About Ashley
Ashley Everhart is wildly passionate about sharing yoga with everyone she meets. She believes yoga fosters physical and mental development helping practitioners become the best version of themselves. She lovingly calls the process, "Leveling Up".
She has been practicing yoga for over a decade and is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher through Yoga Alliance. Ashley primarily teaches traditional Hatha and Hatha-Flow based Yoga, though she also has experience in Anusara, Ashtanga, Bikram, Yin, and Vinyasa.
What are the Health Benefits of Yoga?
The health benefits are innumerable. Yoga affects the body, the mind, and the way they work together. Ashley does her best to present the most nerdy, thoroughly tested, peer reviewed, health information she can to her students; she is not however, a doctor. Occasionally Ashley shares things in terms of "Hippie Nonsense" or slightly more esoteric yoga terms. Again, even when speaking in esoteric terms, Ashley does her best to only teach tried and true yoga techniques.
Here are a few of Ashley's favorite benefits:
- Slows your biological clock, right down to your telomeres [1].
- Reduces stress, reduces stress, reduces stress! Reduces disease causing inflammation from stress[2].
- Gives you more control over your emotions and better in the moment responses.
- Yogic breathing (ujjayi) can dilate cerebral blood vessels resulting in more oxygen to the brain[3].
- Lowers cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and raises levels of antioxidants in the bloodstream to lower oxidative stress.
- Prevents and counteracts deterioration of the discs between the vertebrae [4].
- Relieves daily aches and pains in over-worked and under-worked muscle groups.
- Teaches better understanding of posture in order to maintain muscle health and prevent muscular stress.
[1]
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/17/223386084/healthful-living-may-lengthen-telomeres-and-lifespans
[2]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162546.htm
[3]
http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Yoga-Risks-Rewards/dp/1451641435
[4]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20711844