WHY YOGA

WHY YOGA
     
      Thousands of people have found yoga to be very beneficial, not only in helping to maintain a healthy body, but also helping to keep a clear and stress free mind. Practicing yoga has several benefits and here are a few:
   
      Yoga improves many physical aspects of the body, including muscle tone. Taking part in yoga shapes lean, long muscles, and increases the bodies flexibility in the hamstrings, shoulders, back, and hips. Yoga also builds strength in the body because many yoga poses require the person to hold their own body weight, and some of the exercises involve moving slowly in and out of a pose. Exercises that involve the person standing on one leg, is just an example of a pose that builds the strength of the body being able to hold its own weight. Many of the strength building exercises work out the upper body and core abdominal muscles. Yoga also improves endurance and the exercises are done with controlled breathing, which allows more oxygen to flow through the blood system to the muscles, giving the person more energy. Practicing yoga as also been shown to reduce or even eliminate pains such as back pain, and increases pain tolerance overall. Yoga also promotes a high metabolism in the body, making it easier to maintain or lose weight if desired; by stretching and toning the muscles, yoga reduces cellulite that forms around muscles tissue.
   
      Yoga has many mental benefits as well as physical. Yoga grabs the concentration of the persons mind, which allows the person to forget about a troublesome day or other problems, making this an excellent way to relieve stress. There are yoga styles that require deep breathing, total meditation, and other techniques to relieve the mind and body. Yoga has been proven so effective in stress relief that many people are often referred to a yoga class in the event of over stress or depression. Yoga will improve a person's concentration skills and better a person's overall mood throughout each day. Yoga gives the person a mind-body connection with controlled breathing in relation to the body's movements, and also promotes self control and self acceptance in a person.
   
      There are many health benefits associated with yoga, such as lowering cholesterol by increased blood circulation. Yoga has also been shown to reduce levels of glucose, sodium, and triglycerides; it can also increase red blood cells, which are for transporting oxygen through the blood, and increases vitamin c in the body, which boost the body's immunity. Research shows that yoga can be used for disease prevention in cases like heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Type 2 diabetes. Yoga also helps people that already have heart disease, hypertension, or are vulnerable to strokes by slowing the heart rate and lowering the blood pressure. Yoga is also therapeutic for people with asthma, arthritis, carpel tunnel syndrome, muscular dystrophy, scoliosis, migraines, obsessive compulsive disorder, constipation and menopause. Cancer patients going through chemotherapy can benefit from yoga exercises. It has been shown that cancer patients who involve themselves in yoga produce higher counts of red blood cells, gain strength, and reduce the nauseated feeling they may get.
     
      Yoga to De-stress
   
      Life is full of stress and anxiety. We are plagued with deadlines and demands that can be overwhelming and hurtful to our bodies and minds. Yoga is a great way to help you reduce this stress and live your life in a healthier way.
   
      You may be under the impression that stress is just another thing you have to live with. What you don't realize is how toxic it is to your mind and your body. When you are under a great deal stress or worry your body responds by your heart speeding up, muscle tension, blood flow increases, and your digestion comes to an almost complete stop. These things may not seem like a big deal, but when you stay in this state it will wear on your body. You will be more apt to have a heart attack, chronic fatigue, headaches, digestive problems, asthma attacks, and strokes.
   
      Using yoga to help you battle stress is the perfect way to not only get your stress under control, but improve your health while doing so. Yoga means to bring together and it does that when used correctly. It implements some important exercises like controlled breathing, stretching, mediation, and mental imagery, and physical movement.
   
      There are over nine hundred different poses. Each one varies in difficulty. Standing poses help to align your body and give you a better posture. Seated poses help your hips and lower back. Forward bends tend to relieve tension in the neck, shoulders, and back. Back bends concentrate on your rib cage, hips, arms, and shoulders. Balance poses can be the most difficult once in the beginning. Many people do not realize that as you age you lose more and more of your ability to balance.
   

      While exercise alone does wonders for reducing your stress it can not complete the job alone. Yoga goes the extra step by adding meditation and breathing. It forces you to slow down and go deep within yourself to find peace. These techniques can be used daily to help you improve your mind and body. You will once again be able to live a happy fulfilling life.
     
      What is power yoga???
   
      Power Yoga is for the body, mind and spirit. In Power Yoga, one learns to use the body, breath and mind to stretch, relax and energize oneself. It lays emphasis on strength and flexibility. Body and mind start to become more balanced. Power Yoga is also known as Dynamic Yoga.
   
      On the physical level, it makes our bodies strong, balanced and light, and rejuvenates tired limbs. Internal organs are massaged and toned, and vital glands like the thyroid and parathyriod are made to function properly. At the psychic level, we become more relaxed and more aware. At the emotional level, we are able to release harmful emotions and psychological blocks. Emotional wounds leave traces in the body in the form of knots, misalignments and tensions. Through Power Yoga, these emotions are freed to rise to the surface and disappear. When you are doing Power Yoga, the toxins which are present in your body are excreted through sweat.
   
      Power Yoga is done by doing a series of Yoga Poses while synchronizing one's breathing patterns to each movement. The individual postures (asanas) are linked together by a short, flowing sequence of movements, which are further synchronised with the breath. The challenge offered by the Power Yoga system is as much mental as physical, demanding a continuous effort of concentration to maintain the momentum from one posture to the next.

   
      But despite its vigorous approach in Yoga, Power Yoga still focuses on the general aim of Classical Yoga, which is to unite the body, mind, and spirit. It uses traditional Yoga practices in order to tap in to the inner core of one's power and to help this individual to recognize the different levels of power which are:
      The physical power which is developed through the poses in Power Yoga resulting in an improvement of the body's natural strength and health.
   
      The mental power or the willpower, which is disciplined during the course of the practice as it clears the mind of unorganized thoughts and helps the self to concentrate on a single task.
      The spiritual power, the driving force behind one's physical and mental power, is nurtured, allowing complete mastery of one's thought and actions.

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