Yoga for fitness and health

Yoga is practised by more than 15 million people in the world. This statistics is adequate to prove its utility in the contemporary world. Yoga is not a method of teaching, but a way of life. Practicing yoga contributes in the following ways to good health and fitness.

To better the posture

After adequate practice of yoga, a person can improve strength and muscle tone, become more flexible, and maintain a healthy weight. All these will contribute to enhance your posture by a great degree. Now, your abdominal and back muscles will be able to support your complete weight. You can sit and stand tall and prevent niggling injuries, aches, and pains.

To better breathing and decrease the blood pressure

During practice of yoga, a person executes deep breathing and bolsters lung capacity. This will definitely serve to improve your performance in other sports because your stamina and endurance have propped up. Yoga coupled with meditation and calming yoga asanas result in subsiding the heart rate, and this results in maintenance of proper blood pressure, improvement of the immune system, and minimization of cholesterol.

To enhance muscle tone and strength

Yoga such as downward and upward dog and the plank work on your core and result in increase in upper body strength. Similarly, standing poses reinforce your upper leg muscles and lower back. When performed in the proper way, a pose will strengthen a specific region of a body without stressing the specific muscle groups.

To maximize flexibility

On the outset, a beginner opines that they do not have sufficient flexibility to do yoga. However in course of time, yoga poses stretch your muscles and enable you to improve on it. In addition, yoga also results in stretching other soft tissues in the body such as tendons and ligaments. This increases the range of motion in the joints and facilitates you to move around freely.

To maintain an ideal weight

Overweight is the major cause of imbalance in daily life. One major contributor to be overweight is an overdose of stress. Yoga helps you to attain a deep sense of relaxation to your mind and body, bring about destress, and cause weight loss naturally.

To decrease the risk of injury

Exercise such as running involves a series of rapid, forceful movements. This indicates that there is maximum effort and more risk of injury and muscle tension. Often, strenous exercise comprises an imbalance of opposite muscle groups, and yoga focuses on balancing this it activity. Yoga yokes your body and mind, and the consequence is that you can move in a way that is healthy and injury-free.

To skyrocket confidence

Meditation is a accompaniment of yoga. It can help to uplift spiritual values and appreciate your confidence. Body tension is released, and you feel confident about your body. You will experience an absence of anxiety and establish an internal connection with yourself. All of these converge to have a proper perception of others and better your relationships by introducing awareness and compassion.

To subside stress and elevate your mood

After a yoga session, the oxygen levels in the brain are elevated, and the person feels more happy and ecstatic about life. As you focus the mind on breathing, the constant ‘mind chatter’ subsides, stress levels fall, and you relax.

The beauty of yoga is that it is simple to practice it. Any venue is equally good, and you can perform it solo or with other yoga enthusiasts. Take a yoga holiday as an ideal choice. Some examples of yoga holidays are the following:

·         Parrot Cay Yoga and Pilates Retreat, Turks and Caicos

·         Kamalaya Yoga Synergy, Thailand

·         The Body Holiday, St. Lucia

·         Ananda Yoga, India

·         Absolute Sanctuary Yoga, Thailand