"Yoga is a physical exercise, and any physical activity burns calories. But there’s more to it than that..."

My name is Andrea Santos Richardson. I’m an experienced yoga teacher who trains yoga teachers and organizes everything to do with yoga in the OCÉANO Hotel & Health Spa.

Andrea, could you please explain the benefit of yoga?
Nowadays, our lifestyle is leading us to disconnect ourselves from our natural state. Causing us to experience stress, health problems, poor sleep patterns, etc… Yoga joins our body, mind and breathing in order to bring us to a perfect balance. Yoga allows us time to ground ourselves, to let go of negative thoughts that push us down, instead bringing movement into our body and joints to keep them healthy for longer and bringing a sensation of peace inside of us that accompanies us through the day.

How does the practice of yoga affect our organism?
Yoga gets your blood pumping and emphasizes on deep breathing, when practicing pranayama, so it will support the cardiovascular and respiratory system.

Yoga is a physical exercise, and any physical activity burns calories. But there’s more to it than that. Improving your mind-body connection promotes healthier lifestyle choices, including your diet. As you become more aware of what you feed your body, you intentionally control your eating habits. During our OCÉANO Yoga Escape you will be offered a healthy menu with vegetarian options.

Yoga and meditation decrease stress, anxiety, and depression while increasing happiness and overall quality of life.

Yoga postures improve upper body strength, increase bone density which helps prevent osteoporosis, arthritis, and fractures in general.

With all of the twisting motions and upside down poses, yoga can really get your heart pumping and blood circulating. This means fresh blood and oxygen are delivered to your vital organs and cells, improving their function.

Can yoga be curative?
Enjoying a regular yoga practice will provide you with a powerful tool to prevent you suffering with  illnesses.

Is there only one type of yoga? How is the yoga offered by Océano?
There are several styles of Yoga, each of them with its peculiarities. Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Kundalini, Yin are some of them that we offer in OCÉANO. We offer a daily yoga group class from Monday to Saturday or private yoga classes with one of our experienced yoga teachers.

Is it convenient to do yoga at home? What mistakes do we usually make when trying to practice yoga at home?
It is convenient to practice yoga everywhere! At home, at work, when in a traffic jam, … Yoga is not only the moment we start moving our bodies with strange postures. While waiting in the traffic jam we can practice pranayama to calm ourselves down, at work when everything is aching we can take 2 minutes to stretch our neck, arms and legs. Nowadays it is so easy to find online yoga classes where a teacher will be taking good care of us (like we offer in OCÉANO). The common mistake that people do when practicing Yoga at home is when they do it alone, without the guidance and support of a teacher and we start to do the poses in a wrong way, maybe we overstretch, maybe we have not a proper space to ground down during the practice and our mind will not get the benefits…

Which people should not practice yoga?
Yoga is for everybody! There are many ways to adjust the class to a person's specific condition. Yoga when performed under the guidance of an experienced teacher, minimises the risks. Every posture of yoga has its benefits and contraindications and the teacher should be able to know what a person can or can’t practice.

Can yoga be harmful to the body?
If it is made under the guidance of a teacher and respecting the person’s own’s limits, no. It will only bring positive benefits into the body of the practitioner.

From what age can yoga be practiced?
Yoga can be practiced from childhood. In OCÉANO we allow people from 16 years old to join our group classes. Every age will benefit from starting to practice yoga.

What is the recommended duration of a yoga session?
For beginners we would recommend an hour. And as the person becomes used to the practice the duration can increase to 90 minutes easily.

When is it the best time to practice yoga?
The best time will be in the morning or in the late afternoon before dinner.

What is the role of the relaxation part in a yoga class?
To allow the mind to disconnect. To bring the body systems back into balance after asana practice. To let the person release the tension, stress, worries… To let the muscles relax… there are many benefits of shavasana!

Tell us about the yoga program at Oceano
We offer a daily yoga group class from Monday to Saturday, or private yoga classes with one of our experienced yoga teachers. We always search to integrate as much as possible from yoga philosophy and techniques. That’s why we always have a theme for our class that will impact in the life of the participants. We practice meditation and pranayama before or after the asana (postures) part of the class. Of course we finish having a nice shavasana to disconnect and recharge our nervous system, leaving the class with a calmed mind.

In our private yoga classes we support the person individually to achieve the goal that the person has, taking into consideration any contraindication.  We teach them how to incorporate this practice into their daily life.

What can people who choose the yoga programme at Oceano expect?
They can expect to have a holiday that will make them disconnect and recharge theirselves. The environment where OCÉANO is located, the rooms, quality of the food, the classes that incorporates meditation, pranayama and asana, the spa treatments… They will for sure come back feeling full of energy.