Improper Yoga Posturing: How it Can Disrupt Your Workout

Yoga is one of the most beneficial exercises known for women, but a large percentage of them do not understand the importance of posturing. Proper posture is absolutely critical to gain all the benefits that yoga provides and many women who practice poor posturing during their yoga exercises are doing themselves a great disservice. Yoga helps to improve muscle strength and tone, along with reducing stress and improving concentration and very importantly is an exercise routine with a very low injury potential, unless you are not posturing correctly.

People should understand that in this age of the internet, many of the instructions and videos that are available may not be showing them the correct postures to use which would enable them to gain the maximum benefits from this exercise. It may surprise you to know that in the United States, approximately ¼ of the residents jog, yet only about 3% practice yoga which is a far more beneficial exercise and yields much more beneficial effect physically, socially and mentally. This may be because only a few of these people who practice yoga use correct posturing to achieve the maximum benefit.

Yoga comes from the word yuj which means to connect in Sanskrit, and simply put yoga is supposed to allow you to connect with your inner being, both mentally and spiritually. This yields inner peace and increased flexibility along lower levels of stress and blood pressure, but only when the posture is done correctly.

Currently there are 8 different branches of yoga with several different derivatives of each branch, the ones most known to people who are using yoga to exercise are: Hatha yoga and Kundalini yoga. Kuldalini yoga is a very active type of yoga and is a combination of meditation, exercise, breathing and movement. The premise of this technique is that body energy is stored at the base of the spine and can be moved to different areas of the body. The Hatha type of yoga is the most popular type of yoga practiced in the United States and is much slower and less energetic than Kundalini yoga. Controlled breathing plays a much more important part of this yoga regime and the poses used in this type of yoga is known to improve flexibility and various bodily systems such as the respiratory, nervous and reproductive systems.

Proper posturing is very important due to the fact that there are about 90 different yoga positions that are specifically coordinated with different breathing techniques. These twists and contortions can seriously hurt you if you perform them incorrectly and may result is muscular damage as well as irreparable damage to your spine and central nervous system. Think about this the next time you try to do yoga at home, and try to at least purchase a video with a reputable yoga instructor who can instruct you how to properly execute the positions.

References
1. http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/bad-teachers-teach-bad-yoga/
2. http://ezinearticles.com/?Basic-Yoga-Techniques-For-Beginners&id=2561989