Fitness isn’t just about being physically strong and resilient. Fitness entails physical, mental, and spiritual strength. There are very few practices that allow you to be fit in all these aspects to the extent that yoga does.
Yoga is an ancient Indian practice that sages have followed for millennia. There is much more to yoga than mere meditation. While meditation does make you calmer and more mentally resilient, yoga asanas or postures help you with the physical aspect of things.
Let us look at some of the significant health benefits of yoga.
Improved Posture
If you work in a corporate setup, especially in a job that requires you to work on computers all day long, you will probably develop a lousy posture unless you do something about it. A bad posture can be a pathway to many other diseases and issues associated with the spine and back.
Several yoga asanas will help you develop a better posture. Even the generic meditation posture is really effective in alleviating back issues.
Better Flexibility
Perhaps the most advertised benefit of yoga is improved flexibility. A more flexible body isn’t just essential for athletes and those involved in more physically taxing vocations. Flexibility is a sign of fitness and a symbol of the resilience of your body.
Yoga asanas require different levels of flexibility. As you continue to do yoga over months and are able to do newer, more challenging asanas, your flexibility is bound to increase, and your core body is strengthened.
Muscle Strength
Regardless of the stage of life you are in and the vocation you are involved in, muscle strength is essential. Muscle strength is a sign of physical fitness and a reduced body fat percentage. This can be ensured through a good diet and exercise.
Yoga can aid you in improving your muscle strength. As your body starts getting used to regular yoga asanas, it starts strengthening its muscles to cope with the progression in their difficulty. This helps you get leaner and develop a more substantial body.
Improved Metabolism
Your metabolic rate is the rate at which you expend energy per unit of time at rest. A reduced metabolic rate can mean the development of excess fat deposits since calories do not get burned fast enough. Your metabolic rate needs to be on the higher side for a leaner body.
An improved metabolic rate is one of the indirect benefits of yoga. Doing yoga motivates you to eat healthier foods to cope with the increased energy requirements of your body. Eating healthy further improves your metabolism and helps make you leaner.
Weight Loss
Among the significant reasons that people start doing yoga is weight loss. However, to truly realize drastic weight loss, you need to do yoga daily.
Several yoga asanas actively encourage weight loss. As you progress toward more challenging asanas, the speed of weight loss will also increase. Weight loss is also inspired by the increased metabolic rate that yoga leads to.
Increased Blood Flow
Increased blood flow is excellent for your body. It doesn’t just ensure that your body stays nourished and fit but also hedges against all types of heart diseases. All kinds of exercise increase the blood flow in your body.
Most yoga asanas focus on stressing a single part of your body and increasing blood flow. Through different asanas, you can ensure that your entire body receives and increased blood flow. This also helps against excessive fat deposition and keeps your muscles fit.
Reduced Disease Occurrence
Yoga isn’t just about contorting your body through asanas. There are also breathing exercises called pranayamas that any guru who has gone through yoga teacher training online or offline will teach you. These breathing exercises are beneficial in fighting and preventing several different diseases.
As a whole, the practice of yoga keeps your body fit and in a healthy condition, reducing fat deposits and keeping vitals such as blood sugar and cholesterol in check. It also increases your metabolic rate and makes you eat healthily. Put together, all of these activities lead to reduced occurrence of disease.
Increased Confidence
Any type of exercise makes you feel good about yourself and helps you exude positive energy throughout the day. Yoga is not different and has the added edge that you will always be able to do certain asanas regardless of your age or physicality. This develops in you the confidence and hopes that you will be physically fit and free of health issues.
Increased confidence can do wonders for your health – especially your mental health. A sound body and a sound mind go together, and yoga is a great way of ensuring both.
Improved Lung Function
As mentioned above, a major part of yoga is breathing exercises known as pranayamas. These exercises lead to a fresh infusion of essential oxygen in your body, especially if done outdoors. This is why it is always recommended that yoga be done outdoors – indoor air can be stale and have a reduced oxygen content.
Breathing exercises increase your lung capacity and help in fighting lung diseases such as asthma. They also improve your breathing capacity and help your heart cope with adverse events better.
Better Sleep
There are several jobs that can be really taxing both physically and mentally, leading to a lot of stress in your daily life. No amount of stress is good for you, and mental difficulties can quickly translate into physical issues such as hypertension. All these issues put together can lead to adverse changes in your sleep pattern.
Yoga can help you sleep better through improved physical and mental health. Yoga requires energy that is built through the right amount of sleep. Sleeping well also improves your mental faculties and helps you stay positive throughout the day.
Conclusion
Yoga has been getting more excellent traction throughout the world over the last decade or so. More people have been opting to learn yoga and even teach yoga through online yoga teacher training. This is primarily due to the wide recognition that the health benefits of yoga have received.
To live a life equipped with a healthy body and a healthy mind, yoga is just the right way to exercise for you. Try it today and feel the change!