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Yoga Club

A new after school club for this year is Yoga; please read below the benefits of Yoga in schools.

Students with legs squeezed into chests and arms in the air can mean only one thing: yoga in the classroom. The physical benefits of this exercise are well-known, but it also has educational benefits, such as improved attention, self-confidence and relaxation. A quick-and-easy way to get started is by using short yoga-based exercises in the classroom, Yoga can be particularly useful to help centre students before a lesson or to regain focus if a class becomes restless.

Yoga can also help young people manage the stress and anxiety of exams. Simple exercises such as breathing meditation can increase the amount of oxygen in the blood resulting in a more alert and focused mind. Tension-relieving yoga poses can help relax the muscles, especially if students are spending long amounts of time hunched over their desks. Useful stretches on the Teen Yoga and Mindfulness website including the child’s pose and shoulder stand which could be used every hour or so to help calm the nervous system. Another handy resource is this 15-minute audio relaxation exercise designed to help students reduce exam stress.

Yoga as part of a PE lesson, should begin with a bit of quiet time, allowing the body to relax and the mind to empty, according to Trish Munro, founder of the Yoga Factory. You can do this by asking students to lie on their backs with their arms by their sides, palms facing the ceiling, and feet about 12 inches apart. Encourage students to relax each part of their body, from their feet to their face, then spend a couple of minutes on a simple breathing activity, such as this Balloon Breath exercise.

Get students to breathe in and out through their noses. You might find it useful to familiarise them with the concept of making one movement while breathing in, and then a complementary one while breathing out. For example, raising one arm slowly on the in-breath and then lowering it down on the out-breath. A balanced yoga routine should contain a forward bend, a back bend, a side bend, a twist and a balance.

Yoga is also useful for teaching young people about how their bodies work. Do you know, for example, that there are more than 600 muscles in the human body and they make up 40% of our body weight.