Yoga helps us maintain a balance of all three, the physical, mental and the spiritual being unlike other forms of
[the_ad id=”6153″]exercises which only focus on the physical wellness of the body. The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word yuj which means ‘to unite’. It’s a way of living that aims towards a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Yoga is for Everyone
The biggest advantage of yoga is that it tends to offer open arms. You can join a yoga studio and you shouldn’t be surprised to see teens, middle-aged mothers, elders and body-builders taking up the lessons. Your age doesn’t matter and everyone can benefit from yoga.
Yoga Improves Sleep
Our sleeping usually takes a backseat when we are running between appointments and meetings and this unfortunately has become a routine By transitioning to a balanced diet, doing routine exercises and reducing use of electronics, we can improve our sleeping patterns. Yoga is the ideal form of exercise as the poses or the ‘Asanas’ challenge you physically and the meditative side helps to relax and de-stress. Hence, this combination makes it easier for us to wander to sleep at night.
Helps Reduce Blood Pressure
Yoga can be very helpful for controlling and lowering the blood pressure naturally. The gentle, calming practice of yoga balances both the mind and the body and reduces stress, which is a leading cause of hypertension too.
If you choose the right yoga poses, it can help to regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the rest and repair response. This allows the nervous system to become more balanced which in turn helps you to free up the body’s inherent healing response. By doing this, you allow your body to reduce blood pressure naturally.
Increases Blood Flow
Poor blood circulation is a reason for lack of stamina, short breath and poses a major risk for diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and might even lead to heart attack in extreme cases.
The pumping action of the heart is responsible for providing oxygenated blood to every cell of the body and the de-oxygenated blood which is full of waste is brought back to the heart for oxygenation. Hence proper blood circulation among the heart and blood vessels is important for our body to function well. So, the stronger is our heart, the healthier is our body.
Various breathing techniques and the asanas regulate the flow of blood to and from the various parts of the body which contributes substantially to the overall health.
Helps in Weight Loss
Yoga is not directly related to “weight loss” because it depends on a lot of factors. Yoga will definitely help to regulate and strengthen the abdominal muscles which in turn improves the digestive system and relieves the body of the various stomach ailments.
Instead of converting the food into fat, your body is able to synthesize it to energy properly. Regular practice of proper yoga asanas helps your body churn that extra fat and reduce weight in the process. Yoga rejuvenates the system and it brings a sense of avoiding over-eating too. Hence you eat what you need and that too in proper amounts only. So, in place of controlling what you eat, you control how you eat.
Yoga improves Body Flexibility
With our stagnant lives, our body becomes inflexible and the joints rigid. And this only worsens with time which later to even bigger problems. You must know that yoga and flexibility go hand in hand. And for the sake of general fitness, you should do stretching. Yoga stretches not only the muscles but also the various joints of the body.
It helps to prevent muscle soreness and loosens up the tight muscles which often trap lactic acid. Lactic acid is responsible for the fatigue of our body but by yogic stretching, you can release the lactic acid from the cells so that it doesn’t hinder with the body functioning.
Yoga Strengthen Bones
Yoga is no doubt rejuvenating for both, the mind and the body. It also helps to make our bones stronger and healthier. By following yogic routines regularly, the bone density increases which is a common issue among women and older people.
There are three main reasons as to why yoga is beneficial for your bones:
- It’s Weight Bearing: The various standing and balancing poses in yoga put mild stress on the bones that encourages them to strengthen.
- It’s Isometric: Yoga is done in a static position, and it forces you to use the strength of your muscles over the bones, thus making them thicker, stronger.
- It’s Low Impact: Unlike other rigorous activities, yoga is gentle on joints and cartilage, making it appropriate for all age groups and sexes.
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