Yoga is a combination of both physical and mental fitness. While there are many schools of yoga, most forms of yoga typically rely on breathing exercises, meditation, and assuming poses (asanas) that help stretch and flex various muscle groups. Yoga works on the basic principles of the body and its ability to self heal. It encourages mental and physical activity that improves all aspects of a person's well-being.
Yoga has a lot of physical health benefits:
• many asanas in yoga concentrate on working on improving flexibility.
• Yoga helps increased muscle strength and toning.
• Yoga also improves respiration, energy, and vitality.
• Yoga helps maintain a balanced metabolism.
• Yoga encourages weight loss.
• Yoga helps improve cardio and circulatory health.
• Practicing yoga helps enhance athletic performance, as it helps build flexibility, muscle, and breathing.
• It also helps reduce the chances of injury.
Along with these, yoga helps improve mental wellness, too:
• Relaxation: Meditation is a great way to unwind and get in better tune with your inner self. It helps one see things more clearly, and reduce feelings of stress, sadness, and anger.
• Concentration: Yoga helps improve concentration and focus. This can help us with our work life and relationships.
• Pain reduction: Yoga helps limit chronic pain not only by working on flexibility and various muscle groups but also working on stress relief that can have deteriorating effects on the body, often leading to chronic pains that cannot be solved by just physical therapy.
Since there are so many forms of yoga, anyone can start practicing it. It does not matter if you live a relatively sedentary lifestyle or a world-class athlete, incorporating yoga into one's life can be very useful. Yoga is not a competition; it's just about exploring your body and mind's limits and getting better in tune with your inner self.
