Yoga is a popular and powerful exercise routine that has a broad array of benefits that make it well worth learning. Here, you’ll get an in-depth look at the many advantages that yoga can provide you, including tips and suggestions that can make your progress smoother, while improving your overall learning experience and effectiveness.
What is Yoga?
Yoga’s history is somewhat mysterious and shrouded by history. For example, some people speculate that yoga could have originated over 5,000 years ago, though the earliest known theory of yoga came from Northern India in 2,700 BCE. Even this newer time frame makes yoga one of the oldest still-existing exercises in the world. While its routines focus heavily on flexibility and strength, some people use yoga as a spiritual practice, as well as an emotional care option.
Practitioners of this exercise typically use careful poses with very specific techniques, while pairing their movements with controlled breathing. The idea behind yoga is to not only work your body but calm your mind and provide insights into your emotional health. You can practice yoga by yourself in front of the television or with friends in a large and comfortable space. It’s a very adaptable exercise that provides many unique benefits that make it well worth learning.
Benefits of Learning Yoga?
Yoga is an amazing exercise routine that can improve your life in many ways. For example, many people experience better overall health when performing yoga. These improvements include better physical and mental health, as well as a stronger spiritual connection. Controlled breathing exercises can help you meditate while you work out, which makes your poses feel easier and calms your mind to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms.
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Surprisingly, yoga can also be a great social experience for many people. That’s because yoga has integrated group study, particularly in ancient Buddhist temples, for many centuries. Searching sites like Meetup reveals hundreds, if not thousands, of yoga social groups with millions of members across the nation. As a result, you can easily make new friends and expand your network even further. Some people may even manage social anxiety in this way.
Even better, you can teach yoga to your children after you’ve mastered some techniques and improve their lives. Studies find that yoga is a powerful tool for young children that can teach important lessons, including helping your young ones live a healthier overall life. Furthermore, yoga can even bring you and your family closer together. That’s because you’ll work out together, spend more time in each other’s presence, and have a fun shared activity.
Build Better Flexibility
Do you have stiff muscles that massages and other techniques don’t seem to help? Well, regular yoga practice may be the best way of improving your range of motion. Yoga exercises are designed to gradually improve your flexibility by pushing your muscles in surprising ways. For example, a simple head stand will take your head to the ground and improve flexibility throughout your neck, back, shoulders, and arms, and enhance your workout effectiveness.
These improvements are critical because flexibility is far more important than people realize for their daily lives. While strength and cardiovascular health are focused on in most fitness routines, enhanced flexibility can reduce your injury occurrence, manage stress and anxiety, relieve some inflammation and muscular imbalances, and give you a stronger overall body. Remember: the body is a complex machine that must be fine-tuned regularly.
In fact, flexibility is critical for maintaining your muscle strength and balance. Without proper flexibility, increased muscle masses might be stiff, hard to work, and even easier to damage. Furthermore, flexibility can improve your balance by increasing your range of motion and making it easier for you to adapt to changes in your gait. These benefits can keep you healthy and make it easier for you to gradually, but effectively, improve your physical health.
Improve Your Strength
Though improved flexibility is the most obvious benefit of yoga, you can even boost your physical strength with this exercise! After all, just think about what the average pose entails: you’ll likely stand in a challenging position for minutes at a time. This pose may challenge muscles throughout your body, including your legs, arms, back, shoulder, and neck. In this way, you can build better muscle tone and have a stronger and more balanced body.
Now, we’re not saying that you’re going to become a sculpted bodybuilder ala Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Yoga is not as effective at building muscles as lifting weights and other routines. That said, yoga will gradually, but noticeably, improve your tone and streamline your body. People who are already in great shape will notice more definition in their muscles, as well as more confidence when handling complex and challenging exercises.
In particular, you’ll notice this benefit throughout the most commonly used areas of the body. For example, if you do a lot of arm-based routines, you’ll see toning throughout your arm muscles. That makes yoga a great way to sculpt specific areas of the body if you’re not into lifting but want better body tone. In fact, you can use very fine-tuned yoga routines to target areas like your glutes, as these spots may be harder to work out using traditional lifting routines.
Enhance Your Balance
Proper balance is important not just for your physical health but for your emotional well being. Why? Well, imagine that you have bad balance and you’re constantly worried about falling down whenever you walk. That tension is likely to cause anxiety and other emotional concerns that may adversely impact your psychological health. Thankfully, yoga can help you manage many common balance problems by building strength throughout your body’s core muscles.
For example, many yoga exercises require you to stand on one foot and avoid falling down. These challenging routines (which you can make simpler by holding a chair or wall while you practice) will build muscles in your core. Many balance issues occur due to weak core muscles, and building them can increase your confidence on your feet. Note: medical balance problems such as equilibrium issues, may not react positively to yoga routines.
That said, you can try balance-based yoga exercises to see whether or not they help you. Make sure that you have a second person watching you or holding you as you perform these exercises. That extra helper can prevent you from falling and hurting yourself and can even give you more confidence as you build up your core strength. As always, talk with your physician before making any major changes to your exercise routines.
Reduce Inflammation Symptoms
Inflammation is a common reaction that occurs when too much blood flows to various parts of the body. It can cause the area to swell up and become tender and may even trigger needless pain. Inflammation is often a symptom of a more serious health problem such as infections, but may also occur around injuries. If you’re suffering from inflammation and want an effective way of mitigating its symptoms, yoga is a great exercise for you.
In an in-depth study, “Impact of Yoga on Inflammatory Biomarkers, ” it was found that yoga provides major benefits for inflammatory diseases and reactions. The study quoted 15 other research projects and found that, in 11 out of the 15, positive results were found. That’s a significant percentage: the study’s authors noted that yoga obviously provided relief for inflammation, especially when used as a supplemental care option.
Thankfully, there are many yoga exercises that may manage symptoms of inflammation and help you bounce back from their negative impact on your overall physical health. Please note that yoga is not a singular treatment for inflammation: it’s suitable as a supplement that improves or enhances traditional care options. Try to talk with your physician before making any major exercise changes, especially when inflammation could limit your capabilities.
Manage Emotional Concerns
Do you have emotional or mental health illnesses that you struggle to manage? If so, you’re not alone: the National Institute of Mental Health states that one out of every five American adults or 57.8 million people have diagnosed mental health disorders. The sad thing is that many more likely have undiagnosed issues and simply try to live with them the best they can. Thankfully, yoga may provide some relief for several types of emotional health concerns.
Just how does yoga help manage these health problems? Well, as we’ve mentioned before, yoga is a complex exercise that has many effects on the body. Controlled breathing not only helps to calm your mind but could reduce anxiety and depression for many people. Furthermore, yoga has more in-depth reactions that could change how your mind operates for the better. Just a few ways that yoga may help you bounce back from these issues include:
- Release Positive Chemicals: Exercises like yoga release chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. These chemicals make you feel better about yourself and can help fight symptoms of depression and anxiety when released at high levels.
- Manage Stress and Depression: Yoga may be a beneficial supplemental tool for managing anxiety, stress, and depression. The calming nature of many yoga routines may help to relieve many emotional health symptoms and make life a little easier to handle.
- Enhance Sleep: Do you struggle to sleep at night? Well, exercise like yoga can help to improve your quality of sleep, especially your sleep efficiency or the time you sleep while in bed versus just laying there. Furthermore, better sleep may reduce mental health disorder symptoms.
- Improve Daily Habits: People who practice yoga may also make smarter life decisions such as exercising to lose weight or eating healthier foods. Regular exercise and healthier foods can manage depression and anxiety symptoms by making you feel better physically.
Please note that yoga’s positive effects don’t make it a replacement for medical or psychological treatment. Yoga is best used as a supplement for these traditional care options. For example, you might use regular yoga practice to calm yourself when you’re close to a panic attack and your medicines aren’t taking the edge off your anxiety. Talk with your doctor before trying this approach to ensure that you get the long-term support that you need.
Start a New Career
Are you tired of your current career and looking for a change? If so, you’re not alone: during the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people quit their jobs in what was known as The Great Resignation. This wave of job cessation lasted for three years and adversely affected the economy in many ways. Thankfully, it seems to be over now and many people are getting back to work in new jobs. That said, you might still want to learn yoga to start a new career.
After all, becoming a yoga instructor might be more financially rewarding than you’d think. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fitness instructors (like yoga teachers) make a median of $19.57 per hour or $40,700 yearly. Note that these are median pay levels: there’s a chance you could make more. Even better, the BLS also reports a higher than average job outlook (19% growth) and minimal training demands that make it easier to start.
Even if you’re happily employed and don’t plan on changing your career, learning yoga might be a great side hustle. A side hustle is a part-time job that you do outside of your normal career that earns you extra money. For example, you could provide yoga instruction on the weekends or for a few hours at the end of a few days every week. While it might not help you retire sooner, it can give you a little fun money that may make your life more enjoyable.
How to Start Learning Yoga
The best way to start learning yoga is to gauge the type you’re interested in learning and find an educational platform that makes sense. For example, you can use free YouTube classes that include in-depth training from skilled professionals. This option works well if you’re on a limited budget and can’t afford pay classes. Make sure you buy important materials, like comfortable yoga pants, mats, and even relaxing music, that make your practice more enjoyable.
If you don’t feel comfortable learning yoga by yourself, you can try CourseHorse classes to direct your educational experience. For example, online classes like Gentle Hatha Yoga provide live instructors who can improve your techniques and provide encouragement. These digital learning platforms can be practiced just about anywhere and don’t require traveling to an in-person appointment. That said, in-person courses in cities like New York are also great.
In fact, these in-person options often include materials for your training such as yoga mats, that make your learning experience even better. Some classes even provide multiple teachers and specialized training options such as beginner-level support, for those who need it. Even better, if you’re interested in large teamwork-building exercises, CourseHorse has several private group yoga programs that are adaptable for up to 500 people.
Key Takeaways
- Yoga is an ancient exercise that provides many amazing benefits
- Practicing yoga can improve your strength and flexibility
- Skilled yoga poses may even improve your mental health
- Becoming a yoga teacher may be a financially rewarding career
- Proper yoga practice may improve your balance
- Yoga may even reduce inflammation and other painful symptoms
- Some yoga practitioners have an improved quality of life
- You can contact CourseHorse for private group, online, or in-person yoga training