What are the benefits of yoga?

Yoga is known to be an ancient meditation practice. And now this is becoming popular not just of what yoga benefits can offer but this is for people who wants to pause for a while due to their hectic daily schedule. For others, doing yoga gives them retreat from their busy lives. Just by posing a minute in your yoga mat, at home or even at the park, gives you some time to reunite yourself.

The goal of yoga practice is basically to challenge yourself but not to feel you exhausted. The focus in your breathing while your mind is enjoying the relaxing effects. There’s more about yoga benefits and if you want to experience them, might as well get to know what you can expect from doing it.

Is yoga really for you?

You might wonder if doing it will really work for you. But knowing what mental and physical benefits it can provide you, then that is something to convince you right now to actually do it. Here’s what you can get from doing your yoga practice.

Gives You a Better Body Image

One of the benefits of yoga practice is developing one’s inner awareness. It helps you focus your attention on your body’s abilities at the present moment. At the same time, this helps you develop proper breathing and strengthen your mind and body. It is not actually about the physical appearance.

That is why, most of yoga studies do not have mirrors. This allows people to focus on the awareness inward rather than on the physical look or the people around them. People who are into yoga are more aware of their body.

They tend to be more satisfied rather than be insecure in their bodies. That is why, yoga had been an important part of treatment of eating disorders since this promote positive body image and enhance self-esteem.

Become Mindful on What You Eat

Since yoga help you stay focus on what you are doing yourself at the moment, then, it also helps you increase your mindfulness. This is especially true in being mindful of what you eat. Mindful eating as what described by some researchers suggest that this is a nonjudgmental awareness of the physical and emotional sensations while eating.

People who practiced yoga are more mindful eaters and more aware of how their body feels. This awareness can be done while savoring a bit of food or a sip of a drink.

Result to Weight Loss

For people who are mindful eaters are also more in tune with their bodies. This is one of yoga benefits that people can enjoy when they are in yoga practice. They tend to become more sensitive to hunger cues and the feeling of fullness. For people who continually practice yoga for at least a year can gain less weight and for those who are overweight actually lost an extra pounds.

Overall, those who do yoga had a lower body mass index (BMIs) compared to those who don’t. This is attributed to being mindful in eating since this can lead to more positive relationship with the food.

Enhance Fitness

Yoga also helps in soothing body tension and anxiety. It can also improve one’s exercise capacity. People who tend to do yoga at least 180 minutes twice a week have a greater chance of enhancing their muscle strength, endurance, cardio and flexibility.

Many studies found that yoga has a positive impact on the cardiovascular health. This can lower blood pressure in people who have hypertension. Yoga helps restores the baroreceptor sensitivity thus, it can detect any imbalances in the body to maintain its balance.

It another study, it shows that it can also improve the lipid profile in patients who have coronary artery disease as well for healthy people. It can also lower the blood sugar levels in people with diabetes, thus reducing their need for medications. This is the very reason why yoga is included in cardiac rehabilitation therapy because of its stress relieving and cardiovascular benefits. Health professionals are also checking if yoga can help people with arthritis and depression.

With these health benefits you can get from yoga, it just simply answers your question if yoga is good for you. Definitely it is! And before you start with yoga exercise, be sure to check with your doctor. If you want to know more about yoga, visit our page today and we are here to guide you through your fitness journey with yoga practice.

Top 10 Reasons to Try Yoga

1. Stress relief:

Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body including the the stress hormone Cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure, and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing the symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue asthma and insomnia.

2. Pain Relief:

Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduce pain for the people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune disease and hypertension as well as arthritis, back pain and neck pain and other chronic conditions.

3. Better breathing:

Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.

4. Flexibility:

Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility,increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons, and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle pain.

5. Increased Strength:

Yoga Asana (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.

6. Weight Management:

Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid in weight control by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.

7. Improved Circulation:

Yoga helps to improve circulation and as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to body’s cells.

8. Cardiovascular Conditioning:

Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering the resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

9. Focus on the Present:

Yoga helps to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way up to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.

10. Inner Peace:

the meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason that yoga has become as essential part of their daily lives.