This week You! takes a look at a few health benefits of yoga...
fitness
This week You! takes a look at a few health benefits of yoga...
All set to increase your flexibility, strengthen your muscles, centre your thoughts, and get stress free? Well, regular practise of Yoga offers all kinds of mental and physical health benefits and much more! Yoga is an ancient physical and spiritual discipline and branch of philosophy that originated in India reportedly more than 5,000 years ago. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means to yoke, join, or unite. The Iyengar school of yoga defines yuj as the ‘joining or integrating of all aspects of the individual - body with mind and mind with soul - to achieve a happy, balanced and useful life’.
Benefits of yoga:
The benefits of yoga provide both instant gratification and lasting transformation. Yoga is a mind-body practice that combines stretching exercises, controlled breathing and relaxation.
It can change your physical and mental capacity quickly, while preparing the mind and body for long-term health. Read on to find out the various benefits of yoga and how it helps in improving your health...
Flex time:
Ever wanted to touch your toes with your fingers without bending your knees? Well, yoga can help with that. Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you probably won’t be able to touch your toes. But if you stick with it, you will notice a gradual loosening, and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. The practice of yoga helps the body gently regain its flexibility by stretching out the muscles of various areas without causing any harm to them. The best part about yoga is that as you keep performing it, you will see that your flexibility greatly improves.
Stress buster:
Usually people tend to ignore stress and think that it will go away in due time. The fact is that stress can actually wreak havoc on your body. When you are stressed your body releases harmful free radicals, which damages the body’s immunity and leaves you tired and irritable. Practising yoga not only helps in calming the mind and enhancing your mood but also helps in building your immunity.
Beat the pain:
Yoga is a very effective tool to help beat the pain and discomfort associated with menstruation. Not only do the poses help ease the pain by stretching out the muscles, but it also helps relieve the cramping one normally experiences. Yoga also helps to calm the mind, reduce irritation and helps the body deal with the fatigue associated with menstruation.
Weighty matters:
Move more, eat less - that’s the adage of many a dieter. Yoga can help on both fronts. A regular practice gets you moving and burns those calories. Specific yoga exercises can tone the entire body, fuel the metabolic system and help in burning fat - leading to weight loss. Yoga may also inspire you to become a more conscious eater.
Eases migraine:
Research shows that migraine sufferers have fewer and less painful migraines after three months of yoga practice. The primary cause of migraine attacks is the lack of oxygen to the brain. Hunching over a computer or cell phone with your shoulders up and head forward causes tightening of the neck. This pulls the head forward and creates muscle imbalances that can contribute to headaches and migraines.
Low show:
Another major benefit of yoga is that it lowers blood sugar and LDL (bad) cholesterol and boosts HDL (good) cholesterol. In people with diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways: by lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, and improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin. By keeping your blood sugar levels down, you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.
Boosts immunity:
A recent Norwegian study found that yoga practice actually affects the way your body reacts to attacks on your immune system. It stimulates changes in gene expression and boosts your immunity at the cellular level. Apart from that, the study found that not only is the change almost immediate but yoga was found to help improve one’s immunity by improving your overall health.
Better breathing:
Most of us don’t give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called ‘pranayama’, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to take deeper breaths, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages (helpful for people with allergies) and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.
