Here are the top 7 science-backed benefits of incorporating yoga into your lifestyle:Here are the top 7 science-backed benefits of incorporating yoga into your lifestyle:
1. Reduces Stress and Anxiety.
Stress and anxiety are some of the leading reasons why individuals seek yoga, mainly because it helps in eradicating stress factors. Research has revealed that practicing yoga makes it easy to reduce the levels of cortisol in the body, which is a stress hormone. Yoga can also induce this relaxation response in as little as five minutes of practice as it clears the mind and directs concentration to the present. In the long run, the breathing and meditation associated with the practice of yoga bolsters the nervous system to fend off stress. Reduced stress leads to improved mood and outlook, as well as the ability to cope with life events more effectively.
2. Relieves Chronic Pain.
The slow and gradual movements in addition to coordinating and controlling the breath enables yoga to be recommended for anyone experiencing osteoarthritis, back aches, or any other chronic discomforts. Yoga also assist in increasing elasticity and blood flow to the affected areas, delivering oxygen and nutrients to the tissues to promote recovery. Yoga regime also benefits in reorganizing the nervous system that transmits lesser signals of pain due to modification in tolerance.
3. Improves Heart Health.
The possibility of deep breathing, which is inherent in yoga, ensures that the cardiovascular structure is improved since lungs are used to transport oxygen within the body. The postures and breathing patterns help in circulation as it really circulates blood to all the organs and reduces the pressure and cholesterol. Yoga can help even those at risk of heart disease reverse arterial and heart disease, states a report.
4. Helps Fight Depression.
The calming nature of yoga helps to steer your mind away from depressive thoughts, allowing you to change the thought processes that feed depression. The physical postures help to produce endorphins to elevate mood naturally while raising the energy level to sustain motivation. Yoga can also influence some hormones that are related to mood such as thyroid, estrogen and dopamine, and also calm down the nervous system to eliminate some symptoms of depression, anxiety and insomnia.
5. Improves Balance and Strength.
Yoga with a certain frequency has a positive effect on balance since stabilizing poses target the ankle, knee, and hip joints. Yoga poses such as the planks, the downward facing dog and the triangle pose puts weight on muscles and strengthens all muscles of the body including the arm, legs, and shoulders while the abdominal muscles are also engaged. Thus, the overall strength and muscle control leads to improved range of motion, endurance, flexibility, and control. The prevention of strains, sprains and falling decreases in old age and allows for more movement.
6. Helps Reduce Inflammation.
In yoga, twists and stretches are made on the muscles, internal organs, and glands to stimulate the lymph, which is responsible for the removal of toxins from the body. Lubrication allows for faster transfer of oxygen, nutrients and disease fighting immune cells, known as white blood cells, to reduce inflammation. Patients with conditions such as arthritis, asthma, and irritable bowel syndrome can significantly improve their quality of life through regular yoga practice. Some of the postures also assist in re-wiring of the nervous system in order to switch off stress responses that trigger inflammation.
7. Promotes Better Sleep.
Sleep onset and maintenance insomnia is experienced by almost half of the population on a regular basis. Yoga is one of the natural remedies that can help in combating insomnia and restless nights. Thus, calming breath starts the relaxation response to help your body to relax while conscious breath makes the mind get tired and thus needs rest during night. In addition, yoga as plus practice assists in managing conditions including chronic pain and depression and anxiety that affect quality sleep. The physical aspect of yoga also has the other advantage of facilitating better and restful sleep in order to rejuvenate tired muscles and tissues.
The integration of yoga practices allows for a plethora of physical and psychological advantages. The positive effects of practicing yoga are improved strength, flexibility, balance, heart health and immune system plus an easy access to inner peace. Indeed, yoga is the best mind-body exercise that can be used to enhance the quality of health and well-being.
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