Yoga poses strengthen and stretch your legs, hips and inner thighs. They also help you to focus on your breath and improve your balance. Research has shown that yoga can reduce stress, lower blood pressure and increase lung capacity.
Begin by laying down on your mat. Place a bolster or two folded blankets on your mat, parallel to each other with a gap between them.
Stretching
The practice of yoga incorporates stretching exercises and deep breathing. This combination of activities helps reduce anxiety, stress and fatigue. Incorporating mindfulness into your stretches also encourages relaxation and distracts your mind from anxiety-inducing thoughts. Stretching stimulates endorphin production, a chemical that elevates mood and alleviates stress.
Dynamic stretching is typically done before exercise to help warm up muscles and soft tissues and decrease stiffness. However, it can be beneficial at other times as well. For example, standing and stretching your arms by contracting your biceps muscle until you feel a slight pull and then relaxing the contraction, can relieve tension in your upper shoulders. Similarly, while standing, you can elongate your leg muscles by contracting your quadriceps (thigh) muscle until you feel a stretch and then releasing the contraction. This exercise can also relax your calf muscles and lower your blood pressure. These stretches are simple to perform and do not require any equipment or a partner.
Breathing
One of the most powerful yoga tools is breathing, which can be consciously controlled. Yogic breathing exercises, called pranayama, help reduce stress and anxiety. They stimulate the vagus nerve, which shifts autonomic activation to the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to relaxation and lowering the respiration rate [16].
The practice of deep breathing, called diaphragmatic breathing, helps to relax and reduce tension. This is especially useful for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart problems and cancer, according to a 2020 study. It also lowers stress and may help with high blood pressure and migraine episodes.
Sit in a comfortable seated position, ideally with the spine and chest erect. Breathe deeply into the belly, counting to five with each inhale. Then, count to five again with each exhale and try to match your breath in with your breath out. Repeat for 10 to 20 minutes or until you feel relaxed. A variant of this exercise is Lion’s breath, which is energizing and may help relieve tension in the chest and face.
Coordination
The physical postures of yoga train the muscles of the body to move in unison. This balance and coordination help to improve your overall health by strengthening your bones, muscles and tendons.
The breathing exercises of yoga, known as pranayama, calm the mind and help you to relax. Several studies have shown that the relaxation induced by yoga lowers blood pressure. Yoga also helps to reduce the symptoms of anxiety by restoring the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems that are responsible for the “fight-or-flight” response.
Yoga encourages a healthy sense of self-acceptance and decreases the stress that is associated with negative bodily sensations such as pain. This type of acceptance and mindfulness increases the ability to focus on healing. This heightened awareness is important in patients who are experiencing life-threatening illnesses. Additionally, the practices of yoga that increase interoception and stimulate the vagus nerve can help to promote quicker recovery from stressful situations.
Relaxation
Yoga helps you relax and improves your mood, which can help reduce inflammation. It also increases levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutryric acid, or GABA, which can lower blood pressure and relieve pain.
Relaxation techniques in yoga include tense-and-relax, visualization, and deep breathing exercises. For example, you may tense and relax your muscles gradually, starting at your toes and working up to your head and neck. Visualization involves creating mental pictures that take you on a relaxing journey to a peaceful place or situation.
Yogic postures and breathing exercises can improve balance, strength, flexibility, endurance, respiratory and cardiovascular function. Yoga can also reduce stress, improve sleep and alleviate chronic conditions like depression and anxiety. It should not be used as a replacement for clinical treatment, however. It is important to work with a qualified yoga teacher when learning the techniques and poses.