The physical benefits of yoga are myriad.
Yoga keeps your body strong, as it involves all the muscles in your body to
hold and balance yoga asanas
(poses). The various yoga postures strengthen your feet, legs, hands,
abdominals, lower back, legs, and shoulders.
Yoga's stretching and breathing exercises
improve your flexibility, helping joints, tendons, and muscles stay limber.
People suffering from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis will see a
noticeable improvement in their stiffness, pain, and other arthritic symptoms
by practicing yoga poses and postures.
Yoga improves your endurance, especially
the more athletic forms of yoga such as ashtanga yoga, power yoga, vinyasa
yoga, and Bikram
yoga. These rigorous yoga practices follow a specific sequence of poses (asanas)
that become more challenging as you progress. Unlike the more gentle hatha
yoga, the forms of ashtagna
yoga, power yoga, vinyasa
yoga, and Bikram yoga
require you to keep your body in constant motion between poses, resulting in a
strenuous cardiovascular workout and improved core strength.
Hatha yoga can relieve chronic back and
neck pain, since the poses and postures gently stretch and strengthen your back
and neck muscles.
Yoga is often prescribed to help heal
various injuries, including repetitive strain injuries, knee and back injuries,
pulled hamstrings, even minor skin burns. Of course, you should consult your
physician before using yoga as a treatment for any injury!
Yoga is an excellent weight-bearing
exercise that can improve your bone density. This is particularly beneficial
for women approaching menopause, since yoga can help ward off osteoporosis, or
thinning of the bone.
Other Health Conditions
Do you have frequent headaches? Yoga can
rid you of tension headaches and migraines because yoga circulates blood and
oxygen to your head, which can often prevent headaches from starting.
A regular yoga practice helps boost
antioxidants throughout your body, resulting in a stronger immune system and
improved ability to heal quickly from disease or injury.
Yoga can help you lose weight and
maintain a healthy weight throughout your life. Power yoga is a vigorous form
of yoga that burns calories, resulting in weight loss.
Many women going through menopause report
an easing of symptoms when they begin practicing yoga.