Taking a 15-minute yoga break

Raise your hand if you are an “all or nothing” yoga practitioner. I understand. It is hard to find an hour sometimes. Good news, you don’t have to do an hour of yoga at one time.

Over time, the effects of yoga change the body on the cellular level. Yoga makes your entire body more balanced overall. "From a musculoskeletal perspective, your body is made up of trillions of cells that get organized in a variety of ways, which then become tissues, which then become organized and become organs, which then become systems," says Lara Heimann, a certified physical therapist, and yoga expert. "The bulk of the day does not require a variety of movement, so that inevitably leads to imbalance, meaning that you'll have some tissues that are shortened or restricted while some are not. And all of your organs can be affected by poor posture. So a yoga practice will get things more balanced and bring balance to the tissues around your joints."

There is also a body-to-brain, brain-to-body communication that makes changes over time as you practice yoga. This communication happens during yoga practice. It starts as soon as you begin the practice and the effects last long after your practice. So a 15-minute practice daily, what Olga Kabel of Sequence Wiz calls Yoga Snacks, is actually more effective for lasting change in our bodies than an hour of practice once a week.