Find a yoga class in Randburg

Beat the City Stress with Local Yoga Instructors

Johannesburg can be an exciting and energetic city. Unfortunately, the buzz and stressors of big city life can take its toll on our bodies.

Not only do we spend a lot of time in front of our desks to study or work, we also sit in congested traffic and have to cope with juggling finances, family and everything else life throws at us.

Science has proven that this continuous aggregation of stress can negatively impact our bodies and speed up the ageing process. Luckily, you can find a yoga instructor in Randburg to show you the moves that will help to tackle stress.

And, before you panic about losing your balance and falling in front of a class of yogis… a professional teacher like the ones of Superprof can give you private yoga classes at home. That’s less embarrassing and they can customise classes to your needs.

What is Yoga?

Your first thought of yoga might conjure up images of skinny vegans in upside-down pretzel poses. Luckily, yoga was built on a foundation of inclusiveness and compassion. Its aim has always been to create unity and balance in our bodies and the world, regardless of who we are and the shape of our bodies.

Yoga has been known to have a transformative effect on people. Yogis and Yoginis have been practicing yoga for Millennia to welcome greater health and wellbeing into their lives. The most astounding thing around yoga today is how modern research confirms exactly what the ancient yogis have been saying for thousands of years.

Yoga is a physical practice that not only makes you sweat (dependent on the type of yoga you go for), it also calms your mind, relaxes your body and reduces stress in a myriad of ways. With the aim of creating unity in us, yoga uses a sequence of poses, called asanas, to create two-way connections between the mind and body.

Although the philosophy of yoga was built on eastern spiritual beliefs, the mention and focus of energy chakras and nadis is not necessarily present in all modern forms of yoga. If you do private yoga sessions, you can get the yoga instructor to incorporate as much, or as little, of the spiritual aspects within yoga philosophy as you choose.

Yoga will not only challenge you as you work towards achieving your fitness and weight loss, it will also be an unexpected way to learn self-love and compassion towards your body. Here are some of the facts for the sceptics out there…

The Benefits of Yoga

Cardiovascular health, mobility and being able to touch your toes… A regular yoga practice will not only help you to create a healthy body, it will also help to quieten a busy mind and bring it in sync with your body.

Here’s how you can benefit from yoga as you move towards improved, overall well-being:

• Physical Strength, Muscle Tone and Mobility – Build muscular strength and ensure you continue to move with ease through daily life. The various yoga poses, especially the ones you need to hold for a couple of breaths, will help to tone your muscles and give them that firm and sexy shape. Regular practice will also help to restructure and organise the collagen networks within fascia which is directly associated with healthy movement and mobility.
• Improved Posture – Yoga focusses a lot on the realignment of the spine and creating balance in your body. A seven-year clinical trial showed that the practice of yoga is not only friendly on joints, but also safe and effective in managing osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
• Weight Loss – Yoga will help to regulate your metabolism. Relaxation practices, like yoga, might initially decrease your metabolism, but it can also reduce stress hormones that makes your body hold onto fat. It’s almost guaranteed that a daily practice will help you lose weight if you stick to a balanced diet.
• Better Heart Health - Did you know that long-term studies have shown that yoga, inclusive of asanas, meditation, social support and a plant-based diet could actually reverse heart disease? Not only does it repair damaged tissue, it also regulates cholesterol and therefore performs better than most exercise types in reducing heart disease. Yoga will also help with the regulation of the heart rate which will reduce any blood pressure issues.
• Live Longer – Aside from the health reasons already stated, a yogic lifestyle helps to increase the length of telomeres, which has recently been linked to a healthier and better ageing process. Yes, you’ll be a happier ‘old person’ and yoga will also prevent your muscles from ageing by oxygenating them.
• Positively Rewire Your Brain - Modern neuroscience has already discovered and proved how yoga and meditation can create physical alterations in our brains. It helps with neuroplasticity, which is your brain’s ability to break old, conditioned thinking patterns and replace them with new preferrable or positive ways of thinking (if that’s what you are working towards).
• It’s a Natural Chill Pill – Less cortisol and adrenaline will mean less inflammation in your body and less of the associative weight gain. You’ll stress less as your cortisol levels start to stabilise, but yoga will also increase your alpha brain wave activity and Gamma-aminobutyric acid, both fundamental in getting rid of anxiety and stress.
• It Just Makes You Happy – Yoga also increases your serotonin and brain derived neuropathic factor. Both of these hormones help to regulate mood and counteract depression to make your path towards a happy life, an easier one.

Types of yoga instructors

Not all yoga instructors are the same. Some teachers have a passion for yoga philosophy and meditation, while others are focussed on helping their clients with relaxation-based practices.

If you really want a physical workout you can search for a yoga teacher trained in Ashtanga, Bikram or Vinyasa yoga. For a more relaxed form of yoga we suggest you look for private yoga classes in Yin-yoga, Nidra or Hatha yoga. Want to learn more about eastern and historical yoga philosophy? Kundalini, Bhakti or Karma yoga have more of a spiritual focus, and you’ll get to experience aspects like chanting, mantras or mudras.

Superprof makes it easy for you to research and compare local yoga instructors. Find out where they trained, what their specialisation area is and how other students have rated them. Most Superprof teachers will also give you your first lesson for free to check whether you like their vibe.

The recent surge in research around meditation, wellness and mindful practices comes as no surprise if we simply look at the listed benefits of yoga. Yoga is not only being incorporated into the curriculum of some schools, but many companies are also turning to yoga in their attempt to create balanced and happier staff.

We hope you find a yogi on Superprof that will help you, through private yoga sessions, to reduce stress as you work towards becoming the happiest and healthiest version of yourself.