Why I Practice Yoga

It centers my body. All of the work you do to stay balanced and upright while practicing asana challenges deep core muscles that pull everything inwards. Imagine a cell- without a membrane to contain all of the organelles, they would slowly drift apart and cease functioning as a unit. Similar to the solar system being pulled into orbit around our sun. The same goes with your body. Your muscles are designed to support your bone structure like steel girders support a building. That’s what connecting to your core is all about. My teacher, Isaac, often talks about “hugging your muscles to the bone” when he teaches. This is the best way I understand how to explain it, too. Without this hugging action to unite everything, your muscles get strong and big from using them (the bro look), but your body won’t look tight and put together properly (the pilates/runner look).

Is there a way to have both? 

Sure. Blending your yoga practice and plyometrics is the best way to keep your body in shape. Push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and jumps are exactly the things your body needs to stay in shape. Funny that those are the things we do naturally as kids when we explore and play.

Of course, from all this pushing inward- to the bone, toward your center -can only take place when there is equal pull outwards. We’ll get to that in the next entry.

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Written by Corey Loftus 
Founder / Visionary : constantly quotable

Corey is a husband, yogi and father to a fur-child named Eddy. 
He began his meditation journey with HapKiDo as a child and discovered the Tibetan Bon Tradition of yoga. 
instagram: @loftylotus

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