Blog Post for Yoga Studio
10 Ways Yoga Heals
It is no secret that yoga facilitates better health. But how exactly does it improve health? It’s simple, yoga heals. Yoga has many benefits, below are the top 10 ways in which yoga helps heal the body!
Increases Flexibility
Flexibility is often the first benefit people think of when they think of yoga. It is true that yoga increases the flexibility of muscles and helps to widen the range of movement in joints. Overtime, yoga can significantly improve one’s flexibility. Yogis who once had shortened and tight muscles joyfully find their yoga practice helps to stretch and lengthen these muscles.Strengthens Muscles
Yoga is a full body workout. It works every muscle from head to toe contributing to an accumulation of stronger muscles. Yoga creates lean muscles through its combination of strengthening poses that work to also stretch the muscles as they strengthen.Improves Balance
Balance is an important daily skill to improve in order to safely go about your daily life, especially when aging. As we age, our balance naturally decreases and makes us more susceptible to hip fractures, broken bones, and a loss of independence. Yoga helps give us the tools to increase our balance at any age. Regularly practicing asanas such as tree pose and dancer allow yogi’s to build up their balance and become comfortable in situations when the body can not completely be firmly stabilized.Improves Posture
Yoga promotes a stabilized core, the powerhouse of the body. A strong core helps to achieve a proper upright position in the body and the spine. Throughout yoga classes, instructors queue for proper posture and alignment. These reminders to sit and stand straight while lifting from the crown of the head promotes memory for yogis to take this posture off the mat and into their daily life.Strengthens Bones
Weight bearing poses help to strengthen the bodies bones. This wards off osteoporosis. The wonderful thing about yoga, compared to other weight bearing forms of exercise, is that it puts weight on areas of the bodies that often fall victim to osteoporosis, such as the wrists in downward facing dog.Relaxes Nervous System
Yoga can be very stress relieving in many ways. Yoga can help train the body to minimize its need to active the sympathetic nervous system responsible for our flight or fight method. A regular practice can teach you how to consciously quiet your mind whenever you feel overwhelmed.Lowers Blood Sugar
For yogis with diabetes, yoga has been found to reduce fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin. Some studies even show a link between yoga and an improved sensitivity to the effects of insulin.
Improves Psychological Health
Increasing your mood and self-esteem might be as easy as creating a daily practice on your mat! Feel-good endorphins that are produced in exercise help this process. In addition to increasing your mood, yoga helps to alleviate anger that is harbored. Yogi’s are able to form strong friendships from this increase in self-esteem and happiness!Relieves Pain
Asana and meditation have been shown to reduce pain. In fact, meditation that occurs during savasana has been shown to reduce the amount of pain messages that are transmitted and signaled between the thalamus and the cereal cortex. Health conditions such as arthritis and back pain can be managed through a healing yoga practice.Encourages Self-Care
A strong yoga practice promotes self-care. Yoga is all about listening to your own body, doing what feels good for you, and building up your mind-body connection. Asana, the poses encompassing the physical practice of yoga, gives yogis a tangible act they can do daily to improve health, foster confidence, stay active, and build hope.