Prenatal Yoga Benefits

This exercise can do a lot when it comes to improving your overall physical health. A research from physicians at the HMO Group Health Cooperative in Seattle discovered that yoga can help reduce diabetes, heart disease, and even chronic pain throughout the body. In other words, yoga works on building muscles and increasing endurance.

Yoga is a comprehensive system of mind/body techniques that is thousands of years old. Its techniques are designed to improve physical and mental health and well being, and include such practices as physical postures and stretching, breathing exercises (pranayama), focused concentration, meditation, visualization, and chanting (mantra) (Desikachar, 1999; van der Kolk, 2014).

Yoga is an ancient Hindu spiritual meditation practice that some believe dates back to 3300 BCE, during the Indus Valley Civilization. Modern wellness practices use yoga as part of a cardio routine and as a therapy to alleviate health disorders such as

According to the Osteopathic.org website, yoga is proven to provide physical benefits of the human body, including increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, energy and vitality, maintaining a balanced metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance, and protection from injury. Not only are there physical benefits to yoga, but also mental benefits such as improving a person’s mental health and is proven to increase coping skills. Furthermore, the American Osteopathic Association states, “Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness; increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress pattern; relaxes the mind; centers

Yoga provides excellent mind and body exercise that will help with strengthening muscles, keeping your body flexible - and relaxing your mind.

Western medicine has found out that just as the yogis have known for a long time, breathing is closely related to autonomic nervous system and a person's mind. Thus, some hospitals now teach people deep breathing.

as the tree in most yoga styles). This exercise stimulates the nervous system, assists balance,

Yoga helps to tone the body in a uniformed manner, will increase your flexibility and may well help you lose weight. Some of the yoga asanas stimulate sluggish glands to increase the amount of hormones they secrete, one example of these glands is the thyroid which affects our metabolism and our weight. The deep breathing that is performed during yoga sessions helps oxygen uptake into the body and fat cells which makes for more efficient fat burning making yoga one of the very best exercises for women.

This can help one who is in a stressed state of mind to control their breath and calm them down.

Just as we do not stretch prior to exercise, we do not want to get into complex yoga poses before our body is warm and prepared to be there. Each class must start with a minimum of 5 minutes of yoga breathing. This helps to clear the mind and prepare your body. The breath of air is actually the single most important part of our yoga exercise training. By inhaling out and in of the nose we maintain the heat in your body and focus the thoughts. Deep rhythmic breathing is the solid foundation upon which we build our own Yoga Practice. Instructors must constantly go back to breath concentration and need to constantly remind students to do the

Hatha yoga places a heavy emphasis on aerobics—incorporating slow, deep, and rhythmical breaths into its teachings. Due to this, runners use Hatha yoga to condition their aerobic capacity and function without being enervated. Furthermore, “running is a high-impact exercise” as“it puts a stress equal to eight times the body's weight on a person's feet” (Simon). As a result of this, over time, this leads to the constricting and dissipation of the leg muscles and foot joints, reduced flexibility, and reduced muscular strength. (Simon). On the other hand. Hatha Yoga has proven to “improve flexibility as well as endurance of joints and muscles and preventing injuries” in addition to helping with the ”stamina required for strenuous runs” (Surya Namaskar). Being that, Hatha yoga is used to effectively increase athletic performance for

Nowadays life of people has become quite stressful. To reduce stress people are getting addicted to things like alcohol, tobacco and drugs. People are searching numerous ways to reduce stress. The best way to reduce stress is through meditation and yoga. Meditation and yoga is the complete package through which you can make your life fit, healthy and stress-free. Yoga and meditation when practiced together strengthen the body and mind connection, improving overall fitness and well-being. Both yoga and meditation, when done regularly, has proven to be highly beneficial. Though the practices of yoga and meditation have their roots in ancient cultures, both have become modern day movements.

The practice of yoga makes the body strong and flexible; it also improves the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems. Yoga brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind.

The benefits of Yoga are endless. It effects the human mind and body in a variety of ways. Roughly 15 million Americans practice yoga, annually there is an expected increase of twenty percent in participants in the United States ("Yoga Statistics"). While Yoga is often thought of as a practice that involves circus like poses and seemingly impossible flexibility; it not. Even bedridden patients can gain benefit from imagining themselves going through the poses and practicing breathing techniques that are appropriate to them (Dickenson 24-25). Yoga is not something that you do at the studio and leave behind. It becomes a way of life; leading to healthier habits, improving psychological health, and encouraging spiritual growth. An article on

* Ashtanga – This yoga is for those who want a serious and physically demanding workout. “It involves synchronizing breathing with progressive and continuous series of postures-a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs” (Mats, LLC, 2013). Not recommended for beginners.