The Benefits of Yoga

If the mind's eye image you have of yoga is a roomful of people sitting cross legged or doing headstands chanting "ohm" you are doing yourself out of the opportunity to challenge your body and gain many important health benefits. Yoga, in all of its forms, can be practised by children, adults and seniors. There are many good DVDs, websites and local exercise classes devoted to the practice of yoga. Both your mind and body will benefit from regular yoga practice - you even have the potential to decrease any wrinkles you might have.

Physical Benefits of Yoga

If you practice yoga regularly (for instance 2 or 3 times a week for between 60 - 90 minutes a session) you will notice improvements in the following areas:

* Muscle Strength

With regular practice, you will find that your muscles become stronger as yoga poses are a form of resistance exercises. Resistance exercises require you to carry weight while you are completing the exercise. For example when you are in the cobra pose and you are lying face down on the floor and then lift your chest off the ground, you are asking your abdominal muscles to hold the weight of your upper body.

Any improvement in your muscle strength will improve your overall fitness and make your day to day tasks, like carrying shopping or hanging out washing, much easier.

* Flexibility

Another physical benefit of regular yoga practice is increased flexibility. Over time, your muscles will become used to the positions that you are putting them into and you will find that you are able to stretch a little further each time.

In your day to day life, you will notice that increased flexibility means that you can now bend over and pick something up off the floor more easily or that you can stretch to reach something up high that you could not reach before practising yoga regularly.

* Pain Relief

Regular practice of yoga has been found to assist with the management of chronic pain including lower back pain and menstrual cramping.

The relaxation effect of yoga also assists in relieving pain.

* Aerobic Conditioning

Yoga is a total body workout and although it is practised in a slow, rhythmic and precise manner, your body gains aerobic fitness benefits. Increased aerobic fitness will again allow you to undertake your day to day life tasks with increasing ease.

A research project studying college students found that undertaking a 50 minute yoga class twice a week led to improved lung capacity.[1]

* Weight Management

Over a longitudinal study, regular yoga practice was found to slow down the natural weight gain of middle aged adults and in some cases actually result in weight loss.

* Improved sleep

Having trouble sleeping at night, try a little yoga before bedtime. The slow rhythmic breathing and the relaxation that your muscles feel helps you to sleep.

Consistent quality sleep is important for overall physical and mental health - if you suffer from deprived sleep or insomnia you increase your risk of cardiovascular problems, depression and reduce your ability to concentrate.

Mental Health Benefits

As well as the physical benefits listed above, regular yoga practice can improve your mental health and wellbeing and may assist in controlling any mental health issues that you may currently be experiencing, such as anxiety, panic attacks or depression.

* Stress Release

The practice of yoga requires you to spend some time in quiet contemplation of your body and what is capable of doing. This means that for a small part of the week or even each day, you can be released from anything that is worrying you and enjoy peace, quiet and harmony in your body.

* Anxiety/Panic Attack Relief

If you experience anxiety or panic attacks, learning to breathe in a yoga fashion, which is slow and rhythmic, can assist you in controlling the feelings of panic that may flood your body.

Yoga breathing is not a cure for anxiety or panic attacks but is a tool which can assist you in conjunction with medication or psychological treatment.

* Relaxation

Yoga, if practised regularly, can lead you into a state of relaxation when all your muscles are loose and you have no feelings of stress related tightness anywhere in your body.

When you are able to experience a state of relaxation you will find that your daily problems become easier to deal with and your mind feels alert and open to the world.

Beauty benefits

The benefits of yoga are not only limited to physical and mental benefits. Yoga can even improve your beauty. Continued practice of yoga can lead to decreased facial wrinkles and improved skin elasticity without the need for expensive lotions, potions or trips to the cosmetic surgeon.

Yoga, when practised regularly can lead to a number of health benefits. A research project of seniors found that the practice of a weekly 90 minutes Iyengar Yoga class for six months lead to improved quality of life.[2]

Start yoga today and begin to enjoy improved muscle strength and flexibility, pain relief, better sleep, weight management, relaxation, aerobic conditioning and release your stress.

[1] Birkel, D & Edgren, L, 2000, "Hatha Yoga: Improved vital capacity of college students", Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, November 2000, Vol 6 No 6 pp 55 63

[2] Oken, S, Zajdel, D, Kishiyama, S, Flegel, K, et al, 2006 "Randomized controlled six-month trial of yoga in healthy seniors - effects on cognition and quality of life", Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Jan/Feb 2006 Vol 12 No 1 pp 40-47