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Though yoga was historically a practice for men and boys, the number of women yoga practitioners has now far surpassed their male counterparts. According to 2022 data from the CDC, over twice as many women as men do yoga in the United States alone.
Yoga has so many health and wellness benefits for women (see below!), that its popularity should come as no surprise. Women have also discovered yoga’s unheralded secret benefit: it just makes you feel better.
Yoga’s key benefits for women include:
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Improved flexibility and mobility
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Better balance
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Increased strength and muscle tone
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Pain management and relief
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Improved circulation
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Better posture
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Improved bone health
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Stress reduction
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Weight management and body confidence
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Mood enhancement and emotional well-being
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Improved sleep quality
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Increased body awareness (proprioception)
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Menstrual symptom relief
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Benefits during pregnancy and postpartum
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Menopause management
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Healthy aging
Physical Benefits of Yoga for Women
Physical activity is often presented to women as a chore: something you don’t want to do, but you have to because it’s good for you. Yoga turns this old take on its head (literally!) because it’s such fun.
Once you find the style of yoga that works for you, whether that’s Vinyasa/flow, hot yoga, Hatha, or one of the many other variations, you’ll soon be looking for ways to get more yoga into your life instead of trying to avoid it.
Yoga’s physical benefits include:
Improved Flexibility and Mobility
Yoga includes stretching, which increases the flexibility of major muscle groups like the hamstrings, quads, and shoulders, as well as smaller support muscles. It also improves your overall mobility and range of motion, which makes movement less painful and helps prevent injuries.
Better Balance
Yoga includes plenty of opportunities to practice balance in standing poses like Tree Pose (Vrksasana) and inverted postures. Even if these don’t come easy at first, you are strengthening your core and improving all the while. Balance is a key component of healthy aging, so it’s important to get an early start.
Increased Strength and Muscle Tone
Yoga is a body-weight exercise that improves the strength of your whole body: legs, glutes, arms, core, and shoulders. Doing yoga consistently also tones and defines your muscles. If strength is your priority, try these poses and tips for a strong practice.
Pain Management and Relief
Back pain and sciatica are two of the most common sources of pain for women. Yoga can help both.
Back pain is prevented by opening the hamstrings and strengthening the core and back muscles that support the spine.
People with sciatica often find relief in hip stretches, since the sciatic nerve runs through the pelvis and down the legs.
Improved Circulation
The more you move your body, the better your body moves. This is true for your muscles and also for your circulatory system, which includes the flow of blood and hormones that keep the body functioning optimally.
Compression and release occur as you move through a sequence of yoga postures, while inverted poses like Legs-Up-the-Wall (Viparita Karani) make it easier for the heart to circulate blood.
Better Posture
Yoga is also an excellent way for women to improve their posture, especially if they’re often sitting down in their day-to-day life.
Improving posture through yoga is a combination of several factors. First, it involves developing an awareness of how your spine’s habitual position and what it feels like to be correctly aligned.
Then, you’ll start learning to open the chest, improve spinal mobility, and develop core and back strength so you can comfortably stand and sit straighter.
Improved Bone Health
Yoga poses where the arms and legs bear your weight (Standing Poses, Downward Facing Dog, and Plank, for example) improve your bone density. This helps prevent osteoporosis, a concern for many older women.
Mental and Emotional Benefits of Yoga for Women
Stress and Anxiety Reduction
This is a biggie, because the effects of stress and anxiety are so detrimental to overall mental and physical health.
Reducing stress has a huge role to play in cardiovascular health, weight management, and insomnia, for instance.
Yoga helps reduce anxiety in several ways. Stretching and moving the body releases physical tension. Plus, learning to be mindful, control your breath, and relax all contribute to managing your mental load more effectively.
Yoga and pranayama are particularly good at stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms your body by reducing stress hormones.
Learning yoga breathing techniques like three-part breath and other ways to release tension allows you to better manage stressful situations in your daily life.
Meditation, which is often introduced in yoga classes, is also a very effective way to clear your mind and put things in perspective. Some people find that yoga asana acts as a moving meditation practice, while others prefer sitting for meditation at the end of a yoga session.
Weight Management and Body Confidence
Weight management exemplifies the advantages of the body-mind connections forged by yoga. The physical practice of yoga gets you moving in a mindful way, which strengthens the connections between thoughts and actions.
Being in tune with your body can lead to an awareness of how to best fuel it, according to Harvard Health. Improving your flexibility and strength also increases your confidence in what your body can do, no matter its size.
Mood Enhancement and Emotional Well-Being
Put simply, doing yoga makes you feel better. It takes you out of the busyness and worries of the everyday. The focused attention on movement and breath clears your mind, reduces anxiety, and lifts your mood.
Improved Sleep Quality
Learning to relax your body and clear your mind by regularly doing yoga can lead directly to a better night’s sleep.
Whether it’s focusing your attention on your breath, doing a simple meditation, or moving your body gently with Cat-Cow stretches or a supine spinal twist before bed, yoga helps you relax so you can sleep.
By improving sleep quality, yoga supports overall well-being, helping you wake up feeling refreshed, energized and ready to take on the day.
Increased Body Awareness (Proprioception)
Body awareness is something you might not even know you’re missing until yoga brings it to the fore. There are untold advantages to knowing how to control your body in space.
It helps with any kind of physical activity, prevents injuries, improves posture, and strengthens the body/mind connection.
In yoga, you’re often instructed to engage specific muscles for a certain effect and pay close attention to alignment, which is the precise position of your body.
Pranayama breathing exercises teach you to control your lungs and diaphragm. Over time, these practices create body awareness.
Yoga for Specific Stages of a Woman's Life
Yoga teaches you that your body feels different every day, and that’s okay. It encourages acceptance of this state of perpetual transformation, which can be especially challenging during times of intense hormonal changes, such as menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause.
Menstruation
Although some yoga methods advise women to skip asana practice during their periods, it’s best to decide for yourself what kind of practice best serves you during menstruation. Some women like to practice as usual, while others prefer to take it a bit easier or do specific poses that make them feel better, which could include restorative poses.
Pregnancy
Prenatal Yoga connects your mind to your changing body and helps prepare both for delivery. Many women discover yoga during pregnancy, beginning a life-long practice.
Each part of pregnancy is a little different as your hormones fluctuate and your belly grows, so check out our full pregnancy guide for each trimester for much more specific info on how to safely practice during your whole pregnancy.
Postpartum
After giving birth, yoga can help you gently recover, take care of yourself, and connect to your body in its new form. Parenting a newborn is physically and mentally demanding and looking after yourself makes a big difference in your mood and stress levels.
Menopause
Changing hormones during perimenopause and menopause often come with huge shifts in mood and body image, not to mention symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, and brain fog.
Yoga helps you accept, and even embrace, the changing seasons of life. Many women find tools on their yoga mats to cool the body, improve their mood, encourage restful sleep, and stimulate the circulatory system.
Benefits of Yoga for Women over 50 and Beyond
Yoga promotes healthy aging in several crucial ways. The physical practice is so adaptable, it really is something you can do, and continue to benefit from your whole life.
Maintaining Bone Density
As estrogen levels decline, women over 50 are at increased risk of osteoporosis. Weight-bearing yoga poses, in which your arms and legs support your body, can help maintain and even improve bone density, reducing the risk of fractures.
Joint Health and Mobility
Movement is an essential part of maintaining flexibility and range of motion of your joints. Yoga also strengthens the small muscles that support your joints. Yoga has also been shown to be effective in increasing the psychological and physical health of people with arthritis.
Balance and Fall Prevention
Improved balance through yoga practice is crucial for older women, as falls are a significant health risk. Yoga strengthens the core muscles and enhances proprioception (body awareness), reducing the likelihood of falls.
Managing Age-Related Stress
The emotional and mental benefits of yoga, such as stress reduction and mindfulness, are especially important as women navigate the changes and challenges that can come with aging.
Getting Started with Yoga
Choose the Right Yoga Style
Finding the right yoga style for you is a crucial first step. With so many choices, you can narrow it down a bit by deciding if you like flowing movement (for instance, Vinyasa) or a more static, pose-by-pose approach (like Hatha or Restorative). Discovering what feels right for your body may take some trial and error, so try a few different classes before you settle.
Your preferences may also change over time and through different stages of life, which is perfectly natural. Use our guide to find out more about 15 popular types of yoga and see which ones appeal to you.
Find a Qualified Instructor
After deciding on a style of yoga, finding a good teacher is the next step. When something clicks with a yoga teacher, you are in it for the long haul! It’s hard to predict which teachers you will like, so try to sample a wide variety.
A certified yoga teacher is a must for beginners since establishing good alignment habits early on will keep you practicing safely for years to come. Most yoga studios have minimum standards for their teachers, while gyms can be a bit more of a mixed bag. However, some amazing teachers work in both settings. Do a bit of research and then try a few options.
Home Practice vs. Studio Classes
For beginners, learning in person from a qualified teacher is the best way to get alignment instruction and immediate feedback.
If that’s not possible, there are lots of video platforms with beginners’ series that can help you start a home practice, which is often a more convenient and affordable option.
Any beginners, but especially those starting at home, will benefit greatly from having an alignment yoga mat to keep your poses safe and develop body awareness.
Tips for Beginners
Yoga’s wonderful benefits come from practicing regularly over time.
While there are particular poses that address specific issues, it’s really the combination of doing a variety of movements and breathwork consistently that makes yoga so effective.
When you are just starting out, no matter your age or ability, be patient. Listen to your body, don’t push things, and keep showing up on your mat again and again.
Yoga Is for All Women
Yoga’s many benefits for women include improved strength, flexibility, and mobility. As women age, yoga is right there with support for bone density, balance, and hormonal regulation.
Throughout this life-long practice, you’ll find relief from stress and mood elevation on your yoga mat.
Yoga helps women live happier, healthier lives. If you’ve never tried yoga or made a habit of it, it’s not too late. This remarkable, adaptive practice has a place for everyone.
FAQ
Is yoga suitable for all women, regardless of age or fitness level?
Definitely! ! Anyone can get into yoga, regardless of your age or current level of fitness. Beginner’s classes are readily available and cater to new students of yoga. Chair yoga and other variations make yoga highly accessible. If you have injuries, chronic pain, or other physical issues, be on the safe side and get an okay from a healthcare professional first. Yoga is ready whenever you are!
How often should women practice yoga to experience its benefits?
Try to take a one-hour class at least two to three times a week. If this is tough to fit into your schedule, aim for shorter sessions but greater frequency.
Even 20-30 minutes a day will help. Yoga is not a quick fix. It’s most important to stay consistent over time.
I’m new to yoga, what is the best style for beginners?
The best yoga style for women starting out is one that you enjoy, challenges you, is fun, and keeps you coming back for more.
You can really start with any style as long as you take beginners’ classes. These will provide the alignment instruction and attention to detail you need. And always tell any teacher that you are new!
