What Are The Benefits Of Yoga?

Yoga is renowned for its ability to unite the body, mind, and spirit, which is related to the belief that both mind and body are one, and that bodies are able to reach perfect harmony enabling them to heal themselves.

There are now almost 6 million Americans who are believed to have experienced the benefits of yoga firsthand. Awareness of the body is assisted through the practice of yoga, improving a person’s posture, their movement, and their alignment. Through the regular practice of yoga, people become centered and relaxed, less stressed, have more energy, and feel more peaceful, healthier and happier.

The start of a class usually consists of breathing and stretching, which aids participants in preparing mentally as well as physically. During most classes, the asanas are performed either as individual poses, or linked together in vinyasana. The class usually ends by a period of relaxation and meditation in shavasana (corpse pose).

Yoga comes in many different forms. These different types of produce different benefits in the body. Iyengar is excellent for promoting correct bodily alignment, and may utilize tools such as cushions, blocks, and straps. Yoga performed in a hot room is known as Bikram. It is made up of a set of 26 asanas which are performed in a particular order. Both of these are forms of Hatha yoga which is commonly practiced in the US for its physical strengthening and breathing.

What are the benefits of yoga for you? For starters, it promotes flexibility, and improves both circulation and muscle strength. It’s benefits, however, are more than physical, as it also helps promote relaxation and calmness. It is designed to balance a person’s life, with respect to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

While it has been practiced for thousands of years, more recently it’s also been the subject of scientific studies. Through these studies, modern medicine has demonstrated the practice of yoga to be beneficial. The health benefits of yoga have been studied, through both the asanas and pranayama (breathing). The result is that it benefits the body in three ways, physiological, psychological, and also biochemical.

As far as physiology is concerned, yoga is able to reduce the respiratory rate and pulse, it can lower blood pressure, improve cardiovascular activity, assist in the body’s excretory systems, aid in weight control, and effect a decrease in pain. Psychologically, yoga has been demonstrated to improve overall mood and feelings of well-being, it can decrease both anxiety and depression, improve the concentration, assist in learning, and even improve social skills and depth perception, as well as an overall increase in self acceptance. Biochemically, yoga has been shown to decrease blood glucose, sodium, both LDL and VLDL cholesterol, and increases HDL cholesterol and hemoglobin, and also creates a decrease in overall white blood cell count.

Yoga is a simple and profound practice which does more for people than other forms of exercise, and just a few yoga sessions a week are all a person needs to greatly increase their overall health and well-being.

Ana Paula Hernandez is a yoga instructor with more than twenty years experience. As a teacher, she is passionate about ensuring her students get the best grounding in yoga with correct yoga poses from the beginning.

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