Yoga is an excellent way to improve your physical and mental health. We can all greatly benefit from incorporating yoga practice.
Yoga relaxes your mind while listening to your body, focusing your breathing, and concentrating on your movements. As an added bonus, your mental, emotional, and spiritual health grows and expands when practicing yoga.
How Can You Benefit From Yoga
Yoga is a low-impact, slow-moving exercise that helps with recovery whilst also preparing the body for upcoming tasks.
Don´t think of yoga as an activity for those who just want more calm and stillness in their life. In fact, if you are an active person then implementing a yoga practice will complement your lifestyle.
Note from trainer Patrick of startrowing.com: Those who are highly active can benefit from yoga as it will help both your mind and body progress and recover. Yoga can create some headspace to help get you into the right frame of mind, feel more positive, tackle difficult challenges, and reduce stress levels. Physically it helps promote flexibility and stabilization that helps keep your muscles and joints healthy as well as prevent injuries.
Here is a list of ways yoga can improve your health.
- Yoga builds and strengthens muscle groups that improve your overall health
- Strengthens core, quad, hamstring, chest, back, arms, and hip flexor muscles while increasing flexibility
- Loosens tight hips and calves while activating other muscles
- Yoga compels you to learn breath control
- Breath training helps you work through and alleviate pain
- Deep yoga twists increase your lung capacity and improve your cardiovascular health
- Yoga improves endurance by focusing on the process of a given activity
- Internal focus shifts your attention towards body movement that ignore distractions
- Your body and mind are more adaptable to change
- Yoga helps prevent injuries by listening to your body and hearing its messages
- Strengthens your muscles and joints to prevent injuries
- Yoga strengthens your mental muscles
- Improves your confidence
- Calms your mind by letting go of high expectations and perfectionism
What Types of Yoga Can You Apply
There are many types of yoga classes and practices you can take. Here is a list of yoga types you can apply based on your activity level.
Hatha Yoga: the least challenging yoga practice you can start with
- Focuses on body alignment poses
- Poses are held for long periods of time
- Promote balance while activating your muscles
Ashtanga Yoga: a more challenging yoga practice that focuses on strength
- Uses a faster sequence of poses
Vinyasa Yoga: the most challenging and fast-paced yoga practice
- Prioritizes breath and movement
- Trains you to be mindful and present
Restorative Yoga: a gentle yoga practice that promotes relaxation
- Restores your body and calms your mind
- Builds flexibility while you train
Breathing Techniques
Breath techniques and awareness can reduce your stress and anxiety. Yoga promotes conscious breathing that matches your breath with movement. Pranayama or breath control teaches how to use your breath.
Different yoga breathing techniques include:
- Deep Breathing – deliberately slows down your breathing
- Quiet Breathing – naturally continues without effort
- Fast Breathing – deliberates increase your breathing speed
Mantras
A mantra consists of repeating words or a phrase for motivation or direction. A motivating mantra is positive and encouraging while a direction mantra is commanding. The best mantras are short, strong, and personally connected to you.
You should repeat your mantra when you have a specific thought or difficulty. Repeating a mantra can help overcome obstacles or challenges. Some mantras include:
- “Deep Breaths”
- “You Can Do This”
- “Just Keep Moving”
- “I Am Strong”
How to Get Started
Yoga is easy to start. All you need is a yoga mat and yoga pants. After getting the necessary tools you can begin your yoga routine either at home or by signing up for a class.
Have a vigorous yoga practice on days where you have a lighter load and an easier yoga practice on days that require more energy from you. You want to vary the intensity to keep your body activated.
Yoga is the perfect physical and mental recovery. When practiced regularly yoga can relieve soreness or tension within your muscles.
Final Thoughts
Yoga can become an essential component of your routine. What’s great is that it’s easy to incorporate without adding extra stress to your workload. You can start with one or two sessions per week as you adapt. After a few weeks of consistent yoga, you will notice a significant difference in both your physical and mental health.
Yoga teaches you to relax your mind and listen to your body. Every movement you make is connected. Learning to concentrate on your movements with regular yoga is a necessary skill.
Begin your yoga practice today. There is no time like the present to enhance your body, soul, and mind.
