Yoga is the art of perfecting human efficiency. Humans have so much capability that one can ever imagine. But, we cannot exploit our maximum human potential due to health issues and diseases.
But, yoga helps to eliminate physical issues such as chronic back pain, heart problems, high cholesterol, and so on. Yoga helps to overcome these health barriers to achieve good physical health and a healthy lifestyle.
Here are 11 benefits of yoga for physical health:
1. Yoga Can Help You Get Rid of Chronic Back Pain
Nowadays, a lot of people suffer from back pain regardless of age. Adopting a very hunched sitting position when using computers or studying can result in increased back and shoulder problems over time.
Back pain is caused by excessive tension in the muscles of the back and shoulders. Apart from this, lifting heavy things, making abrupt movements can lead to back pain.
Yoga can help you to stretch and strengthen muscles that support the back and spine, Such as the paraspinal muscles that help you bend your spine, the multifidus muscles that stabilize your vertebrae, and the transverse abdominis in the abdomen, which also helps stabilize your spine.
During a yoga session, you will hold poses for 15 to 60 seconds. This gives your muscles time to stretch, increasing flexibility. Even within a yoga session, you may notice that your back muscles feel more relaxed and flexible at the end of the session than at the beginning.
Yoga poses such as the cat-cow pose, cobra pose, and bridge pose helps you to lower blood pressure. So, in conclusion, getting rig of chronic back pain is one of the benefits of yoga for physical health.
2. Yoga Helps With a Good Respiratory System
Yoga helps you with deep breathing and helps to maintain a good respiratory system. The Pranayama breathing exercise in yoga helps you to maximize the intake of oxygen. It is said that it helps in increasing your oxygen intake up to five times.
The more oxygen our body receives, the better the organs of our bodywork and enhance our physical health. Apart from this, deep breathing helps you to improve the flow of your lymph system thereby helping the body to get rid of toxins.
The regular practice of breathing exercises not only multiplies the efficiency of the respiratory system but also can sort out the problems in the respiratory system like sinus, asthma, hay fever, shortness of breath, and allergies.
Apart from breathing exercises, there are also physical yoga poses that support the respiratory system in doing its work by expanding the lungs and giving them space to breathe, by activating the different body parts and stimulating good blood circulation.
Yoga poses such as bow pose, camel pose, and wheel pose helps you to relieve back pain.
3. Yoga Helps in Increased Metabolism
Boosting metabolism is another benefit of yoga for physical health. Yoga has a powerful stimulating and strengthening effect on the endocrine organs and thus can boost metabolism to burn more calories.
Twisting and compressing yoga postures massage the endocrine and abdominal organs, regulating their function, improving local circulation, and cleansing them of old stagnant toxins.
Yoga helps in increased metabolism which helps in weight management and prevents the body from obesity. Obesity is bad for physical health as it may cause several health problems including heart problems.
Yoga poses such as eagle pose, plow pose, and crescent pose helps you to increase your metabolism.
4. Yoga Helps in Improved Flexibility
Improved flexibility is one of the most commonly recognized physical benefits of yoga. The yoga pose helps the mobility of your body no matter how stiff you are. It helps to loosen the muscles thus enhancing the flexibility of your body.
Flexibility is an important component of physical fitness. A flexible body improves mobility, posture, muscle coordination, reduces the risk of injuries and muscle soreness.
The research done on male college students who participated in weekly yoga sessions for 10 weeks confirmed that the control group experienced “significant gains” in flexibility and balance compared to other groups who did not.
Yoga poses such as Warrior, Downward facing dog, and Garland pose helps you to increase body flexibility.
Also Read – 11 Benefits of Yoga For Mental Health
5. Yoga Helps in Muscular Strength
Usually, muscular strength is connected with bodybuilding but that’s not true. You do not need to be bulky to have muscular strength. Likewise, lifting heavy weights isn’t the only way to build muscle; everyday yoga can help you improve strength as well.
The research conducted in men and women who followed a 12-week Hatha yoga course showed that yoga had significant gains in physical strength.
Yoga positions require a lot of strength since they require coordination, balance, and power. Also, when you use your body weight to improve all of your major muscle groups, you will become stronger and more physically fit.
The best part of building muscular strength with yoga is that you balance it with flexibility. Yoga poses such as hatha yoga, Plank pose, and cobra pose helps you to gain that muscular strength.
6. Yoga Helps to Improve Immunity
In the list of Benefits of Yoga for physical health, improving immunity is another great benefit of doing yoga regularly. A good immune system is essential for our survival. Without an immune system, our bodies would be open to attack from bacteria, viruses, parasites, and more. It is our immune system that keeps us healthy as we drift through a sea of pathogens.
The market has several immunity drinks or tablets. But, you can boost your immunity naturally with just a few minutes on your mat. Yoga has been clinically proven to boost immunity.
The parasympathetic neural system is activated during yoga. It is an important neural system that aids digestion and sleep. Meanwhile, the sympathetic nervous system, which regulates your fight-or-flight reaction is less activated. As a result, your immune system will be stronger.
Yoga poses such as cobra pose, seated forward bend pose, and fish pose helps you to improve immunity.
7. Yoga Enhances Heart Health
Having good health is important to have good physical health. It’s a core part of our body and a healthy heart means a healthy life.
Yoga also improves heart health by increasing circulation and blood flow. In addition, practicing yoga can help lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels, as well as the heart rate which can all add up to a lower risk of hypertension, stroke, and heart disease
Apart from this, yoga is scientifically proven to make you happy as it helps your body to release happy hormones. Happiness means a healthy heart.
Yoga poses such as cobblers pose, bridge pose, and chair pose helps you to enhance your heart health.
8. Yoga Helps to Lower Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is when the blood travels with more force than what is considered to be healthy. This can rupture the brain vessels and cause severe damage to the brain.
Yoga helps lower blood pressure, improve insulin resistance, and enhance all sorts of cellular activity particularly those associated with the heart. It helps lower the systolic blood pressure of older patients, especially those who already have blood pressure above normal.
Research studies point towards gentle yoga practices relaxing the arteries and thereby helping to reduce blood pressure. Also, Yoga helps in maintaining a healthy heart and a healthy heart pumps the blood effortlessly. So, the arteries are relaxed, and you have normal blood pressure.
Yoga poses such as upside-down pose, accomplished pose, and hero pose helps you to lower blood pressure.
9. Yoga Helps in Proper Blood Circulation
Proper blood circulation is key for maintaining good health. It ensures that blood and oxygen continuously flow throughout the body, allowing every organ to function properly.
Yoga increases blood flow and hemoglobin and red blood cells, allowing for more oxygen to reach the body cells, enhancing their function.
The research has proved that Yoga practices make your heart stronger and healthier. A healthy heart pumps blood effectively, leading to proper blood circulation.
Yoga poses like downward dog pose, camel pose, and triangle pose helps you with proper blood circulation.
10 . Yoga Improves Your Sleep
Good sleep is key to good physical health. Your body needs rest after all the works it has done. Sleep is the time where your body recharges itself. Maintaining good sleep is another benefit of yoga for physical health.
Lack of sleep has several bad impacts on your physical health. It causes high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, or stroke. Other potential problems include obesity, depression, impairment in immunity, and lower sex drive. Yoga has been proven to boost the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that governs sleep and wakefulness.
In one study, researchers found that chronic insomnia patients significantly improved the number of hours they slept each night as well as the quality of that sleep after practicing yoga for just eight weeks.
Yoga poses like standing forward bend, plow pose and corpse pose helps you with good night sleep.
11. Yoga Helps With Digestion
Good digestion means good physical health. We know that Digestion is important for breaking down food into nutrients, which the body uses for energy, growth, and cell repair. Food and drink must be changed into smaller molecules of nutrients before the blood absorbs them and carries them to cells throughout the body
Bad digestion means your body is not receiving the nutrients that you are giving, this leads to health problems such as diarrhea, weakness, and heartburn. Yoga helps to relieve digestive issues by decreasing stress, increasing circulation, and promoting gut motility.
Yoga poses such as Seat side bend, cobra pose, bow pose, and cat-cow pose helps you with good digestion.
Conclusion
Yoga has several physical health benefits to practitioners, whether they are young, old, healthy, recovering from illness, or looking for a therapeutic option to help them to manage a chronic condition. Yoga has the ability to naturally heal the body and thus, promotes good physical health.
To list down, the following are the benefits of yoga for physical health.
- Get Rid of Chronic Back Pain
- Increase metabolism
- Maintain a good respiratory system
- Helps in strengthening muscular
- Boost immunity
- Maintain health heart
- Improve body flexibility
- Maintain blood pressure
- Maintain proper blood circulation
- Maintain a good sleep
- Help with digestion
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