Yoga helps build and tone the muscles of the arms, back, legs and abdomen. Many poses also improve balance by training the proprioceptive and visual portions of balance.
Chaturanga Dandasana, sometimes called the yogic push-up, strengthens your shoulders and arms while challenging your balance. Eagle Pose (Garudasana) stretches and strengthens the legs, glutes and hip flexors.
Stretches
Stretching exercises target different muscle groups than yoga poses, but both help to build strength and flexibility. For example, stretching might include a forward bend that challenges your balance and requires you to keep your back straight while extending your arms. This pose can also strengthen the muscles in your chest, back and shoulders.
Beginner yoga poses such as Child’s Pose are a great way to stretch your upper and lower back while building core strength. This position, which involves lying on your mat with a neutral spine and resting on the hands, can also be used as a relaxation technique between more strenuous stretches during a yoga session.
Adding yoga to your fitness routine can improve the results of your workouts and make you feel better after your sessions. Studies have shown that combining yoga with strength training enhances the benefits of both, helping you to become stronger and more flexible while improving your posture.
Strengthens
Yoga postures, or asanas, strengthen muscles throughout the body. Strong core muscles provide stability in standing and balancing poses, while strong legs help you keep your balance during more advanced moves like chaturanga (plank pose). The strength you build in the shoulders helps protect them from injury while you move into more challenging arm-supported positions, such as boat and plank.
Yoga increases muscular endurance, which can improve your performance when you incorporate it into a weight training routine. The more muscle endurance you have, the easier it will be for you to hold a bodyweight exercise for longer, which can reduce your risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of your workouts.
Including yoga as part of your workout routine can also improve your breathing and digestion, according to a 2017 study. In addition, the calm, peaceful environment you practice yoga in can help lower your blood pressure and heart rate, which can reduce your risk for high cholesterol and triglycerides.
Relieves Stress
Yoga poses, breath work, and meditation all promote a feeling of calmness and clarity. The deep breathing and mindfulness associated with yoga helps to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system, which signals the body to chill out. This decreases blood pressure and heart rate, which all help to reduce stress levels.
Aside from the physical benefits of yoga, it has also been shown to increase quality of life in patients with chronic pain. It also improves respiratory function, balance and flexibility, and reduces stress.
If you are interested in incorporating yoga into your daily routine, try to practice it at least once or twice per week for optimal results. If you have any health concerns or take medications, always check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program. You can also speak with a yoga instructor for personalized recommendations.
Relaxes the Mind
Yoga strengthens muscles, improves balance and posture, and teaches mindfulness to reduce stress. It also boosts the body’s production of feel-good hormones and oxygenated blood to the brain, which helps you handle stressful situations with more calmness and less reactivity.
Yoga has been shown to increase brain volume and activity in regions responsible for memory, attention, awareness, thought, and language, thereby improving cognitive function. Moreover, fMRI studies have revealed that regular yoga practice significantly decreases the reactivity of the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with fear and stress responses.
Plus, the calming effects of yoga can help you develop a more positive body image and a sense of self-worth. And when you attend a yoga class, you’re surrounded by others who share your goals of better health and well-being, which can ease loneliness. Yoga may even be able to help you cope with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, as several recent studies have found that it can improve body image and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.