10 Incredible Health Benefits of Yoga.
There are definitely more than 10 reasons why yoga is right for you.
Indeed, the physical and psychological benefits of yoga could fill entire books.
The following is therefore only a summary of the reasons that should prompt you to incorporate yoga into your habits.
Here are 10 health benefits of yoga that you should know about:
1. Your strength, agility and flexibility are enhanced
Lots of sports make you stronger. Others can increase your agility. But very few activities will improve your strength, agility and flexibility the same time.
Many professional athletes have overcome their injuries by increasing their range of motion through yoga.
There are even sportswomen who have suffered from a double mastectomy who have regained full mobility after disabling surgery, thanks to yoga. All this despite numerous scars in their bodies.
Nothing is as effective as yoga at repairing the body and making sure that ligaments and connective tissues are as strong and flexible as the muscles themselves.
2. Yoga improves memory and cognitive functioning
It may seem odd that this activity which involves breathing and stretching increases cognitive functions, but these are the conclusions of scientific research on this subject.
According to these studies, those who practice yoga have better learning abilities, better memory and easier to stay focused for longer.
All of these benefits are attributed to meditation, which is arguably the ultimate goal of any yoga practitioner. But meditation can also help you during your studies or at work by improving the functioning of your brain.
3. Yoga stabilizes weight gain
Doing hatha yoga or even power yoga probably won't burn you as many calories as a HIIT cardio workout. But yoga has the advantage of stabilizing the weight by restoring the hormonal balance in the body.
Yoga lowers cortisol levels as well as our nervous system's fight or flight response. As a result, you are less likely to overeat or eat to deal with negative emotions.
With yoga, we also teach our brain to feel full more easily since we are not constantly in panic mode!
Stress is known to promote obesity and it is the cause of many illnesses! Yoga is therefore perfect to counteract these symptoms.
4. Yoga naturally reduces pain
Many studies show that yoga is effective in reducing pain. It doesn't matter if you have fibromyalgia, arthritis, or migraines, yoga has been shown to relieve the pain that results from all of these ailments.
And if like millions of people you suffer from back pain, yoga can almost make your pain go away.
It has even been proven that meditation can sometimes be more effective in reducing pain than morphine.
5. Yoga increases your breathing capacity
One of the other health benefits of yoga is that it is one of the few practices that uses pranayama. Pranayama is a technique based on energy and breathing.
Many people practice pranayama as a means of reaching high levels of consciousness. But the health benefits don't stop there.
This practice also increases lung capacity, vital capacity (the total amount of air the lungs can hold), as well as the ability to slow your heart rate (directly related to longer life expectancy).
6. Regulation of blood pressure
The practice of yoga is also beneficial for people with fluctuating blood pressure.
And for those with high blood pressure, yoga has been shown to be even more effective than diet changes that can improve blood pressure.
7. Improving mental health
Yoga offers so many benefits to the mind that it is difficult to list them all in a short summary.
But among these benefits, we can cite a general improvement in mood, a feeling of overall well-being, more ease in communicating with others, a decrease in depressive states, less aggression towards oneself and others, less anxiety, better self-esteem, more motivation and much more ...
8. Yoga reduces degenerative diseases
The way yoga prevents illness is amazing. When you know how, you'll want to grab your yoga mat more than ever!
Here are some of the reasons why yoga helps you stay young and healthy for longer. Yoga:
- decreases glucose,
- decreases sodium,
- lowers the overall cholesterol level,
- increases HDL cholesterol,
- decreases VLDL cholesterol,
- decreases LDL cholesterol,
- increases cholinesterase,
- lowers catecholamines,
- increases ATPase,
- increases the hematocrit,
- increases hemoglobin,
- increases the lymphocyte count,
- decreases the total number of white blood cells,
- increases thyroxine,
- increases bioavailable vitamin C,
- increases the total number of serum proteins,
- increases oxytocin,
- increases prolactin.
9. The parasympathetic nervous system takes over with yoga
Why is this a good thing? The 2 parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems work together to stabilize us in the face of stress.
These 2 systems function as communicating vessels. When one goes up, the other goes down. When the sympathetic nervous system is active, it means we are on a high alert level. Either we are reacting to stress or we are trying to minimize it.
The parasympathetic nervous system is our most stressed nervous system. Whether it's traffic lights, traffic noise, emails from our colleagues or the boss, family responsibilities, etc.
Yoga has the advantage of strengthening the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible zen answers in the face of these stressful stimuli.
Obviously, no one wants to be permanently amorphous or, on the contrary, permanently on the alert. It is for this reason that yoga is great for mental health as it helps balance both nervous systems. As a result, it helps you not to overreact to the events you are going through.
10. You can do yoga anywhere
Perhaps the most practical health benefit of yoga is that you can do it just about anywhere!
I practiced in yoga studios, at the airport, in my house, with friends, outdoors in parks and forests, on rocks, on the roofs of apartment buildings.
You don't need anything (except maybe a yoga mat), although it isn't really essential. There is no membership required at a gym and no expensive machine is necessary.
You don't have to be in great shape to get started. And what's more, yoga will always make you progress even if you are already in good physical shape.
Yoga is a timeless activity that can be practiced anywhere without major inconvenience.
If you need even more reasons to practice yoga, go to a yoga class near you and find out firsthand what yoga can do for you.
Your turn...
Does it make you want to start yoga? Do you already practice yoga? Tell us what it brings to you in the comments. We can't wait to hear from you!
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Also to discover:
Meditation: The 7 Scientifically Proven Benefits for Your Brain.
How to do Yoga at home for free and without a teacher?
