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Yoga is absolutely amazing for your mind, body, and spirit.
The various asanas involved in Yoga help you to transform into a better self.
You achieve self-actualization through different, controlled breathing exercises, stretching, and meditation.
Yoga can help you change, even enhance, your physical and mental capacity, while preparing your body and mind for long-term health.
Yoga doesn’t take a heavy toll on your body. Through Yoga, you focus on increasing your capabilities gradually, slowly, and steadily over time. Even when trying to perfect an asana, you go through different stages.
For example, you may be unable to touch your toes in the forward-bend pose on the very first day. But, you get closer to touching it by at least a centimeter if not an inch, every day.
That’s the beauty of Yoga.
Instead of forcing you to do something now, it relies on your body’s own capabilities to achieve the goal progressively through consistent practice.
The Benefits Of Doing Yoga
Yoga does have several physical and mental health benefits.
Do you want to know the instant and long-term physical benefits that you can expect by practicing Yoga?
Read on to find out.
1. Enhanced flexibility
The different yoga poses may look difficult at first, but over time, they’ll become easy for you.
It comes as a result of your muscles and overall body relaxing and loosening up.
Most body aches are caused due to tight muscles and inflexibility.
Stiffness also causes poor posture.
However, regularly practicing yoga can bring relief to various body aches and pains.
2. Increased muscle strength
Strong muscles offer protection from conditions like arthritis and back pain and yoga aims at building this strength from within.
It’s not limited to heavy lifting at the gym, which causes even more stiffness in your body.
Yoga balances strength with flexibility in the muscles helping you achieve healthy strength.
3. Correction of Posture
It’s a fact that when the head is balanced over an erect spine, the neck and back muscles experience much less strain than compared to when it’s tilted or moved a few inches away from the spine.
Besides, fatigue isn’t the only issue.
Poor posture also causes neck, back, and various other muscles and joint problems. If not corrected these poor postures can also cause degenerative arthritis of the spine.
Yoga with its various asanas ensures that every bone and muscle in your body is stretched to its maximum capacity in the right way.
It helps you get the movement you need that you otherwise can’t achieve through your day-to-day activities.
My favorite yoga instructor to follow is Yoga with Adriene.
4. Prevention of cartilage and joint breakdown
Since joint cartilages only receive nutrients when the fluid is squeezed out and soaked by them, without proper sustenance, areas that aren’t used as often might wear out.
This exposes the bone and makes it susceptible to various joint problems.
Yoga practice ensures that every joint achieves its full range of motion.
It helps prevent diseases, such as arthritis, by applying pressure to the areas of cartilage that you normally wouldn’t use.
5. Protection of the spine
What many fail to realize is that like any other bone or muscle in the human body, spinal disks also crave movement.
In fact, these shock absorbers between the vertebrae can only get their nutrition through movement.
Having a well-balanced yoga routine with asanas of poses like backbends, forward bends, and other twists can help keep disks supple.
6. Improved bone health
It’s a known fact that weight-bearing exercises can strengthen bones and ward off osteoporosis and yoga has many postures that require one to lift their own weight.
Asanas or postures like downward and upward dog strengthen arm bones, which are on top of the list of bones most susceptible to osteoporotic fracture.
Some unpublished studies even suggest that yoga practice might increase the bone density in the vertebrae.
It’s also said that yoga can lower the levels of the stress hormone called cortisol which might help keep the calcium in the bones.
7. Increased blood flow
Yoga greatly improves blood circulation in our bodies, especially, in relaxation postures.
The various twisting poses are said to wring out venous blood from internal organs and enable the greater flow of oxygenated blood.
Inverted poses draw the venous blood from the legs and pelvis back to the heart so that it can be sent to the lungs to get oxygenated.
Poses like the handstand, shoulder stand, and headstand can help with the swelling in legs caused by certain kidney or heart problems.
The regular practice of yoga boosts hemoglobin and red blood cell levels. It thins the blood by reducing the stickiness of platelets.
Yoga also reduces the level of clot-promoting proteins in our blood, which in turn helps in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.
8. Better immunity
Lymph is a viscous fluid found in our immune cells. It helps the lymphatic system to protect us from infections, destroys cancerous cells, and gets rid of toxic waste and other unhealthy bi-products of cellular functions.
Studies show that when the muscles contract and stretch while you come in and out of yoga postures, the movement/activity increases the drainage of lymph in your body.
Consequently, it strengthens your immune system and keeps many communicable diseases at bay.
9. Improved heart rate
Maintaining your heart rate in the aerobic range regularly lowers the risk of a heart attack and can also relieve depression. And while not every asana or pose is aerobic, if done vigorously it can boost the heart rate into the aerobic region.
For example, Ashtanga Yoga is a type of yoga that focuses primarily on aerobic exercises.
Moreover, yoga exercises that don’t affect your heart rate can still have a great impact on your cardiovascular system.
Different studies have stated that regular yoga practice lowers your resting heart rate, improves your endurance level, and increases the maximum uptake of oxygen during exercises- which are all results of good cardiovascular conditioning.
Another study found subjects who were simply taught pranayama were able to perform more exercises with lower oxygen intake.
10. Lower blood pressure
Yoga is highly beneficial to people with high blood pressure, and recent research verifies it.
Two studies published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, compared the effects of Savasana (the corpse pose) to lying on a couch on people with hypertension.
After a period of only three months, it was observed Savasana brought a 26-point drop in the systolic blood pressure and a 15-point drop in diastolic pressure.
Final Thoughts
As you can see there are so many amazing physical benefits of yoga.
It is time to lay down your mat, sit down with your legs crossed, straighten your back, join your palms, and chant Om.
Do you practice yoga? How has it benefited you?
Michelle Gagliani
Owner & Founder
Michelle is the Founder of The Balanced CEO and a Holistic Nutritionist + Health Coach. She was born and raised in St.Thomas, U.S.V.I., and is currently living in Austin, TX. When she’s not running this blog and online business, she is cozied up at home watching TV, taking long walks in nature, or trying out new healthy recipes.
YES to all of this!! I used to do yoga at an old gym that I went to, and I always felt better once I was done. My husband has kept up with yoga better than I have, because he has such a bad back with 2 prior back surgeries. This is really great! Thank you for writing this.
Thank you for reading Hillari!! I hope your husband feels better soon! ā¤ļøļø
I was due to start yoga at the gym when everything shut down. I actually found yoga workouts on demand on my TV and can now do yoga in my living room. It’s not as easy as people make it look, but I’m determined because I know it will be do me some good.
I agree Laura!! It can be hard. I feel like sometimes I sweat more with yoga than an cardio workout. But, I am glad you were able to find some yoga workouts online and your determination. You got this š
Thanks Laura! I am going to look!
I have several physical limitations that I always thought limited my ability to do yoga. I now feel that I can do a modified version and get the benefits too!
Hey Diane! I understand…definitely talk to a doctor and have them help you create a modified version and just take it easy…one day at a time. š
Flexibility is so important! Thanks for the tips!
Sure is! Thanks for reading Tricia! š
I love the way I feel after I do yoga, both mentally and physically. It’s such a great way to keep your body strong and limber and healthy.
Awesome! I agree with you Kirsten!
This is so informative! Had no idea all of these benefits were available thru yoga.
Glad it helped Debbie. Thanks for reading š
I have been very into yoga since college and I can say from first hand experience that I 100% feel all of these benefits of yoga. I look forward to it every day and I always feel great after.
Wow, that is awesome Eva! It is such a great feeling!
I use to do Yoga but I find I am a ADD exerciser. It is hard for me to relax and stretch.
My hubby is the same way! It was hard for me at first too but I just tried to train my mind and I got better overtime.
I love doing yoga..I always feel so much healthier when I stay on a consistent program!
YES! That is great Holly! Consistency is the key!
I’ve never tried yoga. I’ve done a little bit of pilates, but never yoga. I never knew how beneficial yoga was for you. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to look for some yoga videos to try with my kids. I know they would enjoy it and now I know that they’ll benefit from it too.
Youtube has great videos for adults and kids! I hope your kids and you enjoy it whenever you try it together. Thanks for reading Sara!
This confirms that I really need to convert my spare room into a yoga room!
Yay! That is exciting Kendra!
All of these are great. I have been impressed by the amount of muscle strength and tone one can get through yoga!
It’s so cool isn’t it Lee Anne? Love Yoga. Thanks for reading!
I love* doing yoga. I started about a year ago, and the difference it’s made in my mood and fitness is incredible. Thanks for including all the extra benefits in here–I enjoyed your well-done research about them!
Glad yoga helps you both physically and mentally Carrie! Thanks for reading! š
We tried yoga in high school once. I was terrible! Holding yourself up that long really is a chore. I need to get in better shape!????
LOL! It does take some getting used to. But, so worth it!
This is great! Very informative. I have been thinking I may like to try Yoga, I just haven’t taken the step to do it. You have listed some very good reasons why I need to start. Thanks for sharing!
Good luck with trying it Shirley…you won’t regret it! Thanks for checking out my post! š
Yoga is the best. I have been going to the mat for almost 30 years. Thanks for sharing.
That is a long time. So awesome Sandi! Thanks for sharing as well.
Love how I feel after yoga stretching – so refreshing!
It sure is Tiffany š
I need to start doing yoga asap. My body has been feeling so crummy since quarantine started.
I understand that! Yoga would definitely help you both physically and mentally especially during these times.
I did hot yoga for a while and loved it. The classes were just too early in the morning, and unfortunately the timing was such that the others didn’t work for me. I would go back to hot yoga, it was torturously amazing!
I’ve been wanting to try hot yoga but I love how describe it “torturously amazing” ????
I benefit from yoga when I do it consistently! I really need to make it a daily practice.
Yes! Consistency is key. I used to have the same problem too. Thanks for reading Cindy.
I love yoga! I use it to keep in shape for hiking.
That is awesome Pauline!
I’ve known for a long time that I need to do yoga. You are rightI have too many excuses why I haven’t. What do I need to do to get me start…
Hey Ruth! I always suggest with anything in life to start slowly so you don’t get too overwhelmed. Hop on Youtube or download app and try with 15-20 minutes a day then work from there. Maybe when quarantine is over you can join a yoga class. But, the main thing to do is to just start! You will be happy you did and your body would be too!