Yoga poses are designed to improve strength, flexibility and balance. They also increase body awareness through rhythmic, focused breathing.
More vigorous styles of yoga can also improve your heart health by getting your blood flowing and oxygenating the cells more effectively. The weight-bearing exercises of yoga also strengthen bones and help ward off osteoporosis.
Strength
Incorporating yoga exercises as part of your workouts can help you build muscle strength and tone muscles throughout the body. You can use yoga for your arms, legs and core to develop a strong, sculpted physique. People who are not comfortable doing weight training or who wish to avoid joint and ligament injury should also include yoga exercises as part of their exercise routines.
Unlike strength-training exercises, which use free weights and machines to strengthen your muscles, many yoga poses make your own body weight the primary source of resistance. This makes yoga exercises challenging for even the most conditioned athletes and allows people of all fitness levels to reap its benefits.
Arms: Yoga for arm strength includes poses such as plank pose, crow or crane pose and cobra pose. Shoulders: The triceps are strengthened in yoga by the plank pose, forearm plank and the balancing posture of half moon pose. Legs: Yoga for leg strength includes the quadriceps, thighs and hamstrings in poses such as a deep knee bend in boat or half fold.
Flexibility
Whether you have a naturally flexible body or are extremely tight, yoga poses can help you increase your flexibility. Flexibility enables your muscles to better withstand physical strain and may reduce the risk of injuries, such as back pain or sports injuries.
Practicing these stretches, known as poses or asanas, can also help you strengthen and tone muscles, and improve balance. This can be beneficial for people with high blood pressure or heart disease. It can also reduce stress, lower triglyceride levels and improve immune system function.
For a simple stretch that increases flexibility, try Legs-Up-The-Wall pose, which begins in a sitting position and lifts the legs up to rest against a wall. This simple posture helps energize the body, improve balance and strengthens the core. It also helps relieve mild back pain and reduce fatigue in the legs.
Breathing
Breathing is an important part of yoga and focuses on regulating the breath. The breathing exercises help balance the nervous system and calm the overworked mind. Breathing techniques also help to improve sleep and promote mindfulness.
Inhale and exhale for a full five count during each cycle of your breath. This is called resonant or coherent breathing and helps to regulate your heart rate variability, which can reduce stress.
Practice the humming bee pranayama to calm your mind and relax the body. Sit in a comfortable seated position and focus on your breath. Exhale slowly making a buzzing sound as you breathe out. Repeat for 5 minutes.
Kapalbhati Pranayama, or the hissing breath is another yoga breathing exercise to reduce pitta energy. Sit in a relaxed position and close your mouth. Inhale deeply through the nose and exhale with force, producing a hissing sound as you breathe out. Avoid this practice if you have asthma, bronchitis or chronic constipation.
Relaxation
The mental concentration and physical relaxation exercises of yoga can help to calm the mind and improve sleep. Incorporating yoga into your daily routine helps you relax and fall asleep faster at night, reducing stress-related insomnia.
Yin yoga, which involves holding poses for longer periods of time to stretch the deep connective tissues, is particularly good for relaxing muscles, Chelsea says. However, any type of yoga can help reduce stress through its breathing exercises and calming effects.
Try a progressive muscle relaxation exercise in which you systematically tense and then relax each muscle group, starting with the toes and moving up to the head. Repeat this exercise several times a day, in a quiet space with minimal distractions. It takes practice to learn how to relax and reduce your stress, so it’s important to stick with a regular routine of yoga exercises. Seek out a teacher who can help you develop and maintain a healthy yoga lifestyle.