Health & Fitness: Rev up your love life with yoga

Couples yoga is a great way to not just stay fit, but also connect with your partner on a deeper, more intimate level, the guide finds out

With hectic work schedules and erratic office timings, couples in the city are finding it difficult to spend time together, let alone find time for fitness. But, the concept of couple yoga can help them in ways more than one.

Couple yoga is a practice that not only helps couples stay fit but also strengthens their partnership and helps build a stronger bond.

Rupal Sidhpura demonstrating one of the asanas

Rupal Sidhpura, 26, yoga therapist, explains, "Depending on the type of postures you perform, couple yoga allows you to put aside your differences and work together towards a common goal of maintaining good health."

Tanvi Mehra

How it works
For time-strapped couples, where one or both partners are too busy to take out time for each other, joining a yoga class or hiring a personal yoga instructor seems like a good idea. Tanvi Mehra, 27, yoga instructor from Tangerine Arts and Studio says, "Couple yoga is a brilliant practice as it inspires both the partners to lead a healthy lifestyle. There’s no room for laziness and excuses as partners keep each other motivated."

She explains, "Usually men are stronger than women and women tend to be more flexible than men, this helps couples to feed off each other’s positive points."

Mehra adds that couple yoga also gives trainers the flexibility to explore and play around with different postures as
couples already share a comfort level. "Acro-yoga is one type of practice in which the man is lying on the mat and raises the woman using his hands and legs," she says.

Sidhpura says, "Couple yoga does not include couples doing asanas just next to each other, it’s more about practising postures that bond them together and involves fun, guidance, support, coaxing and pushing towards a healthier future. It helps them
disconnect from distractions, and gives them a much-needed break from work, household chores, responsibilities and other stress-related factors."

The asanas are dependent on both parties supporting one another and putting in equal effort. Mehra says, "Couple yoga is all about caring, sharing, laughing and smiling. In short, it’s about spending quality time together."

Benefits
It is a known fact that yoga has numerous benefits, both mental as well as physical. And the simple benefit of couple yoga is that it brings two people together. "Couple yoga includes doing one, or a combination of asanas together. When done together, it helps maintain the wear and tear of the body and keeps you physically fit. It also awakens positive energies in your body," says Mehra.

You also learn to push boundaries as you have the support and help of your partner. "There are many mental benefits of couple yoga. It gives couples a satisfaction of being together and spending quality time together. It brings in a lot of positivity in the relationship," says Mehra.

But that’s not where it ends. Couples can grow intimacy by practising various special Kama yoga postures that help them connect on a deeper level. "In today’s day and age, parents and couples are busy with kids, work and other daily chores. Practising couple yoga helps them come together and experience joy which is unmatched," says Mehra, adding, "Practising yoga gives couples a chance to spend time together without talking on their mats, which helps them release and let go of stress. It also helps break ego and tension."

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