The Health Benefits Of Yoga

There have been a number of workout fads in the past but none is enduring as yoga which has also existed for the longest time possible. It is popular as it does more than just burning calories and toning body muscles. It has a number of health benefits associated with it and below is a review of some of the health benefits of yoga.

It is a workout that involves a total body and mind workout by combining stretching and strengthening poses, deep breathing and relaxation. There are over 100 forms of yoga: intense and fast-paced and others that are relaxing and gentle. A calm and relaxed mind boosts a great health as you will not have stress.

An improved flexibility is usually the first noticeable benefits of yoga. When you start off, you will find it hard doing some stretches and assuming some poses. However, with time, your body will become more flexible and you will find it possible to do all the poses. It helps to gradually loosen your body muscles that are tight and this comes with the added benefits of pains and aches disappearing from the body.

Tight hips and hamstrings usually cause a lot of pain and it helps get rid of it. Inflexible connective tissues and muscles also cause you to have a poor posture which is dangerous to your health. Taking these exercises will help in relaxing all the tight muscles and connective tissues.

Strong body muscles usually do more good than just making you look fit. They usually help prevent you from getting conditions such as back pain, arthritis and also prevent falls in old people. You get the benefit of having strong muscles coupled with flexibility unlike just lifting weights to build strong muscles.

The human head is big and heavy and as such it needs to balance directly over a spine that is erect in order to reduce the work of the back and neck muscles in supporting it. Poor posture often leads to straining of muscles which brings around fatigue. This has other dire consequences on the health of your body as it causes you to suffer neck, back, joint and muscle problems. It therefore helps you avoid degenerative arthritis to your spine and reduces pain in the body.

Weight bearing exercises are healthy as they strengthen your bones and prevent osteoporosis. Yoga involves a number of postures that require you to lift your weight like the downward and upward-facing dog. This helps in strengthening arm bones which are mostly vulnerable to suffering osteoporotic fractures. It increases the bone density in your vertebrae as well as keep the levels of cortisol, the hormone stress lower thus keeping calcium in your bones.

It also helps your blood to flow well by improving its circulation in the body and more so in the hands and feet. It enables more oxygen to reach your cells thereby improving their functioning. The twisting poses usually wring out venous blood from the organs to allow more oxygenated blood to flow inside them when the twist poses are released.

Inverted poses like the handstand, headstand or shoulderstand enable venous blood found in the legs and the pelvic area to flow to the heart. It is then pumped back to the lungs for it to be oxygenated afresh. This ensures that the lower limbs get fresh oxygenated blood easily.

It increases the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin in your body. It also helps in thinning blood by making the platelets to be less sticky and thus cuts the number of clot-promoting proteins found in blood. This leads to a decrease in strokes and heart attacks as blood clots are responsible for these killer diseases. Yoga increases the flow of lymph and assists the lymphatic system in fighting infections, demolish cancerous cells and dispose toxic waste.