Yoga - Benefits

Yoga - Benefits

At the physical level, yoga and its cleansing practices have proven to be extremely effective for various disorders. Presented below is a brief overview of some of the benefits of yoga -

Increasing Flexibility - Yoga makes you flexible, thus preventing bad posture and back pains.

Builds muscle strength - Strong muscles help prevention of arthritis and back pain.

Perfects your posture - Bad posture causes pain and spine degeneration. Yoga prevents slumping and cures bad posture.

Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown - Yoga ensures complete motion of all types of joints, preventing any breakdown due to ill-use.

Protects your spine - Yoga asanas with backbends, forward bends and twists keep the spinal disks supple, thus strengthening your spine.

Betters your bone health - Many movements in Yoga asanas strengthen the bones. Yoga lowers levels of cortisol-stress hormone - which keeps the calcium intact in the bones, thus keeping them strong and healthy.

Increases your blood flow - Relaxation exercises in Yoga help blood circulation. Many poses in Yoga help the flow of venous blood back to the heart. The poses help boost levels of hemoglobin, preventing anemia.

Drains your lymphs and boosts immunity - Yoga helps in drainage of the lymph (fluid rich in immune cells). Drainage of this fluid helps fight infections, destroy cancerous cells and dispose toxic waste from the body.

Ups your heart rate - Increase in heart rate lowers the risk of heart attack and relieves depression.

Drops your blood pressure - Yoga, especially Savasana, reduces hypertension.

Regulates your adrenal glands - Adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to stress condition. However, if cortisol levels are still high, it impairs the immune system, causes memory loss and lead to permanent brain damage. Yoga is known to reduce the levels of this hormone.

Makes you happier - Consistent yoga practice decreases depression, leads to significant increase in serotonin levels, a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. All these factors contribute to elevating your feeling of being happy.

Founds a healthy lifestyle - Yoga increases movement, decreases food intake leading to a healthier lifestyle.

Lowers blood sugar - Yoga lowers blood sugar levels and LDL (bad) cholesterol and boosts HDL (good) cholesterol.

Helps you focus - regular yoga improves coordination, memory, IQ and reaction time.

Relaxes your system - Yoga helps you control your breath, helps you relax and has a calming effect on the body.

Improves your balance - Yoga helps you correct your bad posture and improves your balance.

Maintains your nervous system - Yoga improves blood flow to pelvis, if you are trying to get pregnant, induces relaxation if you are suffering from insomnia.

Releases tension in your limbs - Yoga helps us recognize where one holds tension in the body. Continuous practice of yoga helps you release your tension.

Helps you sleep deeper - Yoga helps you become less stressed, less tired and helps you sleep better.