For thousands of years, yoga has been practiced as a spiritual, mental, and physical discipline. It is frequently misunderstood as a physical practice, limited to asanas or positions.
The benefits of yoga are only seen on a physical level, however, most of us do not realize how beneficial yoga is for uniting the body, mind, and breath.
When your body and mind are in sync, your route through life is calmer, happier, and more gratifying. It is a form of exercise that works both the body and the mind while also burning calories and strengthening muscles.
Nonetheless, yoga is becoming increasingly popular as a way to be fit, active, and agile. It has a number of benefits, including improved flexibility, strength, and posture, as well as stress reduction and relaxation. Nutrition and food, in addition to physical activity, are essential components of fitness.
So here are few of the umpteen benefits of yoga:
1. Improves strength, balance and flexibility
One of the first and most noticeable benefits of yoga is increased flexibility. While you won’t be able to touch your toes, let alone complete a backbend, in your first lesson. But if you keep doing it, you will notice that your muscles relax with time, allowing you to achieve seemingly impossible poses. Yoga builds functional strength by strengthening the muscles that sustain the body’s weight. It is also great for strengthening your core, which improves both your athletic and everyday functionality.
2. Eases arthritis symptoms
Regular yoga practice can help people with various types of arthritis problems like reducing joint pain, increasing joint flexibility and function, and reducing stress and tension. Yoga is popular among people who want to exercise lightly while reducing tension and improving joint flexibility.
3. Relaxes you and helps you sleep better
Yoga allows you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present moment by altering your nervous system’s balance from sympathetic to parasympathetic. It also improves both the speed with which people fall asleep and the depth with which people fall asleep.
4. Helps you manage stress
Many people begin yoga in order to increase their flexibility, but its focus, centering, and breathing serve to alleviate stress, making it a great antidote to today’s frantic lifestyle. It delivers the benefits of increased movement and exercise along with relaxation and a reduction in physical tension. It can leave you physically, mentally, and energetically rested and revitalised.
5. Improves quality of life
Since yoga combines meditation and breathing, both of which are beneficial to one’s mental health, yoga practice improves bodily awareness, reduces chronic tension, relaxes the mind, focuses attention, and improves concentration.
6. Helps to improve cardiovascular functioning
Yoga also boosts circulation and blood flow, which is good for the heart. It can also help lower blood pressure, cholesterol, as well as the heart rate.
7. Helps in improving focus
Regular yoga practice has been shown to increase coordination, response time, memory, and even IQ..
8. Promotes better posture and body awareness
Long durations of sitting at a desk can injure your spine and leave you fatigued at the end of the day. Performing certain yoga asanas can help improve your posture while also preventing neck and lower back issues.
9. Drains your lymph and boosts immunity
Lymph outflow is maintained by contracting and stretching muscles, and moving organs around. Practising yoga aids the lymphatic system in fighting infection, destroying malignant cells, and removing harmful waste products from cellular activity.
10. Helps in lowering blood sugar
It not only decreases blood sugar levels, but it also lowers bad cholesterol while increasing good cholesterol. Yoga helps you lose weight and improves your insulin sensitivity.
