STRENGTHEN YOUR BODY AND MIND WITH WEEKLY YOGA CLASSES.
Why Yoga?
Yoga is an exercise program that’s been around for a very, very long time. It hasn’t just outlasted other trendy fitness routines, it’s been actively practiced for more than 5,000 years. One reason for the enduring legacy of yoga is its mind-body benefits.
Yoga is more than an exercise. And while it effectively burns calories and tones muscles, the deep breathing and meditation that accompanies the workout do wonders for your mental health and relaxation. There isn’t anything quite like yoga.
What’s more incredible is that there are so many different forms of yoga. Some forms focus more on muscle-building, while others use high temperature or stretching aids to enhance workouts. The most popular forms of yoga are Hatha, Yinyasa, Ashtanga, Bikram, and Lyengar yoga.
Benefits
Yoga is a highly recommendable activity if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease. Why’s that? The biggest reasons are the increased flexibility you’ll get and the cardiovascular improvements you’ll see. Arthritis sufferers are particularly likely to benefit.
Yoga Classes at Duke’s Fitness Center
You’ll find yoga classes here every week.
We encourage people of all fitness levels to give our yoga classes a try, and that’s because we have classes for every skill level, with routines perfect for beginners and others for advanced yoga practitioners. Tuesdays are our best yoga days, with both morning and evening yoga classes. Saturday is another good option with our blended Spinning and yoga class.
(We’re also planning to offer Bikram yoga this Fall.)
What does yoga do?
Yoga targets quite a few muscle groups in the body, and the full-body workout potential is comparable to none.
Your core. Yoga is a great core exercise. If you’re looking for a workout that’ll trim your midsection (like your love handles or abdominal muscles), side planks and boat pose exercises will take care of that.
Arms. With yoga, you can cast aside the free weights. Yoga utilizes the weight of your own body to tone and stretch your arm muscles. Plank exercises distribute your weight more evenly, while crane and crow poses are more extreme positions that require your arms to support the full weight of your body.
Legs, glutes, and back. A range of poses specifically target your lower body muscles, from squats and warrior pose positions to special back exercises like downward-facing dog. Yoga is particularly good for relieving back pain.
Yoga is the best exercise to increase flexibility with regular practice. And while it isn’t considered an aerobic exercise, some forms of yoga (like power yoga) will make you sweat. The best part? Research finds that yoga can be just as good as aerobic exercise at improving health.
Another things about yoga: It isn’t competitive. Each form is best practiced by focusing on yourself and not worrying about other people in the class. Never a competition!
Take A class
Great! You’ll find all of our classes on our class list.
Each one is taught by friendly and knowledgeable yoga instructors. More than that, each class is its own fitness community with people of all shapes and sizes on their fitness journey toward better health.
And if you have any questions, feel free to ask us.