Yoga, the practice that constantly challenges yet calms, is much more of an immersive experience when set in a beautiful space. Ocean Beach Yoga delivers in spades with its inspired location nestled above the tree-covered dunes that roll from the studio to the shores of Sorrento ocean beach.

There is a perception that Yoga is intimidating when you start out. Maggie Carr, studio owner and senior teacher, goes to great lengths to emphasise that it doesn’t matter your age, skill level, or level of fitness. Today is the perfect time to begin your yoga journey at Ocean Beach Yoga – a safe space for new and experienced students. From our experience, special attention is paid to learning alignment principles so students can practice safely.

If you want to supplement your other fitness or sporting activities with Yoga, keep this in mind. Yoga practice is preventative to injury, enhances muscle function and combats stress – three critical components to aid your daily routine.

From personal experience, Yoga goes beyond strengthening and toning muscles – it relaxes you. We feel rejuvenated when we leave a yoga class with more energy and less stress. Yoga is an excellent cross-training routine for all ages, not just athletes.

Maggie was first introduced to Yoga in the late 1990s. It began as something she did a couple of times a week at the local gym, but in 2000, Maggie truly found Yoga – or rather, Yoga found her. After being involved in a sailing accident that saw her lose the fingers on her dominant left hand, Maggie embarked on a journey to heal her hand, head, and heart. Daily yoga practice became an essential part of her life.

Maggie initially began teaching the Bikram Method in 2005. She owned two well known hot yoga studios in Melbourne for more than a decade before being drawn to the ocean and the beautiful Mornington Peninsula in 2016. Her travels have involved studying Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga in India, plus training in Yin and Restorative Yoga, myofascial release and mindfulness meditation.

There are many types of Yoga, from gentle, to Vinyasa Flow or Slow Flow or Yin, to name a few, and Ocean Beach Yoga caters to all.

Football and soccer players of the Mornington Peninsula, take note. Yoga’s ability to help with balance and core strength while building stamina and endurance is proven. Today, many athletes have a trend to incorporate Yoga into their training. Yoga can help you achieve better stability and help work hamstrings, groin, quads, calves, glutes, lower back, neck, sides, and core.

Another well-supported sport in the Mornington Peninsula is Basketball. Players need to be agile, flexible and coordinated to avoid injury. As a basketballer, you can benefit from adding in a weekly yoga practice to improve your agility, flexibility, speed, strength, body fat, shooting, passing and dribbling ability.

At the end of the day, you don’t even need to be playing a sport; you might just love a walk, spending time in the garden or enjoying a social round of golf. Yoga is a preventative activity that helps to alleviate tightness. We all benefit from stretching but let’s face it, who does? We just don’t have the discipline to do so, and that’s where Maggie and her team come into their own.

Finally, it’s important to highlight that Yoga isn’t just a physical practice. It’s a mental practice, and you gain cognitive benefits through meditation conducted during a lesson. Many of us struggle with stress these days – overstimulated by information overload, life in general, sport and balancing work and personal lives. Yoga helps with slowing down your breathing, which increases the flow of oxygen to your brain. The breathing centres the mind; the Yoga poses help centre your body – a win-win (mind-body) workout that relaxes your nervous system. Regular yoga practice allows you to improve mindfulness or the act of slowing down racing thoughts and finding stillness.

Maggie Carr believes that the days you practice Yoga are simply better days, and we wholeheartedly agree with her. It’s well worth the hike from far and wide to experience this superlatively contemporary studio above the trees that’s a stone’s throw from the ocean. If you live nearby, count yourself lucky. If you’re in town or other parts of the Peninsula, our tip would be to try to incorporate a visit here at least once a month or when you holiday here. As always, book in advance as this studio is well supported by the local community.