group. In the second study, women suffering from restless legs syndrome used yoga to improve the overall quality of their sleep.
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Reduces anger: A 2012 study divided adolescents into two groups — those who participated in physical education and yoga versus those who only participated in physical education. Those who did both activities had increased abilities to control their anger compared to their counterparts. Additionally, yoga leads to a decrease in verbal aggression in adults.
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Reduces anxiety: A 2013 study involving adolescent musicians aimed to discover if yoga decreases anxiety, specifically performance anxiety. At its conclusion, researchers noted decreased anxiety levels in solo and group performances.
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PTSD and yoga: In 2014, a group of adult women diagnosed with PTSD was split into two groups — one receiving a 10-week yoga program while the other did not. Practicing yoga significantly lowered PTSD-related symptoms compared to the control group. In addition, 52 percent of women who practiced yoga no longer met the criteria needed for a PTSD diagnosis compared to only 21 percent in the control group.
Physical Benefits
On top of the brain, emotional, and mental health perks that come with yoga practice, there are legitimate physical advantages you'll experience.
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Alertness: Regular yoga practice leads to increased mental and physical energy, improving how alert you are throughout the day. Keep in mind that this won't happen without regular practice. Not only that, it may be difficult to go back to life without yoga once you see the difference in your productivity.
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Blood pressure regulation: When your blood pressure gets too elevated, it results in hypertension, paving the way for health complications such as heart disease and stroke. Practicing yoga reduces blood pressure.
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Decreased heart rate: Higher heart rates, similar to high blood pressure, result in a host of heart-related medical problems. Yoga effectively decreases your heart rate.
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Increased flexibility: When you do yoga, you stretch and elongate your muscles. It's an easy way to improve your overall limberness, especially if you're prone to soreness or stiffness.
Sexual Enhancement
Yoga provides a host of benefits that enhance your sex life. In 2010, the Journal of Sexual Medicine published its findings chronicling the connection between yoga and sex for men. In short, yoga improves every sexual function for men.
From desire and drive to ejaculation control, erections, and performance, no area of a man's sex life isn't positively transformed by yoga. Not only that, but yoga also increases your body awareness, leading to decreases in anxiety and an increase in blood flow to your genitals. Better yet, yoga rids your body of toxins adversely affecting sexual performance.
Start engaging your pelvic floor if you want to improve your sexual experiences. Increased control of this area through yoga results in longer orgasms as well as orgasms without ejaculation. Yes, you read that right.
Take things a step further by figuring out if yoga sex works for you and your partner.
Connect the Dots
No matter who you are, it's important to prioritize holistic well-being, or an emphasis on comprehensive self-care, uniting body, mind, and soul. For some, that looks like lifting, meditating, and praying. For others, it's deep-tissue massages, working out, and praying. Yoga provides the full package.
Once you recognize that holistic well-being matters, you can connect the dots and understand how your productivity levels and daily output are directly linked to how much self-care you embrace.
Now that you know the important role yoga plays in your overall health, it's time to level up with your significant other and become the fitness couple you've always dreamed you'd be.
Interested in learning about popular yoga poses such as happy baby? Curious about sexy yoga positions? Then don't forget to subscribe to Cupid's Light, your hub for all things related to relationships — articles, product reviews, and tips and tricks to level up your intimate life!
