There are definitely more than 10 reasons why yoga is good for you.
Indeed, the physical and psychological benefits of yoga could fill entire books.
The following is therefore only a summary of the reasons that should encourage you to integrate yoga into your habits.
Here are 10 health benefits of yoga you should know about:
Many sports make you stronger. Others can increase your agility. But very few activities will improve your strength, agility and flexibility at the same time.
Many professional athletes have overcome their injuries by increasing their range of motion through yoga.
There are even athletes who have had a double mastectomy who have regained full mobility after debilitating surgery, thanks to yoga . All this despite many scars in their bodies.
Nothing is as effective as yoga in repairing the body and ensuring that ligaments and connective tissues are as strong and flexible as the muscles themselves.
It may seem strange that this activity which involves breathing and stretching increases cognitive functions, but these are the conclusions of scientific research on this subject.
According to these studies, those who practice yoga have better learning and memory skills and find it easier to stay focused longer.
All of these benefits are attributed to meditation, which is arguably the ultimate goal of every yoga practitioner. But meditation can also help you during your studies or at work by improving the functioning of your brain.
Doing hatha yoga or even power yoga probably won't burn as many calories as a HIIT cardio session. But yoga has the advantage of stabilizing weight by restoring the body's hormonal balance.
Yoga lowers cortisol levels, as well as the flight or fight response of our nervous system. As a result, you're less likely to overeat or eat to deal with negative emotions.
With yoga, we also teach our brain to feel full more easily since we are not constantly in panic mode!
Stress is known to promote obesity and is the cause of many diseases! Yoga is therefore perfect to counterbalance these symptoms.
Many studies show that yoga is effective in reducing pain. It doesn't matter if you suffer from fibromyalgia, arthritis, or migraines, yoga has been proven to relieve the suffering that results from all of these ailments.
And if, like millions of people, you suffer from back pain, yoga can almost make your pain disappear.
It has even been proven that meditation can sometimes be more effective in reducing pain than morphine.
One of the other health benefits of yoga is that it is one of the few practices that uses pranayama. Pranayama is a technique based on energy and breathing.
Many people practice pranayama as a way to reach higher levels of consciousness. But the health benefits don't stop there.
Indeed, this practice also increases lung capacity, vital capacity (the total amount of air the lungs can hold), as well as the ability to slow down your heart rate (directly linked to a longer life expectancy).
The practice of yoga is also beneficial to people whose blood pressure is fluctuating.
And for those with high blood pressure, yoga has been shown to be even more effective than dietary changes that can improve blood pressure.
Yoga offers so many mental benefits that it is difficult to list them all in a brief summary.
But among these benefits, we can cite a general improvement in mood, a feeling of overall well-being, more ease in communicating with others, a reduction in depressive states, less aggressiveness towards oneself and others, less anxiety, better self-esteem, more motivation and much more…
The way yoga prevents disease is amazing. When you find out how, you'll want to grab your yoga mat more than ever!
Here are some of the reasons why yoga helps you stay young and healthy for longer. Yoga:
- decreases glucose,
- decreases sodium,
- lowers the overall cholesterol level,
- increases HDL cholesterol,
- lowers VLDL cholesterol,
- lowers LDL cholesterol,
- increases cholinesterase,
- lowers catecholamines,
- increases ATPase,
- increases the hematocrit,
- increases hemoglobin,
- increases the lymphocyte count,
- decreases the total number of white blood cells,
- increases thyroxine,
- increases bioavailable vitamin C,
- increases the total number of serum proteins,
- increases oxytocin,
- increases prolactin.
Why is this a good thing? The 2 parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems work together to stabilize us in the face of stress.
These 2 systems function as communicating vessels. When one goes up, the other goes down. When the sympathetic nervous system is active, it means we are on high alert. Either we are reacting to stress or we are trying to minimize it.
The parasympathetic nervous system is our most commonly used nervous system. Whether it's traffic lights, traffic noise, e-mails from our colleagues or the boss, family responsibilities, etc.
Yoga has the advantage of strengthening the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for Zen responses in the face of these stressful stimuli.
Obviously, nobody wants to be permanently amorphous or, on the contrary, permanently on the alert. It is for this reason that yoga is great for mental health, as it helps balance both nervous systems. As a result, it helps you not to overreact to the events you are experiencing.
Perhaps the most practical health benefit of yoga is that you can do it just about anywhere!
I have practiced in yoga studios, at the airport, in my house, at friends, outdoors in parks and forests, on rocks, on the roofs of apartment buildings.
You don't need anything (except maybe a yoga mat), although it's not really essential. There is no membership required at a gym and no expensive machines is not necessary.
You don't have to be super fit to do it. And besides, yoga will always make you progress even if you are already in good physical shape.
Yoga is a timeless activity that can be practiced anywhere without major inconvenience.
If you need even more reasons to practice yoga, go to a yoga class near you and experience firsthand what yoga can do for you.
