If you are wondering why you should start a yoga practice, here are 6 health and wellness benefits you could experience.
1. Increased flexibility.
This is one of the first and most obvious benefits of practicing yoga. At first you may not be able to touch your toes, let alone complete more advanced poses. But as you continue to practice you will find that you are able to bend and reach further and your muscles and joints will loosen making the movements easier.
2. Increased muscle strength and tone.
Strong muscles do more for us than just look good. They protect us from pain and as we age and protect us from falls that can be devastating. When practicing yoga, you are not only building muscle strength, you are pairing it with flexibility which gives you better movement.
3. Improved respiration, energy and vitality.
Moving your body while practicing your breathing improves your lung capacity which affects your overall health. As you become healthier, you have more energy and vitality for life.
4. Maintaining a balanced metabolism and weight reduction
Adding yoga to your routine can help with lowering blood sugar and LDL (bad cholesterol) while boosting HDL (good cholesterol). It helps with lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels as well as improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin which can aid in managing diseases such as diabetes. By getting blood sugar levels down, you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.
5. Improved focus
An important part of yoga is focusing on the present. Being able to quiet your mind and focus on what you are doing in the moment can also affect your ability to focus outside of the yoga studio.
6. Increased sense of well-being
Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breathing and focus on the present. This relaxation assists your nervous system to move from the fight-or-flight mode that we are often in to a more calming state where your heartrate slows your blood pressure decreases and blood flow increases giving you peace of mind.
All these benefits make it hard not to start a yoga practice at home.