Couples yoga: Stretching your body . . . and your mind

COOPERATION AND COMMUNICATION: Couples Yoga Connected is designed to bring your body in tune with your mind, leading to an external sense of cooperation. / Photo by Jenny Lund

By Jenny Lund

November 10, 2006 | You + your partner + couples yoga = enhanced cooperation, communication, mutual nurturing and intimacy. All this for just $20?

While browsing through our local adult education brochure my husband and I stumbled upon couples yoga classes. Buried between classes like cookie decorating, and real estate investing basics, the couples yoga class definitely stood out. We were, after all looking for something new we could enjoy together, and based on the class description, we were eager to see if this was it.

"Couples Yoga Connected is a sequence of breathing techniques, Thai massage, and classic yoga positions designed to enhance and energize communication, cooperation, and mutual nurturing. It is designed for people seeking healthy, FUN ways to be together at home and abroad. Especially recommended for yoga instructors, newlyweds and couples with kids!" Bozeman Adult Education manual, couples yoga class description.

Daily responsibilities like school, work, and family can leave even the most balanced couples stressed and fatigued. Yoga is designed to purify the body and when done consistently with a partner there can be remarkable results.

"(In) couples yoga, we focus on spinal conditioning—so you just feel better, you feel more like doing things with your partner, you're less achy, more likely to be motivated," says Pius Ruby, a couples yoga instructor in Bozeman, Mont.

While any amount of time practicing yoga is beneficial, Ruby recommends people practice yoga as much as they are able to fit in their schedule. This is because the body responds better to very consistent practice, giving additional benefits to the yoga student.

"Yoga is designed to be on a 24 hour schedule. It's designed to be a part of your life like eating, drinking, sleeping. On a daily basis what you see is accumulative effect over time," says Ruby.

One of the advantages couples yoga has over other forms of yoga is that because it must be done with a partner, people are more likely to practice.

"I did a little experiment in that category over the years," says Ruby. "My students who are practicing alone tend to fall off the wagon faster than people who have someone around to encourage practice time."

Couples yoga is very similar to other forms of yoga with benefits like increased flexibility, and increased lubrication of the joints. In addition, people practicing yoga may also find themselves becoming more in tune with their mind and body.

"Just like most yoga the focus is on opening space up in the body and connecting the mind to the body so that there's an internal sense of cooperation that leads to an external spirit of cooperation between you and your partner," says Ruby.

Ruby encourages anyone interested in couples yoga to go out and try it.

"It's a new way to have fun together," he says. "I'm strictly in it for the fun."

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