Yoga Your Way Into Shape

New season, new fitness routine. Most people think of summer as the time to get in shape and revamp their eating habits, but keeping fitness fresh throughout the year is important. Fall and winter is not the time to give up on fitness! It's actually a great time to try something different. What better way to remain healthy during the stressful time of the holiday season than to give yoga a try?Yoga is less stressful on bones and joints than running, plus it's equal in it's ability to give everyone a workout no matter what your fitness level. You don't need to buy a gym membership or purchase expensive equipment, all you need is a yoga mat in a quiet room. Yoga is good for the body in a variety of ways including increasing strength, decreasing stress, helping with body confidence and can be done almost anywhere for free.There are lots of yoga videos available on YouTube, you can play these right off your computer or laptap. Many DVD's are readily available in stores like Target, Walmart and Amazon.com. The Veria channel offers daily yoga in the early morning, set your DVR to record and get an hour of yoga in anytime that's convenient.Want to gain muscle? Consider that yoga requires the body to call upon its own strength. Standing, sitting, bending, and folding serve to increase muscle. Your body works from calling upon its own strength reserves and in many positions, you are lifting pounds of your own body weight.Another bonus: if you suffer from lower backaches, you will find that yoga alleviates pain. Regular yoga sessions help to strengthen the muscles in the back and core.Since yoga puts you in tune with your body, you may discover your confidence level increases with habitual yoga sessions. Yoga also has the potential to help with stress management by utilizing controlled breathing and meditation. Stress tightens muscles and yoga helps to unravel those rigid muscles, allowing flexibility which leads to relaxation.This winter, instead of hanging up your running shoes, take them off and jump on a yoga mat. You will be glad you did.