The Benefits of Yoga - In Case You Were Wondering What All the Hype's About

We all know someone that does yoga, right? Their faces light up, they talk about it like its the Holy Grail, omg you should come....

That was absolutely me lol. It still is. I remember going to my first class & coming out & calling my Mom saying, "If everyone went to Yoga the world would be a better place". It was that amazing.

What's the big deal?

I will explain. At least some of it anyway. Here are some of the benefits of doing yoga -

1. IMPROVED FLEXIBILITY

Improved flexibility is one of the first &most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you most likely aren't even able to touch your toes, let alone do any of the fancy poses you see posted on Instagram. But if you stick with it, in time you'll notice a gradual loosening, & eventually, some of the things that seemed completely impossible, will be possible. You'll also probably notice that aches & pains start to disappear. There's a reason for that. Tight hips can strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. Inflexibility in muscles & connective tissue, such as fascia & ligaments, can cause poor posture.

2. BUILDS MUSCLE STRENGTH

Strong muscles protect us from conditions like arthritis & back pain, & help prevent falls in the elderly. When you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility. If you just went to the gym to lift, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility. Many yoga poses require you to bear your body weight in new ways, including balancing on one leg or supporting yourself with your arms . Holding these poses over the course of several breaths helps build muscular strength.

3. IMPROVES POSTURE

Poor posture can cause back, neck, & other muscle and joint problems. So many of us experience this from sitting at our computers for long periods of time every day. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain & degenerative arthritis of the spine.

4. PREVENTS CARTILAGE & JOINT BREAKDOWN

Every time you practice, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by "squeezing and soaking" areas of cartilage that normally aren't used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out & a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads. Yoga is low impact, allowing you to use your joints without injuring them. It also helps strengthen the muscles around the joints, lessening their load. People with arthritis often see a marked improvement in their pain & mobility with regular gentle yoga practice.

5. BETTER BONE HEALTH

Weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones & helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift your own weight. Some help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to fractures. In an unpublished study conducted at California State University, yoga practice increased bone density in the vertebrae. Yoga's ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol may help keep calcium in the bones.

6. INCREASED BLOOD FLOW

Yoga gets your blood flowing. The relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands & feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs & allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Handstand & Shoulderstand, encourage venous blood from the legs & pelvis to flow back to the heart where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. This can help if you have swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin & red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues. It thins the blood by making platelets less sticky & by cutting the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood. This can lead to a decrease in heart attacks & strokes since blood clots are often the cause of these killers.

7. DRAINS YOUR LYMPHS & BOOSTS IMMUNITY

When you contract & stretch muscles, move organs around, & come in & out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, & dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.

8. UPS YOUR HEART RATE

When you regularly get your heart rate into the aerobic range, you lower your risk of heart attack & can relieve depression. While not all yoga is aerobic, if you do it vigorously or take flow or Ashtanga classes, it can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range. But even yoga exercises that don't get your heart rate up that high can improve cardiovascular conditioning. Studies have found that yoga practice lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, & can improve your maximum uptake of oxygen during exercise - all reflections of improved aerobic conditioning. One study found that subjects who were taught only pranayama could do more exercise with less oxygen.

9. LOWERS YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE

Two studies of people with hypertension, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, compared the effects of Savasana with simply lying on a couch. After three months, Savasana was associated with a 26-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 15-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number - & the higher the initial blood pressure, the bigger the drop.

10. REGULATES YOUR ADRENAL GLANDS

Yoga lowers cortisol levels. Normally, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to an acute crisis, which temporarily boosts immune function. If your cortisol levels stay high even after the crisis, they can compromise the immune system. Temporary boosts of cortisol help with long-term memory, but chronically high levels undermine memory & may lead to permanent changes in the brain. Excessive cortisol has been linked with major depression, osteoporosis (it extracts calcium & other minerals from bones & interferes with the laying down of new bone), high blood pressure, & insulin resistance. In rats, high cortisol levels lead to what researchers call "food-seeking behavior" (the kind that drives you to eat when you're upset, angry, or stressed). The body takes those extra calories & distributes them as fat in the abdomen, contributing to weight gain and the risk of diabetes & heart attack

11. LOWERS BLOOD SUGAR

Yoga lowers blood sugar & LDL ("bad") cholesterol and boosts HDL ("good") cholesterol. In people with diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways: by lowering cortisol & adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, & improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Get your blood sugar levels down, & you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, & blindness.

12. HELPS YOU FOCUS

An important component of yoga is focusing on the present. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves coordination, reaction time, memory, & even IQ scores. People who practice Transcendental Meditation demonstrate the ability to solve problems & acquire & recall information better - probably because they're less distracted by their thoughts.

13. RELAXES YOUR SYSTEM

Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breath, & focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming & restorative; it lowers breathing & heart rates, decreases blood pressure, & increases blood flow to the intestines & reproductive organs - comprising what Herbert Benson, M.D., calls the relaxation response.

14. HELPS YOU SLEEP DEEPER

Yoga can provide relief from stress & anziety brought on by our busy lives. Restorative poses, guided meditation, Savasana, & breathing encourage pratyahara, a turning inward of the senses, which provides downtime for the nervous system. Another by-product of a regular yoga practice, studies suggest, is better sleep - which means you'll be less tired & less stressed.

15. BOOSTS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Asana (poses) & pranayama (breathing) probably improve immune function, but, so far, meditation has the strongest scientific support in this area. It appears to have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the immune system, boosting it when needed (for example, raising antibody levels in response to a vaccine) & lowering it when needed (for instance, mitigating an inappropriately aggressive immune function in an autoimmune disease like psoriasis).

16. GIVES YOUR LUNGS ROOM TO BREATHE

Most of us take shallow breaths and don't give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises focus our attention on breathing & teach us how to take deeper breaths, which benefits the entire body. Yogis tend to take fewer breaths of greater volume, which is both calming & more efficient. A 1998 study published in The Lancet taught a yogic technique known as "complete breathing" to people with lung problems due to congestive heart failure. After one month, their average respiratory rate decreased from 13.4 breaths per minute to 7.6. Meanwhile, their exercise capacity increased significantly, as did the oxygen saturation of their blood. In addition, yoga has been shown to improve various measures of lung function, including the maximum volume of the breath & the efficiency of the exhalation. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages (helpful for people with allergies) & even calm the nervous system, which has physical & mental benefits on & off the mat.

17. PREVENTS IBS & OTHER DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS

Ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation - all of these can be exacerbated by stress. If you stress less, you'll suffer less. Yoga, like any physical exercise, can ease constipation - & theoretically lower the risk of colon cancer - because moving the body facilitates more rapid transport of food & waste products through the bowels. And, although it has not been studied scientifically, yogis suspect that twisting poses may be beneficial in getting waste to move through the system.

18. PEACE OF MIND

Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, according to Patanjali'sYoga Sutra. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, & desire that can cause stress. And since stress is implicated in so many health problems - from migraines & insomnia to lupus, MS, eczema, high blood pressure, & heart attacks - if you learn to quiet your mind, you'll be likely to live longer and healthier.

19. INCREASED SELF ESTEEM

So any of us suffer from low self-esteem. If you handle this negatively - take drugs, overeat, work too hard, etc. you may pay the price in poorer health physically, & mentally. If you take a positive approach, such as practicing yoga, you'll sense, initially in brief glimpses & later in more sustained views, that you're worthwhile - that you are capable of doing more than you thought. If you practice regularly with an intention of self-examination &betterment - not just as a substitute for an aerobics class - you can access a different side of yourself. You'll experience feelings of gratitude, empathy, & forgiveness, as well as a sense that you're part of something bigger.

20. EASES PAIN

Yoga can ease your pain. According to several studies, asana, meditation, or a combination of the two, reduced pain in people with arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel, &other chronic conditions. When you relieve your pain, your mood improves, you're more inclined to be active, & you don't need as much medication.

21. BUILDS AWARENESS FOR TRANSFORMATION

Yoga & meditation build awareness. And the more aware you are, the easier it is to break free of destructive emotions like anger. Studies suggest that chronic anger & hostility are as strongly linked to heart attacks as are smoking, diabetes, & elevated cholesterol. Yoga appears to reduce anger by increasing feelings of compassion & interconnection & by calming the nervous system & the mind. It also increases your ability to step back from the drama of your own life, to remain steady in the face of bad news or unsettling events. You can still react quickly when you need to - & there's evidence that yoga speeds reaction time - but you can take that split second to choose a more thoughtful approach, reducing suffering for yourself & others.

22. BENEFITS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

Love may not conquer all, but it certainly can aid in healing. Cultivating the emotional support of friends, family, & community has been demonstrated repeatedly to improve health & healing. A regular yoga practice helps develop friendliness, compassion, and greater equanimity. Along with yogic philosophy's emphasis on avoiding harm to others, telling the truth, & taking only what you need, this may improve many of your relationships.

23. ENCOURAGES SELF CARE

In much of conventional medicine, most patients are passive recipients of care. In yoga, it's what you do for yourself that matters. Yoga gives you the tools to help you change, & you might start to feel better the first time you try practicing. You may also notice that the more you commit to practice, the more you benefit. This results in three things: You get involved in your own care, you discover that your involvement gives you the power to effect change, & seeing that you can effect change gives you hope. And hope itself can be healing.

24. SUPPORTS YOUR CONNECTIVE CHANGE

As you read all the ways yoga improves your health, you probably noticed a lot of overlap. That's because they're intensely interwoven. Change your posture & you change the way you breathe. Change your breathing & you change your nervous system. This is one of the great lessons of yoga: Everything is connected—your hipbone to your anklebone, you to your community, your community to the world. This interconnection is vital to understanding yoga. This holistic system simultaneously taps into many mechanisms that have additive & even multiplicative effects. This synergy may be the most important way of all that yoga heals.

25. USES THE PLACEBO EFFECT TO AFFECT CHANGE

Just believing you will get better can make you better. Unfortunately, many conventional scientists believe that if something works by eliciting the placebo effect, it doesn't count. But most patients just want to get better, so if chanting a mantra - like you might do at the beginning or end of yoga class or throughout a meditation or in the course of your day, or focusing on your breath - facilitates healing, even if it's just a placebo effect, why not do it?

Much of the information I'm sharing, comes from yogajournal.com

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay