Yoga Benefits

Yoga builds energy, stamina and flexibility. It incorporates strength, challenge, gravity, balance, and most importantly the tourniquet effect. Yoga technique allows the stretching, squeezing and massaging of the internal organs, flushing out the cardiovascular system and stimulating the endocrine and nervous systems in order to release any deficient hormones and enzymes. The body is self-regulating and self adjusting. The self-regulation of the body systems and mind also has many other benefits that include weight loss, balancing of addictions and stress reduction.

What Are the Health Benefits of Yoga?

You’ve probably heard that yoga is good for you. Maybe you have even tried yoga and discovered that it makes you feel better. But what are the specific health benefits can you expect to enjoy from doing yoga regularly?

Physical Benefits

Flexibility: Stretching your tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, you can expect to gain flexibility in your hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips.

Strength: Many yoga poses require you to support the weight of your own body in new ways, including balancing on one leg (such as in Balancing stick pose) or supporting yourself with your core (such as in Triangle). Some exercises require you to move slowly in and out of poses, which also increases strength.

Muscle tone: As a by-product of getting stronger, you can expect to see increased muscle tone. Yoga helps shape long, lean muscles.

Pain Prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the causes of some types of back pain. Many people who suffer from back pain spend a lot of time sitting at a computer or driving a car. That can cause tightness and spinal compression, which you can begin to address with yoga. Yoga also improves your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.

Better Breathing: Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don’t give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Mental Benefits

Mental Calmness: Yoga practice is intensely physical. True, concentrating so intently on what your body is doing  may have the effect of bringing a calmness. We strictly practice Yoga – no incenses, candles, or other non-exercise activities. Exercise. Thats all.

Stress Reduction: Physical activity is good for relieving stress. Yoga can also help relieve stress. You will leave a yoga class feeling less stressed than when you started.

Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.