It's time to reset and restart as you prepare for the beginning of another week. Whether you've got aches and pains from sitting down too long, or your mind is racing with work-related questions, we've got just the thing.
Top yoga instructor Zoe Young recently took over our Instagram account to bring you a live, 30-minute yoga flow workout. The workout included lots of shoulder rolls, opening up those muscle groups and making it perfect for people who spend their days hunched over their desks. Check out the flow below:
It's a great workout to end the week and prepare for the start of the next one, but there's science to back it up. Yoga can not only open up your shoulders, but prevent work-related back aches and pains, and even lower your stress levels.
One study, published in the scientific journal Occupational Medicine, found yoga reduces perceived stress and back pain, improves psychological well-being and has the potential to reduce sickness absences.
Dynamic yoga flows like this also work on your mobility, lengthening your muscles and improving your quality of life well into old age. Science dictates you should be doing stretching exercises every single day to stay healthy, fit and mobile as you age. Yoga flow routines like this will go a long way towards achieving that goal, as will our beginner's guide to stretching.
Lower stress will also reduce the production of the stress hormone known as cortisol in your body. Cortisol causes you to increase the amount of fat cells stored in your body: a contributing factor to weight gain. Cortisol has also been found by the journal Obesity to "influence the reward value of food" and is responsible for the phenomenon of "stress-eating".
Take 30 minutes to exercise, stretch your muscles and elevate your heart rate with Zoe Young's dynamic yoga flow. You'll reduce back pain, lower your stress levels, feel better, lose weight, improve your mobility and lengthen your lifespan. Now that's a serious workout.
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Matt Evans is an experienced health and fitness journalist and Staff Writer at Fit&Well. He's previously written for titles like Men's Health, and covers all things exercise and nutrition on the Fit&Well website.
Matt originally discovered exercise through martial arts: he holds a black belt in Karate and remains a keen kickboxer and runner. His top fitness tip? Stretch.
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