YOGA FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

By Michelle Wing and Kate Roades

Yoga Provides Healthy Fun for Kids and Parents
Though raising children may be the most rewarding work you will ever do, it can also be the most demanding physically and emotionally! Yoga can give you the energy you need to get through the day - or night - and it’s a healthy and fun activity to do with your baby or young child.

Yoga helps tone the body and relax the mind. It’s a beneficial exercise for pregnant women, young children, youth and adults of all ages and abilities. Busy lifestyles are commonplace for today’s kids – infants to teens – due to a combination of factors including varied caregivers, over stimulation, academic and social pressure and full schedules. As a result, many kids are "maxed out" and busy parents are seeking ways to help reduce stress and have fun together.

There is a reason 15 million Americans, and growing, are practicing yoga. It works; and it works for kids too! Unlike other forms of physical exercise, practicing yoga keeps your mind in one place, in your body. Moving into yoga postures and holding them requires focus and concentration. If your mind is racing or you are thinking about something else at the same time, you fall down.

This is a valuable reminder for parents and kids to be present. Multi-tasking has its place, and so does the ability to focus on one thing at a time. For adults and children alike, there is much joy in quieting the mind and focusing on the present moment.

Prenatal Yoga
Many women try yoga for the first time when they are pregnant and for good reason. Doctors and midwives are recommending yoga during and after pregnancy. Numerous women in prenatal and postnatal classes are convinced that yoga is the path to healthy pregnancy, healthy birthing and healthy baby.

For many, the practice helps confront fears and insecurities about birth and motherhood. Yoga helps make pregnancy more comfortable and can even help make delivery and recovery easier. It reduces lower back pain and increases stamina. Many women say they "feel more connected to their baby" after practicing yoga.

Postnatal Yoga
Postnatal yoga can support a new mother’s rejuvenation. The demands of a newborn can be challenging, practicing yoga with your baby nearby and building community with other new moms is fun and restorative.

Infants benefit from specific poses that can calm, help improve digestion and ease gas pains to relieve fussiness and colic. This promotes longer and deeper sleep. Yoga also aids neuromuscular development and strengthens the immune system.

Another way babies benefit is through their connection to their parents. When mom or dad comes to yoga class, they are not distracted by the outside world. Parents relax themselves completely and can tune in to their baby. It promotes bonding and parent confidence to look at your baby and understand his or her needs on a non-verbal level. This is a valuable parenting skill that continues to grow as the baby enters childhood and adolescence.

Yoga for Children
Yoga is non-competitive and fun and kids are naturally drawn to it. Re-designed with kid-friendly poses and set in an upbeat atmosphere, yoga can boost strength, flexibility, attention span and self-esteem for kids of all ages and abilities. In the beginning, kids wiggle and giggle, but soon they learn to listen, process and flow in and out of yoga postures. In the end, they relax and clam their bodies and minds. Some benefits show immediately and others over time. One seven year old exclaims after class, "Yoga makes me happy!"

According to the American Heart Association, beginning at age two, children should participate in at least 30 minutes of enjoyable moderate-intensity activities everyday. Yoga is an excellent activity for young children because it is builds body awareness and physical confidence along with concentration and focus. It’s a meaningful structured activity that provides social interaction and self-expression resulting in increased self-esteem. It also builds a fit and healthy lifestyle and can counter childhood obesity, a growing epidemic in America today.

Yoga for School Age Youth
For older kids, the American Psychological Association states, children involved in regular exercise earn better grades and have better social skills than those who are not. And the US Surgeon General Reports, indicates participation in all types of physical activity strikingly declines as age or grade in school increases. This may be due to added homework and boredom with traditional sports and activities. "Yoga calms your nerves and it’s cool," says a 12 year old boy. It’s a very supportive activity to get the body moving, reduce academic and peer pressures and have some fun.

Additionally, yoga can help create understanding and perspective for oneself, improve relations with friends and family, and build respect and awareness about the world outside. A middle school teacher states, "I think that teaching elements of meditation will help introduce the idea of looking within and help kids focus and concentrate - invaluable tools in today's frantic world!" She may be right, a young teen explains, "Yoga makes me feel good inside and out."

Yoga for Athletes
Whether its soccer, track, football, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, swimming, gymnastics, or dance; kids love sports! When children are growing, their psyche and bones are soft and vulnerable. Often, competitive sports and performing arts that work the body hard can result in injury, and/or emotional burn-out from stress or over-scheduling. Yoga is a practical approach to strengthen the muscles and tendons that are most prone to injury during athletic activities.

You may have heard of "the zone," a term broadcasters refer to when a basketball player buries four straight 3-pointers or when Tiger Woods posts four consecutive birdies. Yoga can help get you there. It’s excellent for young athletes and performers, to help reduce injuries and improve performance by building strength, coordination and complete focus. One 6 year old boy claims, "Yoga makes me run faster," and a 15 year old said, "doing yoga worked muscles I didn’t know I had!"

Michelle Wing and Kate Roades are the Founders of It’s Yoga Kids, a unique yoga studio serving kids of all ages and abilities, adults and families in San Francisco. To learn more, visit www.itsyogakids.com