Yoga has many benefits both on a physical and an emotional level. Firstly, if you practice yoga at least 2-3 times a week you’ll notice how your body begins to feel lighter, taller, leaner. This creates the overall sensation of a healthier body. With healthier body comes healthier mind. In practicing yoga, high levels of concentration is required. You are focusing on the flow of air with each breath you take and you are continuously observing how your body feels. This way you start to notice that tension builds up in certain areas (you feel pain, twinge, etc.) and you try to find space in those areas (using your breath) to release discomfort and ease pain. This may seem quite strange at first, you might be thinking that "hey, this is crazy..." But it is actually a physical phenomenon: when you focus on a specific area of the body for longer, the sensations in that area will intensify, but as soon as something else occupies the mind, your attention shifts, the sensations you felt earluer will become less relevant, less noticeable. So, while you are busy during the day, you may not notice how your body feels, wether you have any pain because your mind is so occupied. In Yoga you practice the opposite: you take a moment away from other stuff and check-in with yourself. Regularly practicing to turn your attention inward, you’ll begin to improve your self-awareness, a tool that will help you navigate better in other situations off the mat.

Yoga is not about flexibility and you do not have to “be” flexible in order to practice yoga. In fact, you can practice yoga without moving at all! Yoga teaches you to turn your attention inward, to be present and to be in tune with your emotions, feelings, thoughts, and physical state. The physical aspect of yoga is referred to as “asana practice”, where we practice different poses that stimulate the body energetically (and consequently the mind) in different ways. These poses vary from the very simple seated positions (e.g. Sukhasan, easy pose) to the more solar, dynamic, heart pumping inversions and arm balances, or deep stretches in splits and so on. But there is a natural progression towards those more difficult asanas, which comes with regular practice of yoga as you learn to gradually release the tightness in different areas, and to control the muscle spindle (which allows the lengthening of your muscles) through your breath.

Asana practice in yoga mainly uses active static stretches as opposed to high intensity type of training ideal for fat burning. However, it is an ideal practice to improve your lifestyle, such as your eating habits and a need for more regular physical exercise. It does this by helping you teach your mind to focus more on your own body, feelings and emotions. If you practice yoga you will notice quicker if your body feels heavy after eating certain foods, if there is tension or pain caused by a particular habit you may have while sitting in front of the computer, watching TV, sleeping in your bed, etc. You will be more conscious about those unfavourable habits and eager to correct them. In the long run, all of these corrections will serve to your advantage and you will see a change in your body weight too. Nevertheless, I recommend yoga as a complementary practice to cardio and other types of high-intensity training like crossfit, aerobic, cycling, running, whatever you feel more drawn to.

No, it is not. Practice of yoga is not gender-based. It targets the body and the mind and as long as you have those you are able to practice yoga :)

It’s natural to feel muscle pain or sore when you practice a form of movement that your body is not used to doing. After a few classes your muscles will absorb the new information and you will notice that there will be less and less pain the following day, and in turn you will actually feel lighter, taller, leaner. When I practice a pose that I’m not used to practicing I still end up feeling a bit sore in those areas the following day. So it’s completely natural, in fact you should welcome it, it means that your muscles are working just fine!

Breathing through the nose helps to slow down the heart rate, so does regulated breathing at a slower pace. Notice when you go for a run at the end of it you are “out of breath”, your heart is beating very fast and you naturally tend to close your mouth and start to draw in big, deep breaths through the nose to help slow the heart rate down. Also, breathing through the mouth has a cooling effect and it dries your throat.

If you are medically diagnosed with depression and have prescribed medication, and part take in therapy, you should confirm with your physician if you are okay to do yoga or other forms of mindfulness practices. I am not an expert in the field, and therefore, cannot give you a medically approved advice, however certain yoga poses are known to alleviate mild depression and anxiety. Yoga can help with many aspects of your problems, like insomnia, overactive mind, lethargia, etc. There are certain poses that are especially recommended if you have trouble sleeping, like standing and sitting forward fold positions. Some backbend poses are reputedly helpful for relieving symptoms of mild depression and anxiety. Inversions also calm the brain and help relieve stress and mild depression. So, I can’t say for sure that this will be a cure and you shouldn't treat it like that, but I do recommend you to try and see how you feel after a class.