If you’re a regular yoga practitioner, you’ve certainly found certain yoga advantages, such as more sleep, fewer colds, or just a more comfortable and at ease feeling.
If you’ve ever attempted to explain the advantages of yoga to a non-yogi, you could find that phrases like “it stimulates the flow of prana” or “it sends energy up your spine” fell on deaf or cynical ears.
10 Amazing Benefits of Doing Yoga:
1. Makes you more Adaptable:
One of the first and most noticeable advantages of yoga is increased versatility. You won’t be able to brush your toes, let alone do a backbend, in your first session. But if you persevere, you’ll experience a slow loosening of the muscles, and almost difficult poses will gradually become realistic. You’ll also also find that the aches and pains tend to fade. It’s not a coincidence. Since the thigh and shinbones are not aligned properly, tight hips will put pressure on the knee joint. Tight hamstrings can cause the lumbar spine to flatten, resulting in back pain. In addition, muscle and connective tissue inflexibility.
2. Strengthens Muscles:
Muscles that are well-developed do more than just look fine. They also help avoid accidents of the elderly and shield us from problems like asthma and back pain. And when you practise yoga, you combine strength with flexibility. You could gain strength at the cost of versatility if you only went to the gym and lifted weights.
3. It Improves the Posture:
Your head is big, round, and strong, like a bowling ball. It takes even less effort for the neck and back muscles to sustain it when it’s positioned directly over an upright spine. However, once you move it forward a few metres, those muscles begin to be strained. It’s no surprise you’re exhausted after eight to twelve hours of holding the forward-leaning bowling ball. And it’s possible that exhaustion isn’t your only issue. Back, spine, and other muscle and joint injuries can all be caused by poor posture. Your body may compensate for your slump by flattening the natural inward curves in your neck and lower back. This will result in back pain and degenerative arthritis.
4. Protects Cartilage and Joints from Deterioration:
You put your joints to their maximum range of motion every time you practise yoga. By “squeezing and soaking” patches of cartilage that aren’t used, this will help avoid degenerative arthritis and reduce disability. Joint cartilage functions similarly to a sponge, receiving new nutrients only after the fluid is drained and a new supply can be absorbed. Neglected regions of cartilage, including worn-out brake pads, will gradually wear out and expose the underlying bone if not properly cared for.
5. It Safeguards your Spine:
The shock absorbers between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves, known as spinal discs, crave movement. That is their only source of nutrition. Your discs can stay supple if you have a well-balanced asana practise with lots of backbends, forward bends, and twists.
6. Improves Bone Health:
Weight-bearing activity is well known for strengthening bones and preventing osteoporosis. Many yoga postures require you to lift your own weight. Some exercises, such as Downward- and Upward-Facing Dog, often serve to stabilise the arm bones, which are especially susceptible to osteoporotic fractures. Yoga exercise improved bone density in the vertebrae in an unpublished report undertaken at California State University, Los Angeles. Yoga’s ability to reduce cortisol levels can aid calcium absorption in the bones.
7. It Improves the Blood Circulation:
Yoga is a great way to keep the blood pumping. Yoga’s calming exercises, in particular, will improve your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also increases the amount of oxygen in the cells, allowing them to act more effectively. Twisting poses are believed to wring venous blood out of internal organs, allowing oxygenated blood to flood in after the twist is released. Inverted poses like Headstand, Handstand, and Shoulder stand allow venous blood to return from the legs and pelvis to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs and oxygenated. If you have swelling in your legs due to cardiac or kidney issues, this will improve.
8. It Flushes your Lymph Nodes and Increases your Immunity:
You improve lymph drainage by contracting and stretching muscles, moving organs about, and coming in and out of yoga postures (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This aids the lymphatic system in fighting bacteria, destroying cancerous cells, and removing radioactive waste products from cellular activity.
9. It Raises the Heart Rate:
You will reduce the risk of heart disease and alleviate pain by getting the heart rate into the aerobic zone on a daily basis. Although not all yoga is aerobic, doing it vigorously or taking flow or Ashtanga lessons will raise the heart rate into the aerobic zone. Even yoga workouts that don’t raise your heart rate that much will help you boost your cardiovascular fitness. Yoga practice has been shown to reduce resting heart rate, increase stamina, and enhance maximal oxygen intake during exercise, both of which are signs of increased aerobic fitness.
10. Lowers Blood Pressure:
Yoga can be beneficial if you have high blood pressure. The results of Savasana (Corpse Pose) versus merely lying on a sofa were compared in two studies of people with hypertension published in the British medical journal The Lancet.
