Yoga is a physical, spiritual, and mental practice that has been growing popular since ages. With time, people have started understanding the immense health benefits of yoga. With yoga, you can not only burn extra calories but also strengthen your muscles and relax your mind and body.
Some yoga poses are for relaxation, whereas in some, you move your body more. Most of the asanas focus on breathing.
Yoga for flexibility
Yoga poses work by stretching muscles. Practising yoga makes the muscles flexible, which in turn helps you move better and feel less tired. At any of the levels of yoga, you will probably start to observe the benefits soon. Several studies proved that yoga improved the flexibility of up to 35% after people practised yoga for 8 weeks or more.
Practice a pose for strength
Some of the yoga styles, like power yoga and ashtanga, are physical. Practising any of these styles help in improving the muscle tone. However, even less vigorous styles of yoga, like Hatha or Iyengar can offer strength and endurance advantages.
Most of the poses, like downward dog, upward dog, and the plank pose, is great for building the upper-body strength. The standing poses, mainly if you hold it for long breaths, helps in building strength in hamstrings, abs, and quadriceps. If you want to strengthen the lower back then, you must practise the chair and upward dog pose. When done in the right way, mostly all yoga poses help in building core strength mainly in the deep abdominal area.
Yoga for weight loss
If you are trying hard to lose weight then, practising Kapal Bhati and Sun salutation pranayama can be very beneficial. In addition, by practising yoga daily, we tend to become more sensitive to our body and its demands. This, in turn, allows us to keep a check on the food we eat and our body weight.
Get a better posture from Yoga
When you are flexible and stronger, your posture automatically improves. Most of the sitting and standing poses are beneficial in developing core strength. With a strong posture, you will be more likely to sit and stand straight.
Yoga is also helpful for body awareness. This helps you notice fast if you are falling or lounging, so you can adjust your posture accordingly.
Yoga for immunity
The human system is a blend of mind, body, and spirit. Any kind of irregularity in the body affects the mind and the same way, any kind of restlessness in one’s mind can cause illness in the body. Yoga poses help in strengthening the organs and muscles while breathing. Practising meditation helps in releasing stress and at the same time improves immunity too.
Breathing benefits with Yoga
Usually, Yoga involves paying attention to breathing, which makes one feel relaxed. However, yoga typically is not aerobic, like cycling or running, unless it is an intense kind of yoga or you are practising it in a heated surrounding.
Beneficial for the Heart
Yoga has been popular for ages to lower blood pressure and slow the heart rate. A slower heart rate can help people suffering from heart disease or high blood pressure, and people who had a stroke. Yoga can also lower the cholesterol and triglyceride level and enhance one’s immune system.