When the heat is blazing and even the thought of moving is just unappealing, the last thing you want to do is a workout that’s going to make you feel even hotter (not to mention sweatier.) But yoga may actually help cool you down and give you a great workout at the same time.

Between work, meetings, kids, soccer drop-offs and errands, it can be hard to set aside an hour every week (or better yet, a few times a week), to get to a yoga class. But the good thing is that setting aside that hour will actually help you gain it back – and more – in productivity.

The practice has gotten a lot of attention from every corner of society – from scientists analyzing its effects on the brain, to fitness buffs looking for a good workout, to Instagram models shooting an aesthetic photo to workplaces that want to offer mindfulness and mental health resources for their employees. We took a look at the practice by the numbers.

In the US, a lot of men report not seeing yoga as “real” exercise. It doesn’t give as good of a sweat, or it’s too touchy-feely, some say. Yoga has real, tangible benefits for everyone – from physical strength to resilience and mental health support. But men can find so much more in this practice, and it’s time they give it a try.

Even with pandemic restrictions lifting across the country, it’s still difficult for a lot of people to feel comfortable heading back out to do the activities they did before. Or maybe they even found that being able to access everything online was actually… kind of great. Whatever the reason, doing yoga remotely from your home (or office) is more popular than ever.

And luckily, it also comes with tons of added benefits.

Zoom meetings and constant Slack updates have made work more distant and impersonal for so many teams, but because everyone was together in the office before does not mean the company culture is going to snap back to the way it was. (And you may even see that your company culture was not as close-knit as you thought it was before you left the office.)

So now, it’s time to start rebuilding.

Corporate wellness programs are resources that companies provide their employees to support healthy behavior in their lives. It can be physical like yoga, and gym discounts, financial like financial planning, investment classes, or even spiritual, like meditation. It’s not all for start-up tech companies offering kombucha on tap or dog-friendly offices – any office in any industry can begin programs that benefit the health of their staff.

It can be intimidating setting up your mat next to someone who is all of a sudden standing on their head when you don’t even know how to get into a downward dog. So many people find themselves focusing on what’s happening on the mat next to them that they completely lose track of what’s happening on their own, and it can be frustrating.

But the idea that waking up early benefits your health both physically and mentally isn’t just based in yoga tradition – it’s based in science as well. And we’ve got the studies to prove it

For someone walking into their first yoga class, the idea of using mantras or chanting as a group may seem a little out of their comfort zone. But there’s a reason why this practice is so engrained in yoga as both a physical and spiritual practice.