Sun salutations are far more spiritual outside, where you can bathe in the rays of the heavenly body that is the source of all life. The many benefits of doing yoga outside include a deeper understanding of how the practice embodies union.
Yoga is about combining mind and body and reconnecting with what it is to be a human being, not a human doing. It’s a kinetic reminder that you are an integral part of a much larger, mysterious whole, not a mere cog in a production machine. Explore these outdoor yoga class benefits and make 2025 the year you breathe fresh air into your practice.
Yoga: Much More Than Physical Exercise
Is yoga a form of physical exercise? Yes. However, it is also much more.
How do people learn and communicate? Most folks would respond by speaking, listening, reading and writing. However, yoga’s focused movements, whether during a sweaty and challenging Ashtanga pose or passive Yin posture, teach you things about your body that a hundred lectures from a top physiologist couldn’t match.
However, yoga’s lessons don’t stop with your physical self. The right space allows the quiet time you spend on the mat to act as a healing therapy. It is a safe space to step outside yourself, observing your thoughts and emotions as a neutral third party. Unlike pure meditation, physical movements mitigate some stress chemicals that can make such reflection hard, even frightening, for some.
Yoga’s spiritual component also heals without requiring adherence to any specific dogma or changing your current religious beliefs. Instead, it provides a sacred space to explore your connection with something greater than yourself and your place in the universe. Some may use their time on the mat to pray, while others recite affirmations. It’s a one-on-one tether to your Source, all that makes you who you are.
The Health Benefits of Practicing Yoga
Even though it’s more than mere exercise, practicing yoga, regardless of location, provides an impressive array of physical health benefits.
1. Reduced Injury Risk
An injury can leave you sidelined for weeks, sometimes months. While you may require long periods of inactivity to heal, a lack of movement affects your overall health and fitness.
However, one recent study on fencers found that practicing yoga prevents injury by improving dynamic balance and functional movement ability. You achieve better control over your body and can better adapt to sudden changes from outside forces. Flexible muscles and tissues are less likely to tear.
Additionally, you can practice some forms of yoga, like Yin and Restorative, right in bed. These formats let you stay active while you heal, facilitating your recovery.
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2. Improved Mental Health
Yoga has come into popularity in recent years as an effective complementary therapy for mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Its ability to ease stress levels and moderate the levels of various hormones and neurotransmitters can alleviate panic and boost your mood.
Recent research reveals that yoga may also be an effective intervention for disorders such as schizophrenia. Findings suggest it improves the most negative symptoms and the overall quality of life in such patients. Various theories explain schizophrenia’s etiology, with some finding links to severe trauma, especially if disbelieved. Perhaps yoga communicates a feeling of safety to such individuals more than words ever could.
3. Increased Endurance, Strength and Flexibility
Like any physical exercise, yoga increases your endurance, strength and flexibility. The degree of improvement depends on what styles you choose. For example, you won’t get much of a strength boost from passive Yin poses, but you’ll become far more flexible from the deep stretch of your muscles and connective tissues. Conversely, a power yoga class builds impressive quads and hamstrings, while planks work your arms and core.
Some forms, such as vinyasa or power yoga, also improve your cardiovascular ability. When you think about it, those dreaded burpees you do in a HIIT class are little more than sun salutations with an emphasis on strength and speed instead of spirituality. You can work all three components of physical fitness with little more than a yoga mat and the right flow.
9 Benefits of Doing Yoga Outside
Going outdoors offers considerable physical and mental perks. When you combine the health benefits of going outside with the health benefits of yoga, you get a one-two punch of healing goodness.
Additionally, you can reap several outdoor yoga class benefits that you won’t experience in an indoor classroom. Consider these nine reasons to take your mat into your backyard or enroll in a retreat at a local yoga center this year.
1. Reduce Depression Symptoms
Depression stems from numerous causes, and several factors can overlap to leave you in a deep blue funk. Some people are more biologically prone to depression, have early life experiences that trigger the epigenetic expression of certain genes, take medications or have nutritional deficiencies affecting their moods. People may also experience mood changes related to traumatic life events or even the changing seasons.
Getting outdoors is one of the most frequently recommended treatments for depression that strikes in the winter. Researchers believe a lack of exposure to natural sunlight is the leading cause of this disorder. Practicing yoga outside bathes you in the sun’s rays. Plus, some formats, such as Ashtanga, vinyasa or power, might generate enough body heat to make wearing tights outdoors in January palatable. You could also drag your mat to an enclosed, sunny patio.
Other studies show that heated yoga has a beneficial effect on subjective depression symptoms. Traditional Bikram strives to imitate the conditions on the Indian subcontinent, where yoga originated. Practicing outdoors on a warm day comes close. Alternatively, seek a studio with a sweeping outdoor view and arrive early enough to score a sunny spot next to the windows to bask in the sun’s rays while you flow.
2. Ease Stress
Stress is an epidemic that many modern people cannot escape. As a result, it takes a devastating toll on their health. Nature designed your body’s threat detection system to kick on for a limited time, with chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol released in quantities sufficient to fuel your flight from hungry lions. However, you can’t run away from paychecks that don’t cover your bills or deadlines that only breed new endless to-do lists.
Financial reasons aren’t the only cause of modern stress. Unhealthy coping mechanisms like drug and alcohol use can take on a life of their own, destroying your health and relationships regardless of your budget. Spending too much time indoors can increase your exposure to triggers like boredom and feelings of confinement that can prompt you to drink or use. Practicing yoga outdoors provides an alternative pastime, promoting positive feelings without drugs.
Parenting can also be stressful, but guess what? Yoga is an appropriate activity for all ages, and kids love being outdoors. While you may sometimes crave alone time to reap the benefits of doing yoga outside, you can also bring your kids with you. Doing so could relieve stress for you both. Plus, studies show that children who practice yoga exhibit decreases in problematic behavior, further easing mom or dad’s tension.
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3. Breathe Cleaner Air
While your favorite studio may smell lightly of lavender, essential oil use alone doesn’t denote healthy indoor air quality. You do a lot of deep breathing in your typical class, and one benefit of outdoor yoga classes is breathing fresher air.
According to research, indoor air is often 2 to 10 times higher in volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde than outdoors. Additionally, germs can linger in HVAC systems — it’s one reason that everyone in the office often ends up sick, even if they steer clear of those with obvious infections. Finally, some people find little yoga class extras like essential oils and incense overwhelming, but they won’t overpower your senses if used outdoors.
4. Enjoy Room to Move
Have you ever taken a class in an overcrowded studio? The experience is less than pleasant, even if the person beside you politely confines their feet to their own mat.
There’s something liberating about having room to move. One of the best outdoor yoga class benefits is plenty of room to spread out and perform asanas without fear of running into your classmates. Take up all the space you want and make your presence known.
5. Boost Energy Levels
Spend a few minutes outside on a beautiful day and see if your energy levels don’t improve. Exposure to certain light wavelengths suppresses melatonin production, a hormone essential to sleep.
Another benefit of doing yoga outside is that it prompts your brain to release more natural serotonin. This neurotransmitter is a precursor to melatonin, so more of it may help you sleep better at night. Deeper nighttime rest equates to higher daytime energy levels. Additionally, serotonin positively impacts your mood during your waking hours, and your energy levels increase when you feel happier.
6. Improve Cognitive Function
Studies have shown the effectiveness of time spent outside and yoga on cognitive function. One recent study found that regular Kundalini yoga practice led to more substantial improvements in memory in older adult women at risk of Alzheimer’s than a memory enhancement training protocol. The results measured levels of several biomarkers, not only the participant’s subjective reports.
Another study compared spending time in natural environments to spending time in urban landscapes and found that being in nature allowed the brain’s executive attention more rest. Executive attention refers to your ability to respond to changing conditions and quickly transition from one activity to another.
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7. Get More Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a hormone that your body produces when exposed to sunlight. It plays a vital role in everything from immune function to bone development.
Some experts recommend getting between 5 and 30 minutes of sun exposure daily to produce enough vitamin D. An outdoor yoga class immerses you in a sunbath for an hour or more.
8. Support Healthy Immune Function
Healthy vitamin D levels promote immune system health. However, that’s not the only benefit you get from doing yoga outside that can help during cold and flu season.
Scientists have discovered that plants emit substances called phytoncides for self-defense. When humans inhale them, they produce more natural killer cells — specialty cells that fight germs. Lying your mat on the grass and breathing deeply while surrounded by trees won’t guarantee you won’t get sick, but it can strengthen your defenses.
9. Feel Connected
Perhaps the most significant benefit of doing yoga outside is feeling connected — in more ways than a single article could express. It can even help you feel more in touch with other people. When you take your mat outside or practice on bare rock, you may find that others join you.
You also build a better connection with nature and the world around you. You cherish and feel life on a deeper level. Fair warning — such insights can sometimes make you weep for how others treat this gift of life so casually. However, you gain something much more, something beyond happiness. Feeling connected with your place in all creation is impossible to describe in words, but you may experience it when practicing yoga outdoors.
Outdoor Yoga Class Benefits — Why Guides Should Take It Outside This Year
If you are a yoga guide, consider adding outdoor classes to your repertoire. You may need permission from your location’s parks and recreation department to use certain facilities. However, you can often get on their lineup of course offerings, providing a handy way to grow your income stream while reaping these perks.
1. Lower Infectious Disease Risk
While yoga studios may not be as germy as preschool classrooms, shared equipment means passing back multiple microscopic particles, some of which are infectious. Couple that with poor indoor air quality, and those deep breaths you take in savasana could transform into a deep chest cough. However, since practicing outdoors reduces the risk of such contamination while providing immunity-boosting benefits, you’ll likely experience fewer sniffles.
2. Attract New Clientele
A successful outside class can be your best advertisement. When passersby spy all the relaxing, healthy fun you’re having, they’ll want in on the action, too. Furthermore, offering outdoor classes is inclusive to those at high risk from infectious diseases who may otherwise limit their social contacts. You could provide them with a valuable outlet.
3. Expand Special Engagement Offerings
Is your studio getting too cramped, preventing you from experimenting with styles that might take up too much space? Taking your practice outdoors presents a larger arena, letting you host that special Mother-Daughter Day event without fear there won’t be enough room for all the extra mats.
Special Considerations When Practicing Yoga Outside
Should you decide to change your venue, follow these tips to reap the most benefits from doing yoga outside.
- Bring a towel: Practicing in the sun can make you sweaty in a hurry, resulting in a slick and slippery mat. You might take one towel for wiping your face and a mat-style grippy towel, such as Manduka’s Yogitoes, for beneath your feet.
- Wear sunscreen: Yes, you get vitamin D from sun exposure, but too much can leave you with a nasty burn and increase your skin cancer risk. Choose the correct SPF for your complexion.
- Ban the bugs: Insects are a part of the natural world, but you shouldn’t set your mat up near red ant hills. Look for a spot free from nests and wear bug spray to ward off mosquitoes and their associated diseases.
- Provide shade: If you are guiding a class, bring a few umbrellas for participants who might be sun-sensitive or seek a pavilion that offers cover.
Practicing Yoga Outside
You can reap tons of benefits from doing yoga outside. Many of them boost your physical health. However, this ancient practice goes beyond improving your strength and flexibility — it also engages your mind, emotions and spirit. Discover the true meaning of union that only you can define by sinking into these outdoor yoga class benefits.
