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There is no doubt that Yoga has a number of health benefits for us. These benefits can be divided into three subheads, namely physical, mental, and social.
Physical Health Benefits - Yoga is good for maintaining the general fitness of the body. It helps in avoiding debilitating illnesses. Yoga breathing through Pranayama helps exercise the respiratory system and Yoga breath control improves the flexibility of the system.
Yoga breathing exercises help inculcate in us efficient breathing to maximize the inhalation of oxygen. Oxygen is most vital for the growth and maintenance of our tissues and cells and through Yoga we aid them to grow optimally.
Yoga helps to enhance blood circulation. It improves the flexibility of the various blood vessels. This enables the much needed oxygen to reach the cells and tissues faster. It even helps burn calories gradually without any undue stress so it helps reduce obesity gradually. The pulse rate with Yoga is lower than what it is without it. Therefore, the stress on the heart reduces. This brings about untold health benefits for our body.
Yoga results in exercising all the various ligaments, nerves, and tendons of the body in a gradual manner. This it does without imposing undue stress on a specific group of muscles.
The various different poses in Yoga are designed with a view to exercise the various different muscle groups of the body. The sequence of the poses is so scheduled to impose the least amount of undue stress on the muscles. Yoga therefore is able to improve the muscle tone in a much better way than other more vigorous exercise forms can.
In comparison to the other strenuous exercises, Yoga is more beneficial and that too without side effects. This is because people of all age groups can partake of its manifold benefits. This is simply not true of all the other exercise forms.
Yoga helps strengthen the body’s muscles, blood vessels, and tissues. Even the nerves are not bereft of these benefits. It therefore provides a hedge against many illnesses that affect the musculoskeletal/coronary system. It also helps keep arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, heart disease, and diabetes at bay.
Mental Health Benefits - Yoga and its meditation components reap a number of mental health benefits in us. They help to reduce anxiety and still the mind. They improve tolerance power and aid the mind to build endurance in the face of ill health.
When the mind is calm it brings about less stress in your life. It helps the body to retain better control over its various subsystems. The mental angle to Yoga brings about a much enhanced immune defense system. Yoga helps us to do everything in moderation. It even aids discipline cultivation.
Social Health Benefits - Participating in Yoga in a group helps in increasing pleasing interaction between different members. It helps in enjoying Yoga when your whole family participates. All this helps to divert your mind from unnecessary distractions.
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