What Are the Benefits of Yoga?
Yoga, a discipline for physical, mental, and spiritual health, has been in vogue for centuries. Yoga spread to different parts of the world in the 20th century and is now considered to be a trendy way to work on physical and mental fitness. Yoga offers a number of benefits for each person such as flexibility, weight loss, beautiful skin, luxurious hair, peaceful mind, good health, and many others. In most of the training classes, yoga is limited to the learning of different poses called ‘asanas’. But in reality yoga involves a number of other techniques that help in improving both mental and emotional capacity, not to mention the different relaxation methods like breathing techniques and meditation.
Here are some of the benefits offered by yoga:
- Asanas or yoga poses, such as the pigeon pose, aim at safely stretching the muscles and help in relieving tension, stiffness, and pain in the muscles. Stretching in yoga releases the accumulated lactic acid from muscles that cause stiffness and pain. It also increases the flexibility and range of movements in the joints. Soft tissues like tendons and ligaments are also stretched using movements that can be performed by people of any age group. The most attractive aspect of yoga is that one can feel the changes within a short period after starting yoga practice.
- One of the types of yoga called power yoga aims at improving the musculature of the body. It provides strength and endurance to the muscles. Different physical poses helps to improve strength of a different muscle including quadriceps, abdominal muscles, and hamstring. As the strength and flexibility of the muscles are improved, it automatically improves the posture of the person.
- Breathing techniques practiced in yoga improves a person's lung capacity. Most yoga techniques stress deep and long breathing, helping the person to relax. It tends to reduce stress and keeps the mind calm when practiced properly.
- Practicing yoga seems to improve the ability to concentrate and focus. It also lifts moods.
- One of the most widely known health benefits of yoga is the reduction of blood pressure and heart rate. Yoga is also associated with reduced levels of cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
- The benefits of yoga in controlling other medical conditions are being studied. It is presently being used as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of clinical depression and heart disease. Yoga is found to be helpful in relieving symptoms of other diseases like asthma, back pain, and arthritis.
