For Heart Month Surprise, YOGA!

Being Heart Month, we will surely be hearing about and seeing Valentine’s Day merchandise like candy and flowers everywhere. Models in red dresses will be among those directing us to our cardiologist to get our hearts checked and urging us to renew the gym memberships we may have let expire at the end of January.

I bet the last thing on your mind is to try that yoga class again, because what can that do for your heart? In my earlier blogs, I explained how your thyroid gland is nourished with several yoga poses. Those yoga poses do the same thing for your heart. Remember, I am referring to Hatha yoga, the physical path.

One of my yoga students checked her heart rate in a typical class, and it did raise her heart rate. Did it go up enormously? No. But it did work her heart in a gentle way.

B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the most respected yoga teachers in the world, always said Westerners over-exercise. He would say, You do too much, and you’re too fast. He would add, You wear out your heart that way. He said you should be able to calmly carry on a conversation the entire time you are exercising.

Here are some of the yoga poses we do in my classes: Rabbits and Camels, Pigeon, Bow, Child’s Pose, and several more. For example, Restorative Yoga is good for your heart because it relaxes your heart and brain, lowering cortisol levels. Add to this the stress-reducing benefits of meditation and breathing practices.

You can see all these poses in any standard Hatha yoga book. They work your heart in a gentle way without beating it up and overstressing it. Mr. Iyengar would approve.

Disclaimer: Everything you learn in yoga is health-promoting, but if you have any heart conditions or concerns, it would be prudent to check in with your health professional before starting yoga. And make sure your instructor has had some Iyengar training. I spent a month in India with the man himself at his institute in Pune. Another important class I took was “Anatomy and Yoga” at the anatomy department at the University of Minnesota Medical School.