Health Benefits

The Many Benefits of Yoga Physical Health Benefits

For many people, yoga is simply considered to be a retreat from the distraction and chaos of everyday life. But, the truth is that the benefits of yoga reach far beyond the mat! Apart from fitness, yoga can offer a wide variety of physical, mental, social, and spiritual health benefits for people of all ages. Integrating yoga into our life can potentially alleviate issues caused by a lack of flexibility, bad posture, or arthritis, and can help manage burnout, stress and anxiety. So, let's look at the benefits of yoga, they might surprise you!

Yoga increases cardiovascular endurance. German scientists claim that the practice of yoga over a duration of time can increase cardiopulmonary endurance and physical fitness more than other forms of exercise.

Yoga can help ease arthritis pain. Exercise is widely understood to help manage pain caused by arthritis. Yoga can help with some of the limitations that can result from arthritis as it can provide a gentler form of exercise that can strengthen muscles and increase the range of motion around affected joints which can help lessen the pain.

Yoga improves flexibility. Studies have noted that increased flexibility is the main reason people choose to pursue yoga. It has been found that people who practice yoga have greater flexibility in the hamstrings, calves, glutes, ankles, and lower back. So, why is flexibility important? Well, when a muscle is well stretched, it has a larger range of motion which makes it feel less tight and stiff. This makes everyday activities such as bending or reaching for things a lot easier. It can also improve athletic performance in other sports that require a wide range of motion such as golf, tennis, or baseball.

Yoga improves brain function. There have been numerous recent studies that focus on how yoga can affect cognitive function and its structures. Findings tell us that some practices which stimulate both the mind and the body (such as yoga) can have an effect on the anatomy of the brain! Yoga, in particular, is linked to functional and anatomical changes in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, and insula. These findings aren’t only surprising, but are extremely crucial as they can be understood as supporting the idea that yoga has a positive impact on cognitive functions such as memory, mood and emotion control and on movement, behaviors, perception.

Frontal cortex - responsible for personality traits, the decision making process, working memory and movement.

Hippocampus - responsible for memory formation, learning, navigating and space perception.

Anterior cingulate cortex - involved in the expression of emotion, mood regulation and attention.

Insula - responsible for the processing of stimuli and sense perception.

Yoga can tone the whole body and improve physical fitness. Yoga is considered a form of strength training (and cardio), depending on the type of practice we do. Therefore, it can stimulate fat loss, develop our muscles, and increase flexibility. If this is your main aspiration, then the first step is to find the right type! Try to aim for one that brings up your heart rate and breaks a sweat while also putting you in poses that challenge your muscles. Forms of practice, such as Vinyasa, are more fast paced and have repetitive and rhythmic arrangement. Poses such as Chaturanga tend to be challenging and require strength and effort. Hatha, on the other hand, is a slower kind of practice, but the different poses also challenge your strength and flexibility. Practicing a similar combination of these forms can help you achieve your goals.

Yoga can help refine posture. Since many poses can aid with building strength, it comes as no surprise that yoga can help us adjust our posture. Yoga poses emphasize the correct alignment of the arms, wrists, shoulders, and back. As a student of yoga, learning how to properly align your body to hold poses is what comes first. As you progress, and your body adapts to the right alignment for the pose, you’d be able to hold poses for longer periods of time with more ease. Reaching this stage can help us find our way to refine our posture over time as we retain the right habits for alignment, which can likely correct our own non-yoga poses naturally. For example, not slouching in the chair, or keeping our shoulders back. Yoga can strengthen our core which can lead to better back support, and a better posture – it can even decrease tension and alleviate back pain.

Mental Health Benefits of Yoga

Yoga can reduce anxiety. Yoga can serve as a pathway to tranquility. With that comes a sense of relaxation, and a calm and contemplative outlook on life. This is because yoga inhibits the posterior of the hypothalamus by increasing levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, leading to an optimized sympathetic response to stressful situations - which can also lead to feeling less stressed. The areas in the brain that are inhibited when practicing yoga are responsible for producing sensations of fear, aggressiveness, and anger, effectively leading to a state of calm and pleasure. This is directly linked to lowering rates of anxiety, as well as lower blood pressure and cardiac output.

GABA stands for Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid and it is a neurotransmitter (chemical messenger in the brain) that inhibits certain signals in the brain and spinal cord (also know as the central nervous system). GABA is best known for producing a calming effect as it plays a major role in the control of hyperactivity in cells, which is associated with stress, fear and anxiety. Yoga improves self-esteem. Some of the numerous poses adopted when practicing yoga are called “power poses''. These poses have been proven to boost our sense of power, confidence, and self-esteem, which can lead to personal empowerment. They are mainly open and expansive poses, making us look like and feel like we’re dominant and in power. It has also been found that combining such poses with breathing techniques can alter our psychological state and improve overall psychological wellbeing.

Yoga can help with burnout management. The sense of mindfulness that can be acquired through yoga plays an important role when trying to manage burnout. It can provide you with the skills to be present in the moment by processing your thoughts and emotions in a healthier manner. It also promotes relaxation, which restores your state of wellbeing. Yoga types such as restorative yoga or Yin yoga (find more on p. 7) are perfect for this.

Yoga helps relieve stress. Practicing yoga reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which provides an antidepressant effect. Cortisol levels are decreased due to the deep and slow breathing techniques utilized when practicing yoga, as well as through mindfulness techniques. The American Psychological Association discusses the influence of mindfulness on two different stress pathways in the brain, which can impact brain structures mainly in the regions that regulate emotion and attention.

Spiritual health benefits of yoga

Yoga facilitates spiritual healing. Yoga has lots of goodness to offer not only for our body, but also for our mind and souls. By alleviating physical pain, providing physical fitness, helping with stress and anxiety, as well as managing burnout, yoga can ultimately lead one to a higher perspective on life.

Yoga can help you embrace stillness and the present. Yoga gives you a chance to slow down and distance yourself from life’s distractions! When holding a pose, all of your senses are focused on the sensations in your muscles. This allows us to release our thoughts from the circumstances that we’re in and focus only on the moment.

Yoga can teach us how to be alone with ourselves. When releasing ourselves from the distractions of life, we become alone with our thoughts which can be a great opportunity to better connect with the universe and become closer to reaching true freedom and abundance.