The Health Benefits of Yoga - Part 1

I started writing this article to sum up the health benefits of yoga, but soon realized that the list of benefits would be a million miles long. I wouldn't be able to do the subject justice in a short article that sums up the general benefits of yoga. In fact, the minute I started researching the topic and saw the massive amount of positive effects on your body and mind that yoga can make, it made me want to run out to class right away even just to have that moment of elation just as I leave the yoga studio with my body exhausted and my mind at ease.

Lets start with the most obvious. Flexibility. Of course this is going to improve with the practice of yoga. Your tight muscles will hold you back at first and even protest most of the way through your first few classes, but soon you'll start to feel them give in and work with you. You'll be able to feel your deep breathing allow your muscles to relax further and further into the stretch. Over time you won't believe what your muscles are capable of and you'll be craving getting deeper into each pose than in your previous practice.

Your strength will also be challenged in the practice of yoga. You won't turn into the muscle man you see pumping iron in front of the mirror, but we've all seen what yoga has done for Madonna's arms. If us common folk can see a quarter of that definition we'd probably all be satisfied. Many yoga poses require that you support your own weight during or through one pose to the next. At first even downward facing dog will make your shoulders burn. Unlike traditional weight training, yoga uses your own body as resistance and your muscles begin to learn how to precisely control your movements. Your muscles become long, lean and toned - and who doesn't want that, right?!

Another physical benefit you'll achieve in yoga is that you'll begin to really breathe.

When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still." - Hatha Yoga Pradipika

It's not often that we think of our breathing in everyday life. In yoga class, you're trained to breath fully, deeply and consciously. The idea is that yoga breathing exercises gets more oxygen to your blood and to your brain. You'll use more of your lungs than you do normally and feel the difference between normal breath and fully yoga breathing exercises.

Check out this balanceyogasite.com Balance Yoga Guide and the myhomegymfitnessequipment.com Home Fitness guide for more information.