Originally posted on https://blog.ideafit.com/blogs/jhon-evans/daily-yoga-practice-10-health-benefits-of-doing-yoga

 

Yoga is a form of exercise that is good for you, all of you. While you know practicing yoga is good for your muscles. It is a complete body workout.

Daily yoga practice is not just good for the physical parts of your body but also your mental and spiritual health too. It offers qualities to improve your overall health too.

With this many ways to improve your mind and body, what’s keeping you from trying yoga as your workout of choice? Read on to learn about the many benefits of daily yoga practice.

Types of Yoga To Practice

Tracing its roots back thousands of years, yoga is a spiritual mind and body set of exercises. Going back to ancient India, yoga is part of a Hindu philosophy tradition.

As yoga has garnered more popularity and a broader following it has also expanded its scope. Now you can practice a variety of different types of yoga. Each type offering its own slant on the practice.

Some of these types of yoga include:

• Anusara
• Ashtanga
• Bikram
• Hatha
• Hot Yoga
• Iyengar
• Restorative
• Vinyasa

While each offers their own focus, some more on the types of breathing, some on more mindfulness, some of the ways to stretch. Each is about connecting your mind and body for more spiritual awareness.

Benefits of Yoga to You and Your Body

The daily practice of yoga offers countless benefits to those who practice it.

The great thing about this sport/practice is its ability to do it almost anywhere. You take a class at a yoga studio, get private yoga lessons, participate in your living room or even in a hotel room while traveling.

You only need a little space, maybe a yoga mat and the dedication to get started before you reap the many benefits of daily yoga.

Here are some of the ways that practicing yoga every day can benefit you.

1. Flexibility

Increased flexibility is a huge benefit from the practice of yoga. In our daily lives of work and commutes, taking care of kids, we often find ourselves sitting or sedentary.

Along with the stillness of life, as we age our muscles also become less flexible.

Daily yoga works on each muscle in your body to stretch it. As the muscles stretch, they also become more flexible.

If reaching to pick something up off the floor or tie your shoes feels like a difficult task, then the flexibility gained from yoga will be quickly noticed for you.

2. Strength

As you work your muscles and gain flexibility, your muscles will also gain strength.

Yoga is about moving your body. Getting yourself to go into different poses and holding the position.

With each session and continued practice, the muscles that help you to get into those poses get stronger.

As you practice, counting or holding a pose for several breath lengths, you are also working muscles which is in turn giving them more strength.

3. Muscle Tone and Joint Health

One of the many benefits of yoga is all the ways it helps your muscles. As you gain flexibility and strength in your muscles, the natural by-product is the addition of tone in your muscles.

The great thing about yoga is that it gets to those muscles you might not use every day.

Yoga is a gentle sport. It is about gentle movement. People who may not have the best muscle tone or joint health are going to benefit from the practice of yoga.

Those gentle soft, yet repeated, movements will help the joints increase in flexibility and strength.

4. Improved Balance

A beginner in yoga might start with the simplest of poses. Learn to do down dog, plank or triangle and then build to more complicated and challenging poses.

Whether it is a complex or more simple pose, the muscles are working.

Yoga is about holding poses and breathing through them. With that strength that comes with holding the poses, you also gain balance.

Your core body strength also improves which helps you to gain better balance. In turn, your balance improves. It is one of the greatest benefits of regular yoga practice.

5. Better Breathing and Lung Health

The practice of breathing is as important a part of yoga as the stretching and poses. You can’t likely achieve one without working on the others.

Pranayama is a breathing technique in yoga. It is about having slower and more controlled breathing. The breaths should go deep into the pit of the stomach all the way to the top of the lungs.

The focus on controlled breathing helps the practitioner to control their body both physically and mentally.

the art of breathing also increases lung capacity. This only serves to improve the health of the lungs. It is believed that regular yoga can reduce respiratory illnesses and improve overall health.

6. Decrease Stress

Let’s face it, we all have stress in our lives. Whether it’s work, bills, a broken car, a sick child, the stressors of everyday life can be both overwhelming and constant. Stress can also take a real toll on your body and mind.

A premier benefit of the daily practice of yoga is how it helps to clear your mind and reduce the effects of stress on your body.

Yoga, even in small doses, like during your lunchtime, can help to reduce stress. The practice of yoga comes ideally with three practices together, stretching, poses, and breathing.

When you focus your body on each of those things in tandem, you reduce stress. You focus on the breathing and stretching, achieving the poses. The stress can be released from your body and mind through yoga practice.

7. Mental Calmness and Concentration

There are a few things that happen to you when you practice yoga. Your mind must concentrate really hard to get your body to do things you are asking it to do.

Whether that is stretching in a new way or getting into a pose, your body needs your mind sharp and focused. This regular practice helps to teach your mind concentration.

Another important part of yoga is the meditation techniques that come as part of the practice of yoga. The art of meditation and getting your brain to focus on one singular thing, like stretching or breathing, helps to calm the brain while boosting your ability to concentrate more fully.

Often yoga sessions will start or end with meditation as part of the practice.

8. Increased Energy Levels

Like many forms of exercise that are performed regularly, practicing yoga daily can increase your energy levels.

You have heard of the runner who says if they don’t get in their daily run they feel sluggish and out of sorts all day.

Yoga works much the same way. If you are feeling low on energy, spending a few minutes doing some stretches and working to yoga poses can be transformative for your energy levels.

Those minutes spent getting your body and mind realigned will increase the energy you have for the rest of the day.

Your body has something called chakras or energy centers in your body. By doing some yoga stretches and poses, you wake up the chakras for the side effect of increased energy levels.

There are several yoga poses that will also work to increase your energy levels. The tree pose asks you to extend your spine and push the energy through your body.

The cobra pose forces the practitioner to take deep, long breaths. When you open up your lungs for more air and deep breathing, you increase your energy levels.

9. Increased Mindfulness

Mindfulness and yoga are the perfect partners. As you practice yoga and get better at poses, you mind concentrates.

The sensations, thoughts, and emotions that come with concentrating on the poses increase the mindfulness you experience. It takes your whole focus to achieve the desired pose.

The repeated practice and repetition helps you to achieve that calm mindfulness.

10. Improved Posture and Health

When we sit for periods of time or are sedentary, the spine settles impacting our overall posture. Stretching the spine and strengthening the muscles that support the spine only help to improve overall posture.

Any kind of regular exercise improves your overall health. Yoga strengthens your body. It increases the blood flow in your body. Your lungs can breathe deeper.

You also focus and calm your mind. This helps to remove stress from your body.

All these factors contribute to a healthier body and mind.

Grow with the Benefits of Daily Yoga Practice

It’s not surprising that yoga has gained such popularity and growth. Whether you are young and already fit or older and needing to work on fitness, yoga can do wonders for the body and the mind.

Daily yoga practice helps to sync the body and the mind and align them in unison. Those who practice yoga regularly are not only stronger physically but mentally too.

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