Have you ever done yoga before? Would you like to try it out? Or maybe you’re super well practiced and don’t want to take a week-long break from it? Well, good news, you don’t have to!
At our surf camps in Moliets, Vieux-Boucau and Le Pin Sec in France we offer daily yoga lessons that you can join for free! How would you feel about a lovely sunset yoga class on the beach? Or maybe a refreshing session amongst the trees in the forest? In our opinion, yoga is the ying to surfing’s yang and hence we highly encourage you to try out both activities at our camps.
Did you know that yoga...?
- Helps you practice breathing techniques that can invigorate or calm your body? Normally, we don’t really pay attention to the way we breathe, our body just does it on its own. At yoga class you can learn to deepen your breath, which in turn increases oxygen levels in your blood making you feel stronger and healthier.
- Improves your flexibility, strength and balance? Yoga can be intense or relaxing depending on what your body needs at the time, so sometimes you will really feel like your muscles have had a workout. Other times, when the practice is calmer, you will feel a glorious stretch in your tensed-up muscles. But no matter how intense the practice, yoga always helps you improve your balance, which as you can imagine, comes in really handy when you surf! It also lowers the risk of injuries, as the flexibility in your body is increased and your joints are staying more active.
- Can help you feel calm, focused and aware of your body? A big part of yoga is getting to know your body and listening to it. As you go through the different poses, you realise where in your body there’s unnecessary tension, and when you do, you can focus on that part and try to release the tension. When you gain awareness of your body, you’re also likely to improve your posture. Just picture this – you're doing your downward facing dog and your shoulders feel super tight. Next time you’re sitting with hunched shoulders, you think – oh well, this surely isn’t helping my downward facing dog! - and you (hopefully) straighten your back!
- Can improve digestion?As you may know, yoga is full of twists and reverse twists. A yogi once said during a class at our camp: ‘When you do a twist with your body, just picture what happens to a sponge when you rinse it, and all the gunk that comes out of it. You squeeze it a few times and it comes out clean.’ Just think what happens to your insides when you twist them around...
- Lowers stress and improves your mood? Just in case your mood is not already awesome from being at a surf camp, you can have the additional help of a great yoga practice. Yoga aids with releasing tension, both in the body and in the mind. The practice is for yourself and yourself only. Your focus is your own breathing, your own body and the only thing that matters is the here and now. It is a perfect way to find yourself truly in the present moment and ground yourself to where you are, appreciate your beautiful surroundings.
At Planet Surf Camps we offer you the opportunity to decide what level you’re comfortable with, whether you’d rather have a more intense or more relaxed session. The classes are different every day and we try to make them flexible, because we know that all of you have different levels and we would love all of you to
Hope to join you at a session soon!
Julia