Yoga Helps Boost Immunity, Increase Energy and Warm Up Yoga

Strike a Pose: Yoga Helps Boost Immunity, Increase Energy + Warm Up

BY AMANDA SKRIP

Winter is just around the corner and while the shifting seasons can be a welcome change, they can also have a negative effect on health and energy levels. If the dip in temperature leaves you vulnerable to viruses, perpetual sleepiness or chronic cold, you’re not alone.

I asked personal trainer and yoga instructor Suzanne Ko to share a few moves that will prevent and reverse these common seasonal ailments, so bust out your yoga mat. If you follow Suzanne’s advice, you’ll stay in tip-top shape straight through spring.

Boost Immunity

Stress is known to be a major contributing factor to weakened immunity. Yoga is excellent for reducing stress and boosting our immune system. Postures like fish and bridge are excellent in activating and strengthening the thymus gland, which is the primary organ of the immune system. Headstand, shoulder stand, and other inversions encourage passive circulation of the lymphatic system which helps ward off viruses and bacteria in our body. The most important part of a general yoga practice is just taking the time out to allow our body to relax. According to Ko, who is also the fitness editor at The Bride Scoop, even a few minutes in Savasana (corpse pose) is helpful.

Increase Energy

According to Yoga Journal, back bends and balancing postures, like bow and tree posture, can help to increase energy. Bow pose gives a full backward bend to the entire spine, with great benefits for the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral regions. Internal organs, especially the digestive organs, are massaged. It is a wonderful posture to energize digestion and invigorate appetite. Tree pose requires focus and attention, strengthening the muscles of the lower extremities.

Warm Up

Sun salutations are a sequence of twelve yoga postures usually performed at the start of a yoga class to warm up. Performing a few sun salutations will help get your blood flowing to extremities to prevent excess cold. Cobra pose, one of the postures in the sun salutation sequence, increases body heat and promotes a smoother flow of prana (the Sanskrit word for “life”) within the body.

For more information on Suzanne Ko and her fitness consulting company, Sko-Fit, visit www.skofit.com. You can also join Ko for free yoga on Tuesdays from 5-6 pm at West Loop Chiropractic.