Benefits Of Yoga
Why do yoga?
The body is actually an energy system with close interplay between breathing, heart beat and brain function. Yoga provides a useful maintenance service for this system.
List of Benefits that people experience performing yoga:
Lengthening of muscles, creating fluidity and ease of movement
Strengthening of muscles, creating muscle mass and physical power,stamina
Increased balance creating agility and confidence in movement
Improved posture through spinal alignment
Clarity of mind
Improved respiration, circulation, elimination, detoxification, cellular regeneration
Deep feelings of well being, joy, bliss, personal power, peace, gratitude, personal freedom.
Profound sense of integrity
Mental clarity
Ability to stay focused on a singular thought or goalDaily yoga & meditation
Yoga can help control and sometimes reverse a range of physical problems, including:
Chest pain (angina pectoris)
Cardiac problems
Neuropathy
Hypertension
High cholesterol
Chemotherapy side effects
Meditation Improves Health, Slows Aging
Yoga helps build awareness of your body's posture, alignment and patterns of movement while also providing much needed relaxation techniques.
Practicing Yoga regularly as part of a balanced lifestyle can enable you to experience many of the following benefits:
• Improved muscle and connective tissue flexibility and increased
range of motion in your joints
• An increase in cardiovascular efficiency and endurance
• Decrease in blood pressure
• Improvement of posture
• Weight normalization
• Improved balance
• A decrease in general and specific stress through relaxation
Yoga can have physiological and psychological benefits. It has been shown to improve the lives of asthma sufferers by preventing attacks without the use of medicines. It can help respiratory problems by teaching people how to control their breathing. It can lower blood pressure, improve lung efficiency and lower heart rates. Other conditions, which can be improved through the use of yoga, include chronic fatigue, varicose veins, diabetes and digestive disorders.
The aging process can also be slowed through the use of yoga. Aging is the result of autointoxication. Keeping the body clean, flexible and well lubricated reduces this cell deterioration. Weight reduction is another area where yoga can help. Yoga stimulates sluggish glands. Positions focusing on the thyroid gland can have a positive effect on body metabolism.
There are also many psychological benefits produced by yoga also. It has been known to help with obsessive-compulsive disorders. It reduces stress,
anxiety, depression and tension. It increases a feeling of well-being. Most people will experience a positive outlook on life and feel invigorated. They
will have higher energy levels and will have a better knowledge of themselves and be more self-aware. Improved memory, attention and concentration, as well as, social skills and self-acceptance are also benefits of this exercise.
Biochemical benefits are lower sugar levels, lower cholesterol levels, lower sodium levels, hemoglobin increases and vitamin C level increases.
One of the biggest benefits of Yoga is the neuromuscular repatterning which affects the way that we move ourselves. For example, someone who works
in an office may get a lot of tension in their neck and shoulders from sitting for long periods at the computer. By learning to retrain their posture they
can often relieve a lot of tension in the neck and the shoulders as well as tension headaches and other side effects that can come from chronic stress.
On a deeper physiological level, the practice of Yoga improves digestion and elimination. When you start to stretch and twist and bend and do all
these things that put pressure on the internal organs, digestion and the elimination processes improve. Another physiological benefit is that a lot of
people learn to breathe more optimally. Many people breathe in a way that isn't really natural or beneficial. There is lots of research about how improper breathing patterns will create a psychological state that tends towards anxiety, fear, and stress-type symptoms as well as not giving your body as much oxygen per breath, which has a big effect on the heart. When the body is not receiving enough oxygen, the heart speeds up to try to pump more blood.
The biggest benefit of all is learning how to deeply relax. There is hard scientific research that a great deal of our major illnesses like heart disease
are directly related to stress and are very responsive to learning to manage stress more efficiently. Hatha Yoga is really balanced in the sense that even
while you do vigorous postures, there is always an emphasis on relaxation and there is always a period at the end of each class when you deeply relax. The more skillful you get at learning to calm yourself down the more tools you have for managing stress in every day situations.
We must caution that no physical fitness program should be taken on without the knowledge and consent of your personal physician.
Working from the premise that “Life is breath, breath is life,” yoga places great emphasis on making the breathing deep, rhythmic and effective. The
principle here is that essential thoughts and messages are delivered more effectively when the body is relaxed and the brain is well-oxygenated, helping the body and mind to work more successfully while feeling less tired and less stressed.
Yoga breathing lowers blood pressure and brings intense relaxation. Of course, shallow breathing does not always cause unclear thinking or low spirits, but it has been medically linked with attacks of depression, mood swings and other various disorders.
Furthermore, improved appearance through better posture, muscle and skin-tone, follows the dedicated practice of yoga. Bones are strengthened and joints become more flexible. And, it can be amazing to see how much more flexible the body is and how much more positive one’s outlook becomes with just a few month’s of yoga practice.
If you are unable to locate a reputable yoga studio in your area, you may benefit from purchasing a DVD or video that allows you to practice yoga in yourhome. Keep in mind, many of these can be checked-out at your local library or even previewed over the Internet before purchasing.
Warning:
Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme cases, can cause death. While these stress management techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over stress-related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.
According to experts, yoga can definitely make you stronger.
Unlike traditional weight building exercises, in yoga your body provides the resistance. While you are not likely going to produce the bulked up muscles of some weight lifters, you will certainly increase your muscle strength. In addition, some balance postures require enormous muscle control in order to prevent you from falling over. This helps to build and strengthen your muscles. Aerobic exercise is great for burning calories, and strength training works very well for strengthening your muscle groups, but yoga goes far beyond either of those forms of exercise and can benefit you both physically and mentally.
In addition to all its other benefits, yoga can help you improve muscle fitness and make you actually feel and be stronger. Whether you choose to use it as your primary means of strength training or you want it to supplement your other exercises, yoga can help your muscles grow fit, balanced, and strong. In fact, many poses in yoga are done very slowly or you are required to stay in a specific posture during several breaths. In fact, those who have experienced it, support that it is much more challenging to your muscles to hold a pose or do it slowly than it is to allow momentum to move you through an action.
Furthermore, while in weight training, you isolate a specific muscle as you perform an exercise and this leads to a short, tightened muscles, the muscles you develop during exercising yoga are more likely to be elongated, because as you are strengthening them, you are simultaneously lengthening them.
Particularly, practicing yoga can help realign your muscles, so they are more balanced. You truly work your entire body when you practice yoga as you do
not focus on an isolated muscle, but actively recruit the smaller muscle groups as well. Finally, since you are not overworking any specific muscle group, you are less likely to get injured.
If you practice yoga, then you know that it allows the mind to work together with the body to promote healing and well-being. Yoga can do wonders for a body that is in good or bad shape.
These claims aren't unfounded, medical studies have shown yoga does indeed produce health benefits. After a yoga class, many will affirm the fact that they feel more energized, happier and more peaceful. How exactly does yoga produce these feelings and how can the body heal itself?
Yoga makes you more aware of your body, its movements and its alignment. It allows you to know and understand yourself better. Back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical attention. Yoga can cure and prevent back pain by enhancing strength and flexibility. It can also help people with arthritis by providing relief to aching joints and providing joint lubricants. In addition, it relieves tension in muscles.
Patanjali
