The Benefits of Yoga
By Lizzy Walheim
Yoga is a mind and body practice. By connecting to your breath, yoga is meant to build strength, awareness and harmony in both the mind and body. There are many types of yoga of all different levels that you can practice in order to reap all the amazing benefits that it has to offer. Here are some ways that practicing yoga can benefit your health:
Improves flexibility.
Through gradual and consistent practice, you will notice loosening through your body and the ability to dig deeper in your stretches and movement.
Builds muscle strength and helps posture.
Through various exercises in yoga you are building muscle strength and balancing it with flexibility. In yoga, the focus is to find alignment and strengthen your body to support yourself and your muscles.
Improves bone health.
Most yoga positions require that you lift your own body weight. And some, like Downward-Facing Dog, and Upward-Facing Dog, can help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. Yoga's ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol may help keep calcium in the bones as well.
Increases blood flow.
As yoga gets your blood moving, many of these movements can improve circulation in your hands and feet. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues. This helps reduce the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood and can lead to a decrease in heart attacks and strokes.
Drains lymphs and boosts immunity
When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga positions, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.
Improves sleep.
Too much stimulation can be taxing on the nervous system. Restorative Asana, Yoga Nidra (a form of guided relaxation), Savasana, Pranayama, and meditation create an inward turning of the senses, which provide down time for the nervous system. Studies suggest that better sleep is a by-product of regular yoga practice.
Relaxes your system.
Yoga encourages you to slow your breathing and focus on the present. This shifts the balance from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system. As a result, your body lowers its breathing and heart rates, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive system.
The eleven major types of yoga are:
Vinyasa Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Anusara Yoga, and Jivamukti Yoga.
All of these styles may differ as some are more physically demanding or may offer an easy, relaxing, meditative style.
Find which one works for you and connect with your inner breath to ground yourself in your practice and collect the energy to power you through your daily lifestyle.