Yoga! 5 Astonishing Health Benefits You Need to Know About it
Are you the one tired of your round-the-clock tedious routine, looking for a bare minimum and low-impact workout that would help you both physically and mentally? Did you ever think of spending your leisure time in something that not only strengthens your body but helps connect your body and mind? Yoga is what you need!
Whether you’re a pro athlete, a couch potato, young, old, healthy, or in a wheelchair, yoga addresses you all. Fitness, flexibility, wealth, or size levels do not matter at all.
Yoga is a proven holistic health structure that not only targets your physical health but also improves your mental and emotional well-being and helps you grow inside out.
If you think the essence of yoga is just a few physical poses to stretch and strengthen your body, then you might not be aware of the astonishing benefits yoga holds. Let’s delve into these.
Improves Flexibility
Did you ever come across watching an online yoga class? Or have you ever been astonished by the unremarkable flexibility in yoga poses? If yes, this flexibility is not something they are naturally blessed with, it’s a result of consistent yoga practice. In 2016, in a survey conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance, two renowned yoga organizations, increased flexibility was the most quoted motive by people for opting for yoga.
Flexibility can be achieved by practicing poses such as seated forward bend and standing forward fold. Increased flexibility not only eases away body stiffness but lessens lower back, spinal and hip aches improving overall body alignment and posture, and also decreasing your risk of injuries.
Increases Strength
If you ever thought of lifting weights to strengthen your muscles, yoga can serve you the purpose without hitting the gym and sweating hard. All you need is a soft yoga mat, a small corner at your work, home, or outside, and any comfy clothes, and you’re good to go. Simple poses like chair, plank, bridge, boat, and warrior iii help strengthen your body core. Vinyasa helps build and strengthen muscles.
Poses based on the lunge movement help tone your lower body muscles(legs). If you are above the 50s, and suffering from bone weakness(osteoporosis), giving 12 minutes of your routine to yoga asana can remarkably improve your bone health.
Better Mental Health
In 2016, according to a survey in the United States, 42% of yoga respondents agreed with the statement that yoga boosts their personal well-being. If you are facing a lack of concentration issue, stress, or anxiety and are in dire need of mindfulness, then yoga is your ultimate call. You might wonder but since yoga connects mind and body together, it provides deep meditation, soothes your mind, allows compassion with mental clarity, centers concentration, and obviously more self-control.
All you have to do is to incorporate practices such as controlled deep breathing, stretching poses, and meditative techniques. Yoga could be practiced as a complementary medicine as after 12 consistent hatha yoga sessions, stress, and depression were significantly reduced in 52 women with an average age of 33.5. Regular yoga sessions reduce cortisol( your stress hormone), cultivating a dash of calmness.
Sound Sleep
Who wants not to take two pigeons with one bean? Practicing yoga not only relaxes your mind and body but prompts the release of more melatonin hormone that controls your sleep cycles and thus making it easier for you to fall asleep. Besides reducing stress, yoga Nidra was promising as an adjunct to manage chronic insomnia patients.
Boost Immunity
If your body’s immunity is compromised, you become more vulnerable to ailments. Yoga practice increases circulation in your body, allowing the removal of toxins from your body by increasing lymphatic drainage. Not only this, consistent yoga practices over the long term helps combat inflammation and allow to achieve cellular immunity in part as well.
Give it a Try
Practicing yoga keeps you fit from head to toe. It aids you to hold your child, do chores, pick up groceries, deal with chronic stress, ease your back pain, and joint or muscle injuries.
It not only strengthens the physical body but uplifts your mental health as well. In short, yoga promotes flexibility, strength, provides quality sleep, boosts immunity, and above all a stress reliever that improves your mental well-being. One of the outclass benefits of yoga isn’t physical, it’s mindfulness, giving you a pinch of calmness, a smidge of self-esteem, and a dash of positivity. That’s just amazing! Right?
