You start a yoga practice for many reasons. On our registration form we ask you what are your goals. The most frequent answers that we get in response are:
- lose weight
- Increase flexibility
- Decrease stress
The benefits below can be achieved once you have developed a consistent and frequent yoga practice. I talk about how frequent your yoga practice should be in a previous newsletter.
Lose weight permanently
Yoga can help you lose weight in two ways. The first way is the physical aspect of the practice. The aerobic component of a vigorous practice such as Ashtanga can result in approximately 500 calories being consumed in a one hour practice.
The second way that yoga helps you to lose weight is the mind – body awareness that you develop as part of a regular yoga practice. With a regular and frequent yoga practice you become much more aware of the body and its reaction to eating certain foods and its reaction to eating lots of food. With this increased awareness you start to adjust your eating habits and start to eat less of some types of food and also will tend to eat smaller meals.
Improve flexibility
Your range of motion tends to decrease, as you get older. Yoga helps to reverse this process by taking your joints through their full range of motion, increasing your flexibility gradually. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, and making your body more flexible. Your body alignment and posture will improve helping to relieve back, neck, hip and shoulder pain.
You’ll be amazed at how much easier everyday activities like walking or running will become as a result of your increased flexibility.
Your hockey, golf, basketball or baseball game will become better as you increase your flexibility.
Lessen your stress
Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body.
By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. It also lowers blood pressure and heart rate, improves digestion and boosts the immune system.
Yoga reduces the symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.
Your lung capacity will improve, and so will the quality and depth of the breath. People who practice yoga on a regular basis, will notice that they will have less upper respiratory infections, as a result of the quality of breath one practices during a yoga class.
Improve your energy level
You have to expend energy to gain more energy. But some types of exercise can get you feeling more energized immediately and this is one of them!
Strengthen, lengthen and tone your muscles
Yoga creates long, strong and lean muscles, from head to toe. Enjoy powerful muscles without adding bulk!
Detoxify the body
By synchronizing breath and movement and gently stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the internal organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to all parts of the body. This helps to flush out toxins from the system and to eliminate stress hormones as well as maximizing nourishment to your body. It improves your complexion, increases vitality and recharges your enthusiasm.
January 2008 newsletter
