Yoga For Your Health

I started writing this article to sum up the health benefits of yoga, but soon realized that the list of benefits would be a million miles long. I wouldn’t be able to do the subject justice in a short article that sums up the general benefits of yoga. In fact, the minute I started researching the topic and saw the massive amount of posititive effects on your body and mind that yoga can make, it made me want to run out to class right away even just to have that moment of elation just as I leave the yoga studio with my body exausted and my mind at ease.

One of the obvious benefits of yoga is that you gain flexibility. It’s tough at first for sure, especially if you’ve never done a sport that improves flexibility. Your muscles won’t be happy with you at first, but as long as you stick with it and do the deep breathing that is always taught with it, you’ll start to feel yourself loosen up. Your muscles will be able to relax deeper and deeper into each stretch.

One of the things that is most challenged when beginning a yoga practice for the first time is your strength. Most poses require you to hold up your own body weight and move from pose to pose with controlled muscle movements. Yoga won’t make you bulky, but it will give you a toned, strong and defined look. Come on, don’t we all want to look like Madonna! Well, maybe even a quarter as toned as Madonna might be good enough. At first even the most basic poses, like a simple down dog, will make your shoulders burn. Over time your body will adjust and your muscles will better be able to support your weight. You’ll get long, lean and toned too!

With the committed practice of yoga, you’ll really begin to fully breathe.

When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still.” - Hatha Yoga Pradipika

It’s not often that we think of our breathing in everyday life. In yoga class, you’re trained to breath fully, deeply and consiously. The idea is that yoga breathing exercises gets more oxygen to your blood and to your brain. You’ll use more of your lungs than you do normally and feel the difference between normal breath and fully yoga breathing exercises.

For more information on The Health Benefits of Balance Yoga, please visit this Yoga Resouce Site

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