Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is a comprehensive system of health management that not only nourishes your body but also your mind. The nourishing of the mind along with the body is the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of yoga, something that is absent in the conventional forms of gym based exercises, and also in gymnastics, athletics, jogging, swimming, or in any other sport where the emphasis is solely on building the body.

Yoga does improve your physical health, but that is only one part of yoga’s agenda. With its stretching, bending, twisting, balancing, yoga takes care of all parts of your body all your joints, muscles, sinews, ligaments, and tendons.

Doing yoga regularly does not allow fat formation in your body. Obviously you need to follow healthy food habits along with yoga by having food that is rich in fiber and low in calories. Avoid foods like fried chicken and French fries, sandwiches and burgers laced generously with butter and mayonnaise as they are laden with trans (unsaturated) fats. Instead have more of salads, like broccoli and lettuce, along with boiled vegetables, boiled eggs, boiled fish and boiled meat. These boiled items can be made palatable with the right seasoning.

So if your food habit compliment yoga exercises you can assure yourself of good health.

Apart from the nourishing of your physical self, yoga also brings organs like the lungs and heart in to focus. The yoga breathing techniques of deep, deliberate, slow breathing are incorporated into each and every step while doing yoga poses. Thus your body never lacks in oxygen. It is for this reason that yoga practitioners never are out of breath nor are huffing and puffing.

As yoga is made up of graceful, continuous and slow movements, yoga practitioners also normally do not sweat unless they are doing hot yoga inside a heated room. With your additional intake of oxygen, your lungs are stimulated to function better with your dormant lung cell being revived. This in turn stimulates your heart to pump blood more efficiently all across your body with manifold benefits.

Yoga is not all about working out but also about relaxation while working out. Yoga poses normally begin with the Padmasana (Lotus pose) or Sukhasana (Easy pose) where you sit cross-legged and do not move a single part of your body, but only breathe deeply and slowly. This relaxes your body and prepares you for a session of stretching, bending, and twisting.

After a yoga session is over, the last pose is normally the Shavasana (Corpse pose) to do which you lie down flat in a supine position and remain absolutely inert like a corpse. This helps your body to relax as you heart is level with other parts of your body unlike when you stand or sit.

Finally with the meditative elements of yoga which require you to make your mind thought-free by concentrating on your inhalation and exhalation, your mind too is calmed with the resultant reduction of stress and tension soothing your nerves, regulating your blood pressure, pulse rate and heart beat.

Once you start with yoga and continue with it for many months, your medical reports will speak for themselves in addition to your own feeling of being in good health.

Benefits of Yoga