Physical Benefits of Yoga

In my last article, I considered the self-empowerment of knowing that you are creating benefits for yourself to enjoy by doing yoga. It is, undoubtedly, a multifaceted practice. You work on healing yourself, on building your spiritual practice and improving your mental health alongside gaining flexibility and understanding of your own body. With yoga, you are able to gain back control of your own being. It is that empowerment that makes it so important, especially in this fast-paced time in which we are living today.

Yoga mid-run… multiple different physical benefits!

Today, I want to look at the specific physical benefits of yoga.

Some people wonder if they’ll lose weight when doing yoga. Some want to improve their performance, whether it is greater flexibility or strength. The third want to heal their chronic pain or improve their posture. The truth is – yoga does all that.

The reason why yoga improves every aspect of your body is that it uses primal movements. When you observe yoga poses, you will notice you’ve done many of them since you were a child. We squat before we walk, nearly every child tries rolling on the floor, stretching, and doing the candle pose with your feet high in the air above you as you lie on your back with your hands supporting your torso. With yoga, we’re not focusing only on one aspect of our body. We’re doing natural movements that simultaneously improve our strength and range of motion.

Who didn’t try this at least once as a child?

Still, there are different styles of yoga you can do, if you want to focus on a certain physical benefit. All styles will still improve every aspect of your body, but some do some things a bit better than others.
For example, if your main goal is to build strength and to lose weight, a more dynamic style of yoga would be appropriate. There are many styles of dynamic yoga, including Ashtanga, Rocket yoga, Iyengar yoga, Hot yoga, and more, but they can all be described as Vinyasa Yoga. Vinyasa yoga is every type of practice where you spend a lot of time in a variety of standing poses and move through them at a fast pace.
On the other hand, those who want to combat back pain and other chronic issues, or want to improve their flexibility, might well be attracted to more gentle yoga styles. Although Hatha yoga meant something else in the past, today we relate this word to a slow and gentle yoga style. Other variations are Restorative and Yin yoga. In these styles of yoga, we spend most of our time in sitting and lying positions, and we hold them for longer.

The classic squat: a pose that we grow up with – see any toddler inspecting puddles – but lose very quickly as we get older.

Most yogis are attracted to one style of yoga the most. Still, with time, you will realize you don’t have to decide. Simply choose the style of yoga that gives you the physical benefit you need at this day, this season, or this period of your life. Don’t overcomplicate things – why not try out a variety and see which one aligns with your needs best?

I hope that this may have shed some light on a few of the more physical benefits available in yoga. There is a lot more that can be said, certainly, but to go through the specific benefits of individual poses will have to be a task (and a read) for the future.

In my next article, I will look at the mental benefits of doing yoga, particularly if you can manage to create a habit, to step onto your mat on a semi-regular basis. Do you find your mental health improves from your time yoga-ing? Let me know in the comments below if you’d like.

Why Yoga Is Important

Yoga is something you can do everywhere!

Every year, you hear of more people donning leggings (or maybe an old pair of tracksuits) and starting to do yoga. Maybe it’s your friend, a coworker, or a family member. There’s something magnetic about the practice, that makes everyone instantly attracted to it.

Although it’s getting more and more popular, yoga is much more than just a trend. No matter what reason that people go to their first class – maybe they’ve seen others do it, maybe a friend is dragging them along, maybe they’re hoping for a magical cure of back pain – none of these reasons are why they stay and come back for more.

When you go for your first yoga practice, you might think it will improve only one aspect of your life. Perhaps you do it for its physical benefits, or because you want to incorporate some type of spiritual practice into your life. But soon you realize it seems to affect every aspect of your being – and that’s exactly what it is intended to do.

The True Importance Of Yoga

Old yogis understood that humans are physical, mental, and spiritual beings. They developed yoga in an effort to help harmonize all three levels of our beings. True yoga in India didn’t develop only around physical exercise. It was primarily a spiritual practice focused on the development of virtues that help us reach our highest potential, and find purpose in our life.

Still, even if you only practice the physical postures or asanas, you will see a change in all three levels of your being. That’s not only a promise coming from subjective experiences of practitioners, it is also something that we can and have proven by science today.

Physical yoga practice is a form of education about living a better life. On the mat, we become aware of our body and our movement. We connect to our breath and learn to control it. The breath serves as a sort of bridge between our physical body, our mind, and our spiritual self. You can experience that as soon as you start controlling your breath. And you don’t have to believe me from just my word – you can try it right now.

Start deepening your breath. That means your inhales and exhales get longer, and you activate all the organs involved in the breathing action. As you inhale, lift both your belly and chest and try to make your exhalation longer than your inhale. Only after a couple of moments, you will experience a sense of calm, your thoughts will be quieter, and you will enter a state of meditation. Try closing your eyes, and breathe for a minute or two.

Now, in only a few moments of conscious breathing, you have experienced the true importance of yoga. Without any preparation – you have managed to connect your body, your mind, and your spiritual presence.

When we start practicing yoga regularly, we learn of this control over our bodies. We learn we are able to calm ourselves down, heal our pains, and become aware of the present moment. This happens even if we’re not aware of it, but it does become more significant when we are conscious of what we’re doing.

Tree with a tree – finding peace in nature

After you learn to connect your breath, movement, thoughts, and emotions during a one-hour yoga class, you can begin to take that skill and incorporate it into life off the mat. 

That’s the true importance of yoga. When you learn this important knowledge, you will see the benefits in your everyday life, and your well-being will improve. 

Are you interested yet? Why not come and try a class with me! Get in contact via the forms on this website or via my email (puffinyoga@gmail.com) to find out more.

Stay tuned for my next article where I will take a deeper look into the specific benefits of yoga.