Yoga offers numerous benefits to mind and body

Do you really know the benefits of yoga? It is believed to be a good form of meditation, but what is not very known is that it helps you in many more ways than just mentally.

Fresno City College offers a yoga class on campus which is available for students to take every semester.

Matthew De Los Santos, an FCC student, majoring in business, says that taking yoga classes has helped take his mind off negative things and that it has helped him to do better at school.

“It calms you down and releases your stress,” De Los Santos said. “It is also a lot of exercise.”

Losing weight by doing yoga is another good benefit of practicing yoga. Nicole Flores, a yoga instructor at FCC , explains that yoga increases the circulation of the blood into stored fat.

You are burning fat as you release the stress levels of your body.

“It helps the [students] physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally it builds strength helps with flexibility endurance and it tones the body,” Flores said.

 Flores said that doing yoga has changed her life in so many ways since she started doing yoga in 1976 when she took a class in Reedley College when yoga wasn’t popular yet and fell in love with it; this is the same class she now teaches.

Suffering from weight problems in the past, Flores took the class when she used to weigh 213 pounds.

“I battle with compulsive overeating, anorexia and bulimia. I went to treatment and none of that changed,” Flores said.

Flores said that it wasn’t until she took that yoga class that everything changed for her. Now she no longer battles with her weight.

 She encourages students to take a yoga class because of all the benefits that practicing yoga provides to the students because they get to relax but also get something physical.

“They should just come and try it,” Flores said. “I let students come in and sit in the class to see if they like it.”