Those of us that have discovered yoga know how amazing it is for the mind, body and spirit. We walk into the studio stressed and tired and leave feeling rejuvenated and ready for whatever life throws at us. However, if you are still not a believer, here are 38 health benefits of working yoga into your weekly routine..... 1. Improves your flexibility
Improvedflexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga.
2. Builds muscle strength
Strong muscles do more than look good. They also protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain!
3. Perfects your posture
4. Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown
Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion.
5. Protects your spine
6. Betters your bone health
It’s well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift your own weight.
7. Increases your blood flow
Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet.
8. Drains your lymphs and boosts immunity
When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells).
9. Ups your heart rate
When you regularly get your heart rate into the aerobic range, you lower your risk of heart attack and can relieve depression. While not all yoga is aerobic, if you do it vigorously or take flow or Ashtanga classes, it can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range.
10. Drops your blood pressure
11. Regulates your adrenal glands
12. Makes you happier
13. Founds a healthy lifestyle
Move more, eat less—that’s the adage of many a dieter. Yoga can help on both fronts.
14. Lowers blood sugar
15. Helps you focus
An important component of yoga is focusing on the present. .
16. Relaxes your system
Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present!
17. Improves your balance
Regularly practicing yoga increases proprioception (the ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space) and improves balance.
18. Maintains your nervous system
19. Releases tension in your limbs
20. Helps you sleep deeper
21. Boosts your immune system functionality
22. Gives your lungs room to breathe
Yogis tend to take fewer breaths of greater volume, which is both calming and more efficient.
23. Prevents IBS and other digestive problems
24. Gives you peace of mind
25. Increases your self-esteem
26. Eases your pain
27. Gives you inner strength
Yoga can help you make changes in your life. In fact, that might be its greatest strength.
28. Connects you with guidance
Good yoga teachers can do wonders for your health. Exceptional ones do more than guide you through the postures.
29. Helps keep you drug free
30. Builds awareness for transformation
Yoga and meditation build awareness. And the more aware you are, the easier it is to break free of destructive emotions like anger.
31. Benefits your relationships
32. Uses sounds to soothe your sinuses
The basics of yoga—asana, pranayama, and meditation—all work to improve your health, but there’s more in the yoga toolbox. Consider chanting. It tends to prolong exhalation, which shifts the balance toward the parasympathetic nervous system.
33. Guides your body’s healing in your mind’s eye
If you contemplate an image in your mind’s eye, as you do in yoga nidra and other practices, you can effect change in your body.
34. Keeps allergies and viruses at bay
35. Helps you serve others
Karma yoga (service to others) is integral to yogic philosophy.
36. Encourages self care
37. Supports your connective tissue
38. Uses the placebo effect, to affect change
Just believing you will get better can make you better.
If you already love yoga or if you are considering trying, please come see us at 333 Main Street!! This week we have two complimentary classes. On Thursday, April 16th we will be hosting one of our Australian Ambassadors Baxter from 7:45PM-9:00PM. On Sunday, April 19th we will be hosting our very own Park City Ambassador Ariel Coyote Ford from 9:00AM-10:00AM. All ability levels are welcomeand we would LOVE to have you!!
