In regards to strength, yoga that focuses on holding poses for longer periods of time can build muscle in the upper-body, hamstrings, abdominal muscles and lower back. Each pose serves to strengthen specific parts of the body. The poses are held from anywhere between 30 seconds to a couple minutes, and the repetition of these poses is the quickest way to build and strengthen your muscles. Trying to increase your flexibility also uses the repetitive and challenging poses. It's frustrating to find that my flexibility hasn't made any improvements the few times I tried to take up yoga; but then I remembered that yoga is all about consistency, and most people won't see a change in flexibility after the first class.
For those in competitive sports, yoga can help a great deal in regards to performance and endurance. Yoga helps to prevent injuries, increase lung capacity, strengthen hand-eye coordination, increase reaction time and much more. The effort that is put into yoga has its way of giving back by allowing better overall performance.
From a psychological perspective, one of yoga's biggest benefits is creating a calm, meditative atmosphere. This does a great deal for someone who struggles with stress, anxiety and depression. How? The breathing techniques are slow and allow you to consume a lot of air. This is opposite to the type of breathing you get with stress and anxiety. Yoga can change your whole mindset on life. It can improve self-confidence, self-acceptance, memory, concentration, calmness, etc. While breathing gives oxygen to the muscles in your body, it also gives oxygen to your brain! The more fresh, clean oxygen you brain gets, the clearer your mind. Your brain will actually become healthier with all of that oxygen, which will in turn mentally and physically allow you to stay healthy.
These are just a few of the factors of yoga that would be most affective for me. Definitely read into some of the links I provided, which gives detailed explanations of how every different stretch and breath can positively affect your health.
I’ve never actually tried yoga, but I’ve heard so much about it and I think that it is something that is definitely getting more attention and becoming more popular, especially for those looking for a healthy lifestyle. I’m not very flexible and I guess that’s probably one of the main reasons I still haven’t gone! Many of my friends and family members have told me that yoga, in particular hot yoga, has changed their lives.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned in your post, yoga plays a huge role on the betterment our psychological state. From what I’ve been told, regular sessions of hot yoga will relieve you from daily tensions and stress. Yoga teaches you to become more patient, handle difficult situations differently and help you make good judgement calls; basically it’s alters your mindset and the way you think and as a result makes you a better person.
Apart from the psychological benefits, again as you’ve noted, they are great physical benefits as well. A few years ago, a friend of mine was suffering from intense muscle pains. She told me that hot yoga played a huge factor in her healing process as the mix of extreme heat and humidity drastically helped to sooth those pains. Flexibility is also the key to preventing injuries and to increasing performance, and yoga definitely points you in that direction.
I’m actually surprising myself with everything I know about yoga! I think it’s time I stop procrastinating and that I go try it for myself once and for all.
I love yoga! I have been doing it all my life. The bennefits that come from it can be huge. It is also a great way to relax after a stressful week at school. I find my yoga experience to be the best after a hard cadio workout.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your article about yoga and all the bennefits of it. I was not aware of all the bennefits yoga could provide you with. I found the part yoga helping sports performances very interesting. I play soccer and never thought my yoga was helping me play.
A new and upcoming form of yoga is hot yoga, recently me and my mom got involved in hot yoga. She completed a 30 day change going 1-2 times per day. It was not till after the 30 days that she notices how weak her knees became and much her joints started to hurt. After this event, my friend dislocated her knee in hot yoga. I understand that hot yoga is in a heated room however the moves are very complex for the temperature of your body. In hot yoga your muscles are being pulled hard but only the outside of your body are being warmed up. I believe it is very important to warm up, even in a hot enviroment.