The Health Benefits of Yoga
Can you think of anything better than spending half an hour or so doing this?
Yoga increases flexibility which allows your body to move with more fluidity, reducing the risk of injury.
As your practice grows stronger, you’ll be able to do moves that didn’t seem possible before. Plus, when you start feeling tight in certain places again (as you inevitably will), a return to yoga will recapitulate the benefits in minutes.
You’ll increase strength and stability in the muscles surrounding your joints, which helps prevent injuries too!
A 2010 study found that practicing yoga for 3 months can reduce joint pain by 44%.
Yoga reduces stress and anxiety, which can prevent or relieve depression, anxiety and other mood disorders.
Yoga reduces blood pressure and cholesterol levels, especially when practiced on a regular basis each day; 6-8 hours a week is optimal.
Furthermore, studies show that the routine is so effective at lowering blood pressure that only 2 sessions per month are required!
Yoga increases bone density as we age, which can help prevent osteoporosis later in life although if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis it’s probably not important to go right into this one.
Why do you think that it’s so beneficial to learn yoga?
A few words on yoga: What is it, how does it work and why is it so good for your health?
The word “Yoga” means union or yoke.
The aim of the practice is to connect with the current of life’s energy (prana).
The Asanas are the various postures (movements) in which we stretch and strengthen our body through the breath and through one another, creating a synergy.
This creates an inner calm state that enables us to transform ourselves, opening our potential to live more fully.
Yoga is a practice of self-exploration and liberation of the spirit. Yoga encompasses all aspects of life: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
The four limbs of yoga are breath control, standing postures (asanas), meditation and relaxation.
The tradition of yoga was passed on orally for centuries by yogis (gypsies), known as rishis.
In its present form it began to be practised in India during the 5th century BC when the Ashtanga (eight paths) developed which gave us the eight different types of yoga:
Hatha, Raja, Kriya, Jnana, Bhakti and Vairagya. The tradition is now covered in total by 750 different Asanas.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Chistianity all have their own forms of yoga.
There are hundreds of schools within these religions.
There are two main types of yoga: Theravada and Tantra.
The first is the quiet meditation form which uses postures to help drop deeper into your mind and body while the latter emphasizes the use of sound, light and color with asanas (“poses”) as tools to achieve your goal.
There are three main types of yoga: Hatha, Vinyasa and Ashtanga.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga is the most commonly practised form.
It aims to develop strength and flexibility in the individual, improves health and well-being, strengthens the body’s immune system and balances emotions.
Over time exercises become more intense but it is not a high intensity form of yoga that will make you sweat.
Vinyasa is a contemporary form of Yoga that does call for sweating!
The emphasis is on movement with deep breathing and relaxation.
A series of poses that flow from one to another with no pause in between with speeds up as it progresses towards the end. https://todayevery.com
Ashtanga yoga is a very challenging form. It’s an intensive practice that can be done in 30 minutes or less; however, it requires some previous training.
The series of postures is continuous and sometimes unpredictable.
There are many intermediate poses that are held for a long period of time which require mental preparedness,
physical ability and strength.
The breathing is quite deep and controlled. The series begins with a strong and fast warm-up, followed by a series of postures that flow from one to another with no pauses in between.
The more advanced trainings are taught by instructors who were trained directly by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, a renowned yoga teacher and master, who developed the form in the 20th century (1935).
The benefits of Hatha yoga:
Hatha has been studied extensively since the 1990s in Europe because it’s the most widely practised form of yoga.
It focuses on balance and also uniting body,
mind and spirit through Asanas or poses which are used for physical healing as well as for spiritual growth.
The practice is not a competitive one in which you try to outdo yourself
but more of a collaborative method that seeks to unify the individual with others through breathing, movement and relaxation.
Hatha yoga is a practice that can be done by anyone who is interested in improving his/her health.
It’s an effective way to deal with stress, pain and disease on an emotional, psychological level.
