Five Reasons to Start Practicing Yoga if You Aren’t Already
Those who already practice yoga already know the benefits of the exercises. But what about the people who do not? What about the people who are on the fence about it; the ones who have seen others exercising in passing? These are the people who are curious about yoga but unsure how to start, or if it is even worth starting. These are the ones who need to understand how yoga can benefit them, then they might just dive on in.
Yoga is beneficial to not only the body but also the mind. It is not only a means of achieving physical fitness, but it can also grant you a whole new perspective on life. If taken to heart, this ancient philosophy can turn you into a whole new person.
If you are uncertain of why you should begin to practice yoga, then this guide will help you understand why. As you begin your journey, record your efforts in a blog. Blogging about your holdups and wins can provide you with a record of where you began and can serve as a reminder of the route you followed to get to your fitness goal. So create an exciting, original domain, get into a yoga studio, and start your journey!
Table of Contents
Muscles
If you are new to yoga, your muscles may be tight and you may find you cannot bend or move exactly as the exercise prescribes. That is okay. Over time, you will stretch your muscles out, giving you more flexibility. Eventually, you can perfect the moves and poses. Do not rush it. Trying to force your muscles to do what they are not used to can tear them, causing tremendous pain. Start off slow and work your way into it.
This is one of the benefits of yoga. The more you bend and stretch, the more blood flows into your muscles. This allows more oxygen to enter the tissue, making them healthier. Yoga exercises will tone up those muscles while loosening them from years of stiffness.
Developing your flexibility early on will help in your older years when typically we lose our mobility. A lifestyle change now can prevent injury in our senior years. Can you imagine continuing to write a blog into your 60s or 70s about how yoga is keeping you fit? Can you imagine how many people you have inspired over the decades by doing so?
Lungs
Many yoga exercises focus on breathing as much as moving or holding a pose. These breathing exercises are designed to relax your body into a state of willingness. This helps loosen the muscles, but it also improves lung functions. By practicing these exercises, you will be expanding your lung capacity. The more air you can take in, the more oxygen gets absorbed into the body. People who suffer from any number of lung diseases, including asthma, can benefit from yoga. The additional oxygen your body is able to take in can help revitalize your body and allow it to function the way it was meant to.
Bones
Your bones will appreciate the exercises. Bones need pressure to help in their regenerating processes. That pressure comes from having weight put on them. By doing certain poses, you are adding pressure to areas of your body that are not used to having weight put on them. This can be very beneficial to your arms; by using your own body to strengthen your body, you are helping the bones renew themselves.
Yoga can keep the deterioration of bone to a minimum and stop or reduce the effects of conditions such as osteoporosis. This is another reason why seniors should practice yoga. It can help prevent their bones from becoming weak and brittle, so this way a fall would be less likely to be fatal.
Mind
Yoga has an effect on the mind. The breathing exercises that relax the body, also relax the mind. It helps calm your thoughts, giving you only one thing to focus on instead of the thousand things that you normally worry about. Practicing yoga can reduce your stress; not just through the breathing, but also through the poses. The stretching and bends, holding a position for a set amount of time, can burn away the cares that you may have. It loosens your body and the mind.
It can also improve your outlook on life. By ridding yourself of depression and stress, yoga can help you see the world in a more relaxed manner. Yes, there are bills to pay, children to care for, a job to get to, and a hundred other concerns, but you will not worry about them. You are more likely to remain calm and simply carry through without adding stress back into your life.
When you decide to start practicing yoga, and start your blog with it, be sure to write about how you have changed your eating habits. Yoga encourages a healthy diet. Once you begin, you will want to feel the full effect of the ancient practice. You can only do this by embracing the dietary requirements to maintain a healthy body.
Heart
Yoga can reduce your blood pressure. The exercises cause you to burn off the cholesterol clogging up inside your arteries. This allows your blood to flow easier, releasing the pressure from the bottleneck the cholesterol formed. Your heart will not have to work so hard to pump blood through your system, allowing it to strengthen during the more cardio exercises rather than fight to keep you going.
Of course, you need to make sure you are not putting cholesterol back into your system. This is part of changing your eating habits. You cannot truly feel the benefits yoga has to offer if you are countering them by sticking with your old lifestyle. You need to embrace the whole of yoga if you are to succeed.
Now that you know the benefits of yoga, it is time for you to step in and begin your journey. Not only will you become more physically fit, but your entire lifestyle will also change. Your mind will be uncluttered and unworried. With both body and mind taken care of, you will enjoy life more; encouraging others to do the same through your blog.
