The popularity of yoga is growing significantly. Recent statistics show that there is a 92% increase in Yoga search queries on Google, signifying a very widespread awareness of yoga as a health and fitness concept. Nowadays more doctors are also becoming conscious of yoga and the mind-body connection as it relates to medical studies.
Yoga is much more than following simple body movements. It involves getting into a mindset of healing while practising the deliberate, conscious flow of body motions that provides ample benefits. Here is why exactly going to a yoga class should be a staple healthcare practice.
- Builds Strength
Although underestimated, strength is a vital part of human lives, which decides a better quality of life, improved performance in carrying out day-to-day functional tasks. It is also what helps in keeping muscles, bones and joints strong, allowing you to move around better and reducing the risk of osteoporosis (a condition that weakens bones).
Strength training continues to be one of the most underrated benefits of Yoga. Many yoga poses will challenge you to control and hold yourself in steady positions, which trains your muscles to be strong and stable. While it’s similar to a normal workout routine, in this you will use your body weight instead of steel weights, which is more effective in strength training.
- Develops Flexibility
The problem with traditional strength training alone is that it focuses only on building muscles while neglecting flexibility. With the right personal trainer, yoga can increase muscle tone and flexibility at the same time. Yoga allows you to effortlessly move your body through a full range of motions, remaining steady in poses to stretch muscles and joints. While these poses may be challenging to start off with, with time they gently open up your body to enhanced flexibility.
Maintaining flexibility as you age is crucial to perform daily physical activities in a convenient manner. It also goes a long way in decreasing the risk of injuries such as fractures, muscle strains, falling and related injuries. Flexibility has also proven to decrease chronic pain in adults as they age.
- Improves Posture
Doctors emphasise enough the importance of posture for a healthy lifestyle. Surprisingly posture also plays an integral part in making you look younger as you age and prevents a myriad of health issues, including decreased range of motion. On average at least 80 per cent of adults are known to report back problems at some point in their lives. As yoga focuses on a mind-body connection, with practice you’ll be able to become more aware of when you are slouching or neglecting your posture, which will eventually help you improve it.
- Assists in Focus And Makes You Happier
If there are two things that going to a yoga class guarantees, it has to be attaining focus and de-stressing. In fact, many people go to yoga classes to destress from hectic schedules and to regain focus to improve productivity in their work-life.
Yoga has a unique composition of posture that brings the mind to the present moment. It allows you to healthily focus on what is happening in a given moment rather than the uncontrollable future. The guided mediated breaths are a big part of the yoga practice which plays a significant role in bringing your focus to what matters in the present.
When you let your mind focus on the present, it prevents you from stressing about the future, which changes the chemical composition of the brain that makes you feel happier. More scientifically, meditation and yoga are known for their stress-relieving and relaxing effects which are believed to have an impact on reducing cortisol (the primary stress hormone) and increasing endorphins (the happy hormones).
