Roark will now be offering yoga! The sessions will take place in the women’s gym on Monday and Wednesday afternoons at 16:00, and Saturday mornings at 10:00am, and is open to both girls and guys.
The sessions cost R 40.00 each. Should you have any further questions please email ashlealauren@gmail.com.
The sessions will be taken by Ashlea Paddock, who wrote the following for our website on the benefits of training at Roark while practicing yoga:
“But I can’t touch my toes” is a sentence I frequently hear from strong, muscular guys for not wanting to join a yoga class.
I started yoga 7 years ago to find mental stillness, hone into a deeper connection with my body, and develop greater flexibility. Two year ago, I joined Roark to compliment my yoga practice with more functional strength training. In my experience, the two compliment each other perfectly, with many opposites working together to create a balanced and dynamic system.
Athletes in all high-intensity sports are prone to injury because they tend to be more strong than flexible, which creates tension and strain on their joints. A lot of injuries are a result of immobility or lack of muscle-specific strength, and can be prevented with a steady yoga routine. Yoga students develop flexibility and an acute attention to alignment, breath and pain-sensation. The basic poses are very powerful and therapeutic. If practiced persistently, they strengthen and stretch the body in a way that promotes a keen awareness of pain and dangerous misalignment.
With any workout, the more seamlessly you are able to move in your body, the more you will get out of your session. Yoga helps develop strength by engaging your muscles in every pose, and flexibility where you need it most, so your body works like a fine-tuned machine. Yoga improves the range of motion in your joints, as even the most basic postures build arm strength and improves rotation motion for activities like over-head squats, front squats and pushups. Yoga helps to stretch and lengthen tight muscles, allowing for deeper, controlled squats; powerful kettle-bell swings and accelerated performance with box jumps.
Balance is one of the fundamental aspects linking Yoga and Roark. In both disciplines we constantly have to find stability and balance, making for smoother transitions between sets and precise techniques. Balance is about slowing down and realigning. Balance is challenging and demanding, forcing you to be still and gain composure.
Yoga is also great for cardiovascular workouts. It trains you to breathe more efficiently, and you’re asked to be aware of your breath at all times. This breathing technique demands that you consciously deepen your breath especially when you are struggling.
Vinyasa (Flow) links movement to breath, bringing you back to the present moment and allowing for fluid and efficient movements. You are able to breathe through the discomfort and allow the moment to be just that, being constantly mindful and present. At Roark, the workouts are often grueling and sometimes seem impossible, but when I tap into my breath and find stillness of the mind, taking each moment as it comes, suddenly the impossible becomes possible.
Much of Yoga is about releasing the sense of the ego. It is about being non-judgmental and supportive to yourself and those around you. The process teaches us a sense of humility and gratitude towards our body, as we move through each rep and position, constantly honouring our boundaries while still pushing the limits.
The “I can’t touch my toes” mindset diminishes as the breath, body awareness and humbling practice takes you into a deeper and more powerful space as you focus on the process, not the outcome.
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