When people hear the word yoga, they often think of bending and twisting their bodies in impossible poses. But researchers have found that yoga can provide health benefits beyond the physical exertion involved.
Studies show that yoga can be effective at improving strength, flexibility, balance, and body awareness. In addition, it provides the added benefit of mental/emotional health and stress reduction.
Strength
Many people associate yoga with a stretchy, bendy style of exercise but the practice has a fierce, vigorous side too. Strength and stability are just as important as flexibility, especially if you want to reduce your risk of injury.
Practicing a wide range of poses strengthens all major muscle groups as well as smaller support muscles. New yogis can build strength naturally by practicing consistently and they will also see a difference in their posture, which is healthier than the slouching that often results from weak core muscles.
Yoga falls under the category of body-weight training, which is limited by your own size, but if you want to bulk up and become stronger than ever, you will need to combine it with weight training. Practicing yoga in conjunction with other forms of strength training is an effective way to maximise your gains and reduce the chance of injuries. Yoga also helps the muscles recover between workouts by improving the flow of blood to the muscles and flushing out lactic acid, which reduces soreness.
Flexibility
Yoga incorporates a combination of movement and stretching to improve flexibility. Stretching can increase range of motion for joints, and improved flexibility can help you move more easily and avoid injuries.
Flexibility can also enhance your athletic performance. For example, in one study, athletes who performed dynamic flexibility exercises (e.g., flexion, extension and toe-touching movements) showed higher balance and hip joint mobility than those who didn’t perform the same exercises.
However, establishing a link between specific flexibility tests and health outcomes in youth is difficult because other musculoskeletal variables affect performance on these tests. For example, a person’s MTU length (the distance between the bone at the base of the spine and the hip joint) influences flexibility, and a person’s MTU length may not be the same on both sides of the body. This can complicate attempts to identify the relationship between flexibility and health. Moreover, it’s not clear whether the effects of yoga on flexibility are generalizable to other activities or sports.
Mental Health
Yoga has been shown to help prevent and alleviate many common mental disorders, including anxiety and depression. The postures, breathing, and meditative exercises in yoga can boost your mood by increasing the production of endorphins, or “feel-good” chemicals, in your brain.
Studies have also found that students who practice yoga show more positive social behaviors and are better able to adapt to rapid social change. Yoga can also improve your ability to concentrate and enhance your overall mental health.
Stress is a normal part of life, but taking steps to maintain your mental health is just as important as maintaining good physical health. With our busy lives and ever-increasing levels of stress, it is essential to take time out to relax and find a healthy balance. Yoga is a natural and accessible way to achieve this. It is also much safer than relying on prescription medication. With no side effects or risk of drug interactions, it is the ideal stress reliever.
Stress Reduction
Several studies have shown that yoga can reduce self-reported stress and anxiety. However, this impact might vary by the type of yoga intervention and the specific components that influence stress. For example, physical posture and breathwork might be more effective for reducing physiological stress than cognitive-affective aspects of the stress appraisal, such as mindfulness and self-compassion.
Another reason why yoga is a good stress-reducing practice may be that it restores baroreceptor sensitivity, which is necessary for the body to sense imbalances in blood pressure. Moreover, yogic meditation has been shown to increase melatonin levels, a hormone with a calming effect.
A recent study examining psychosocial mechanisms of change in yoga programs found that changes in interoceptive awareness and mindfulness were related to decreased perceived stress and stress reactivity. This indicates that the mechanism through which yoga reduces stress is similar to that of other psychosocial therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. Improvements in self-control and spiritual well-being, which were not directly linked to stress reactivity or perceptions of stress, also correlated with decreases in stress over the course of the yoga program.