We don’t need to tell you all the ways a regular yoga practice can benefit your mind, body and spirit, but you’ll indulge us for a moment, yes? No surprise here, but yoga is a fabulous option for boosting mood and decreasing stress levels. Harvard Medical School’s Stress Resource Center notes that yoga appears to modulate stress response systems by reducing perceived stress and anxiety: “This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal—for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure and easing respiration.” There’s also evidence that yoga can help increase heart rate variability, “an indicator of the body’s ability to respond to stress more flexibly.”
If you’ve already embarked on a solo yoga practice, it might be time to consider couples yoga. Doing yoga with your partner on a regular basis is an ideal way to spend time together, while releasing the tension that might otherwise get in the way of your quality time. Couples yoga is an excellent way to grow trust, create a more profound relationship and just have fun together. It also lets you attempt poses which you otherwise may not have performed alone.
Luckily, you don’t have to be as bendy as a pretzel to attempt many partner poses. Read on for beginner, intermediate and advanced couples yoga poses. (We’ll note that you should always remember to listen to your body and make sure you’re not attempting anything beyond your limitations that could result in injury.)