During physical activity, blood with the necessary nutrients rushes to the brain. In yoga, there are poses that are directly related to a rush of blood to the brain – inverted poses – a headstand, a dog pose with a muzzle down and a bend with legs wide apart.

Now, as you practice, remember that not only your body, but also your brain benefits from these postures.

During physical activity, oxygen also flows to the brain, and in fact, in the practice of yoga, one of the most important elements is breathing.

Experienced teachers of foreign languages on LiveXP platform notice: when a person is afraid to speak a language, they stop breathing. They make automatic breaths and exhalations, but this breathing is not deep and measured, and, therefore, deprives the human brain of a large amount of oxygen. It is not surprising that in the state of “not breathing with fear” no one can connect even two words in a foreign language. Especially if it is an exotic and difficult language, like Turkish or Chinese.

The first piece of advice for anyone with a language barrier is to breathe like you do during yoga. While doing yoga, you have probably learned to “breathe” through different places – with your knees, etc. All language learners are encouraged to breathe into their language barrier. Feel where the tension is when you hit your tongue (usually the solar plexus or throat area), and exhale your fear there. And then start talking.

To understand the surprising link between yoga and accelerated language learning, let’s consider Turkish, a unique language with fascinating linguistic characteristics.

The richness and diversity of Turkish vocabulary include unique words and expressions. By engaging in memory and cognition-stimulating yoga exercises, language learners can enhance their ability to recall Turkish words and phrases, leading to more efficient language learning.

Mastering the phonetics of Turkish can be challenging for foreign learners, despite its phonetic writing system that closely corresponds to pronunciation. However, there’s a way to improve pronunciation and speech patterns in Turkish—yoga practice. By engaging in yoga exercises, learners become more aware of their breath and vocal cords, helping them produce unique sounds and intonations specific to the language. This heightened mindfulness contributes to enhanced language learning and communication skills.

The fusion of yoga with Turkish language learning presents an intriguing approach for learners. This combination allows individuals to experience remarkable progress and fluency due to the harmonious blend of the two practices. By immersing themselves in the meditative elements of yoga while studying Turkish, learners can finely tune their phonetics, pronunciation, and rhythm in the language.

Moreover, the calming effects of yoga help alleviate stress, creating an optimal environment for retaining and applying linguistic knowledge. Overall, this holistic approach promises an enriching and effective way to master the intricacies of the Turkish language.

Turkish tutors at LiveXP can help you with any fears and anxieties you may have, and help you create a personalised learning plan.

The connection between yoga and accelerated language learning is not limited to specific languages but extends to various linguistic journeys. For learners seeking to master multiple languages, yoga serves as an essential companion. The heightened cognitive abilities developed through yoga practice transcend language barriers, enabling learners to approach each new language with improved focus, memory, and overall language proficiency.

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Nutrition for everyone who practices yoga is different, but regular yoga classes tune in to the wave of “proper nutrition” – you don’t want to drink alcohol, junk food and fast food. In principle, you are drawn to simple and healthy food, which has a positive effect on brain and memory, and means it will be easier for you to learn a language and remember new information.

For example, greens, including spinach, contain a combination of vitamin B6 and B12 with folic acid, an excellent memory support cocktail that help prevent the ageing of brain cells and can help combat against diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Seafood is rich in B vitamins, iron and zinc, which have a beneficial effect on memory and other thought processes.

Berries are generally good for the brain, thanks to fisetin and flavonoids, which support memory. Egg yolk contains choline, which is important for building brain cells. Whole grains stimulate blood flow to the brain, nuts contain omega-3 and omega-6 acids, which help keep the brain in good shape.

Changing activities helps you to forget about the routine for a while and relax. Indeed, during work, a short break for yoga can give you new strength, and helps the brain “reboot”.

If you are already used to taking breaks for yoga during the working day or working week, add to this habit a new, but always pleasant one, language learning. To benefit learning you could

• Llisten and sing along to your favourite song in a foreign language,
• Play an online game recommended by the tutor from LiveXP or another platform,
• Communicate on social networks in the language you are learning for 5 minutes.

Look at language learning as a way to switch off and forget about business and work for a while, and not as another task to add to your workload.  Switching in this way can help to alleviate stress.

All yoga poses help fight stress, but shavasana is, of course, the first one that comes to mind. Try practicing your language after shavasana and watch the results.

When you practice yoga you raise the level of endorphins which helps to raise your mood. Unfortunately, learning foreign languages is rarely associated with pleasure and joy.

But we hope we have shown how it is possible to consolidate a positive reaction to the language. You just have to choose the ways of learning that are pleasant for you and interesting teachers like on the LiveXP platform, and come up with a reward for yourself.

Develop a positive response to learning a foreign language and you will get a surge of endorphins after each encounter with the language. Remember all the pleasant sensations that you have after yoga – these emotions are your reward. The same can happen with learning a foreign language.

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, language proficiency becomes an invaluable skill that facilitates cross-cultural communication and understanding. The surprising link between yoga and accelerated language learning has unveiled a powerful method to expedite language acquisition in diverse languages such as Turkish, German, English, and beyond.

The cognitive benefits of yoga, combined with its capacity to reduce stress and enhance focus, create a conducive environment for language learners to thrive.

Whether you are a seasoned polyglot or embarking on your first language-learning journey, consider incorporating yoga into your language learning routine.

Embrace this harmonious fusion of mind and body to unlock the potential of accelerated language acquisition and enrich your linguistic horizons. Embark on a multilingual adventure with yoga as your guide, and witness the transformation of your language learning experience.

Who said exercise and moving around has to be boring! Inject some fun with this kids’ fitness challenge that creates a different routine or series of actions for each child.

It’s so simple – just spell out your name, find the activities for each letter, and then get moving.

For example, if your name is Daisy, your fitness challenge would be:

• D = Dance to your favourite song for one minute
• A = Act like a monkey for 30 seconds
• I = Inspect the garden for insects for one minute
• S = Skip down the hall and back
• Y = Jump up and down like a yo-yo 12 times

For a bigger challenge, include your surname, middle name, nickname, etc. Or pick a favourite character to change things up – some good ones are Buzz Lightyear, Tinkerbell, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Lightening McQueen or Sleeping Beauty.

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So get the kids into some shorts or sports gear and have a bit of fun with our What’s Your Name Kids’ Fitness Challenge! You can download the exercise challenge here, which is great to stick on the fridge and encourage quick daily sessions.

Remember, it’s not a competition and there’s no pressure. It’s all about moving a bit more than normal and, most importantly, making it fun!

It is the final day of our 21 day challenge and you might find yourself wondering ‘where do I go next?’. And we’re going to make a plan and go right back to the beginning!

Your challenge for today is to go back and write down the movements that you’ve enjoyed and the nutrition changes you’ve made over the past few weeks.

• What is different for you this week compared to three weeks ago?
• What changes have you made that have allowed you to feel better?
• What has allowed you to potentially feel more mobile or to feel stronger?
• Have you kept up the press up challenge?
• Have you kept up the shoulder mobility?

From there, I’m going to suggest that over the next couple of weeks you repeat the 21 day challenge. Go back to the beginning and start all over again – you may find yourself at a different level, you may find that what you’re doing is a little bit easier, but that’s exactly what we want.

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Our environment and the people in it have a profound impact on our behaviours. Let me put it this way, if all of your best friends love a gin and tonic on a Wednesday night, well it’s not going to be long before you like going for a gin and tonic on a Wednesday night with them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you want to be getting up and going to the gym or going for a walk or doing some food prep, it can be difficult to go against the grain.

So here is your challenge for today, I want you to go through your friends, your partner, your kids, your colleagues – whoever is in your immediate circle that you see every day – and look at what their behaviours are.

How do you see those individuals? Do you see them as the active people that you would like to be, do you see them as healthy eaters, do you see them as really fit people? Are these the values that you align with?

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You knew this chat was coming! Today, we’re going to talk about water consumption.

This idea of between five and eight glasses a day is difficult – what size glasses and how are you supposed to know? I think that optimal water consumption is really down to how much you’re moving throughout the day and how active you are.

So what are the signs of dehydration? How do we know that we’re dehydrated and that we need to consume more? Well, urine colour is the obvious choice, and if we find we are not going to the bathroom frequently throughout the day or if we find that it is darker than straw colour (a pale yellow), then we probably need to consume more water throughout the day.

The other thing is if you’re waking up with a headache in the morning, that can be a sign of dehydration.

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Dehydration doesn’t just happen in the summertime when the sun is blazing and we’re sweating loads; bear in mind, if you have the heating on throughout the winter and your house is really warm, dehydration could be a factor.

So how much water should you drink? I usually go through about four 500ml bottles a day, that’s two litres for me if I’m not training. I’m also cognizant of the fact that my herbal teas and my coffees contribute towards my overall fluid intake across the day as they also contribute to the daily total.

Your task for today is to have a quick look back and see how much fluid you are drinking, and go and get yourself a new water bottle if you don’t already have one. Aim to drink and refill the bottle three or four times throughout your day.

If you have any questions throughout the Challenge, email Fiona or send her a message on Instagram, Facebook and use hashtag #mkt21days to let us know how you are getting on with the Challenge!

If you love a good cup of coffee as much as I do, then this one is going to be hard for you! I’m sorry but I too at one stage had a questionable caffeine habit and I didn’t recognize or realize at the time, but my caffeine consumption of maybe four or five cups a day was impacting my sleep. I didn’t think it was impacting my energy levels throughout the day, because caffeine is supposed to give you energy right?

Without going into the science of it, there are receptors in our brain and in our system that attach to a chemical, mop it all up and we don’t feel sleepy anymore and we move on throughout our day. But caffeine also binds to these receptors and when we drink our coffee first thing in the morning and then that coffee wears off, that’s how we end up having that slump where we need coffee and chocolate.

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Today we’re going to bring the conversation back around to sleep and quality of sleep, and we’re going to do that by starting in another space.

If you have kids in the home or if you’re a busy person, we don’t really make time available to ourselves specifically to sit down and do things like read a book or put our feet up.

This can have a major impact on what time we go to bed at night because once kids are in bed, or you’ve emptied the dishwasher, or you’ve finished sending emails, very often we collapse into the couch, Netflix goes on and we fall into that cycle of ‘just one more episode’.

This can be a major barrier towards getting to bed at a reasonable hour and getting some quality sleep.

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I’d like to talk to you about breathing today. I would have always said ‘what’s the point in meditation, is there any merit to it?’, but actually the evidence tells us that the most effective intervention for managing blood pressure and high stress levels is meditation and breath work.

For that reason this is a move that is essential for health, so we’re going to talk about it today. There’s a number of different methods you can use to practice your breathing or to challenge your breathing.

There’s a triangle breath, there’s a box breath, and a 7-eleven breath and I’m going to go through these three with you today so you can decide which one feels most comfortable for you.

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Today’s challenge is all about strength and stability, and another great one for the runners and the walkers. I’m going to do this for you in jeans and a regular t-shirt because sometimes I think we think to ourselves ‘oh I’m not wearing the right clothes to train’ and that is a barrier to us actually getting out and doing it.

This is a hip hitch and we’re going to bring a kind of a single leg deadlift into this as well, then we’re going to bring a knee raise into it. I’ll show you the progression – it’s a challenging one, your balance is going to be challenged, but I promise you this will benefit your core strength, your balance and bring your game up.

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This exercise looks super easy, but it is one of those exercises when you actually do it properly it can feel like you’re really working very hard. You can use this exercise during your movement snacks, just to build up stability and strength in your feet. It’s going to build up strength in the soles of your feet, in your ankles, in the tendons around your feet. If you’re a walker or a runner, this is wonderful and it should be done ideally every day.

You’ll see me doing this exercise with nothing in my hands. This isn’t about having a heavy weight, it’s about displacing the movement and causing a little bit of a wobble. What we’re trying to do is make you as unsteady as possible, and by being in this position we’re going to build up all those muscles around the legs, around the ankle, in the foot to increase your stability and strength.

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