Yoga is one of the few fitness practices that’s fun, relaxing and blood-pumping all at the same time. It’s also something that, with a little bit of patience and practice, most everyone can do.
However, it takes major dedication and serious skills to master the more advanced yoga moves — something which 28-year-old Valerie Sagun knows well. She has been practicing yoga for the past four years in San Jose. She focuses on a style called Hatha yoga, which helps align your skin, muscles and bones, as well as open up the pathways in your body.
Sagun is a larger woman, so you might think yoga, which often involves lifting your entire body weight, would prove more challenging for her. However, she’s mastered as many advanced poses as the most fit-looking yogis, and what’s more, she looks absolutely gorgeous doing them.
More: 3 Yoga poses that will get your whole body toned!
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Holy impressive poses, Batman! This girl’s yoga abilities are on another level. She also rocks some fabulous fitness outfits which I am definitely coveting. She told BuzzFeed she gets most of her gear from Rainbeau Curves and Fractal 9 (for which she’s also a spokesperson). Their clothes are all super stylish, colorful, and above all, comfortable.
For Sagun, yoga is about owning your own body, and pushing boundaries. She told BuzzFeed she’s never felt self-conscious in class because the practice helps her strip away all those negative feelings. “For me, yoga is all about the mind and positive thinking. I get anxiety and depression, and practicing has helped me through that.”
More: 30 Yoga poses you don’t need an expensive studio to teach you
She originally posted pictures of her yogic endeavors on Tumblr, but after getting an overwhelmingly positive response, she started an Instagram account where she currently has 72,400 followers. One of the great things that she does on her page is post videos of her working toward achieving a difficult pose. You can see her efforts paying off over several attempts, which further proves her dedication to the practice.
One thing she was nervous to try was acro yoga, because it relies on someone else holding your body weight, but just like every other yoga challenge she’s faced, she met it head on, and here’s the result.
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Now, she’s working toward becoming a yoga teacher, and started a GoFundMe page so she can afford the tuition for a teaching workshop. She states on the page, “My practice is my own but I want to be able to help and inspire others as a teacher. To help encourage the people who never thought they could try yoga because they believed they had to look a certain way in society’s view.”
Sagun has already been an inspiration to so many just through her beautiful yoga pictures. Imagine how helpful she could be as a teacher to students who might think they’re incapable of achieving such goals because of their body type or size.
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