Created around Four Thousand Seven Hundred years ago in the Indus Valley civilization, Yoga has established itself as an internationally recognized method for physical, mental, and spiritual development. Modern Yoga is primarily based on the teachings of Patanjali (the person not the company) whose sutras are still predominant to this day.
Today, we will be focusing on the benefits of yoga as a form of exercise.
Yoga has multiple proven health benefits:
Yoga can increase strength and balance: Slow movements and deep breathing increase blood flow and warm up muscles while holding a pose can build strength.
Yoga helps weight loss: Yoga as an exercise increases the number of calories burnt as various poses and asanas are performed. Over time, this will help reduce one’s overall weight by promoting fat loss and muscle gain.
Yoga increases flexibility and the chances of injuries: Through stretches, yoga helps combat muscle, tendon and ligament stiffness which reduces the chances of pull injuries.
Yoga helps with muscle and back pain relief: Yoga is as good as stretching eases lower back pain and helps increase overall mobility. Gentle yoga has been shown to ease some of the discomforts of tender, swollen joints for people with arthritis. Yoga also reduces muscle soreness and muscle tenderness.
Yoga helps maintain heart health: Exercise of any kind is known to release endorphins and other positive hormones in the body which help uplift one’s mood and reduce stress. Stress is one of the greatest factors affecting blood pressure, thus, yoga is an extremely effective method of maintaining a healthy heart. These health benefits of yoga extend to not just Pain/Symptom relief but also acts as a form of Preventative and Curative Medicine.
Hypertension: is a result of high blood pressure and yoga is proven to be the only long-term cure to relieve stress and pressure.
Asthma: can be controlled if pranayama and anulom-vilom are done regularly. It is also the only known way to reduce asthmatic symptoms.
The symptoms of Diabetes and Arthritis can be controlled through suryanamaskar, Trikonasana, Viparita Karani, Balasana, and various other yoga hold poses(this refers to poses that do not involve heavy movement)
Liver and Back problems can be easily solved through yoga poses such as the bridge pose, cat-cow pose, sphinx pose, bridge pose, locust pose, etc. which strengthen the back and increase blood flow to the abdomen and body in general.
Moving on from the physical benefits of yoga, we focus on its mental health benefits.
Generally, exercise boosts your mind and body providing a fresh dose of energy when needed. Yoga helps in the same way yet it specifically targets your mind and certain parts of your body. Yoga relieves the body of stress hormones and increases the number of endorphins(the feel-good hormones) in the blood. This is the main way through which Yoga helps fight depression.
It also keeps the mind sharp as more fresh oxygenated blood is pumped into the brain which helps form new connections between neurons. Yoga also helps train good health habits as when you feel good, you tend to be more disciplined and take better decisions.
Written by: Aniruddh R Kurpad
