Yoga has been offering many great benefits for more than 5 thousand years. Such a proven form of exercise is worth considering!
There are several classical yoga techniques that have been proven to offer a good mental and physical exercise. Some examples of the many benefits of yoga:
- increase in flexibility
- improve muscle strength
- balanced metabolism can be achieved
- benefits to circulatory and cardio health
- improves athletic ability and performance
- offers a possible loss in weight
- improvement in muscle tone
- stress reduction and management
Yoga is most definitely beneficial for your physical and emotional care.
Practicing yoga has been known to offer many calming effects. It will help manage stress because often times stress comes through the body and causes many physical complaints. Stress may be the cause of neck problems, sleeping issues, back pain, and many other forms or physical problems.
Yoga has been known to offer a mental and physical well-being because those who practice it receive an increase in their body awareness. A regular practice of yoga relaxes the mind and will sharpen concentration. This will lead to a decrease in physical weakness.
Yoga traditions
Yoga does have a history that dates back 5 millenia. There are many religions that have incorporated yoga practices. The traditions from yoga have been passed along throughout the years. The yoga experience and theories offer many different approaches and traditions. in total there are 8 main traditions in the classical yoga. These are:
- Samadhi; The realization of the essential nature of oneself.
- Dhyana; This is the ability to focus on nothing or only one thing.
- Dhahran; This involves concentration and having the ability to hold the mind on one object at a time. This is done for a specified time.
- Pratyahara; This is the withdrawal from the mind. It is a preparation for meditation.
- Pranayama; This is various breathing techniques.
- Asana; This is physical exercise.
- Niyama; Observance, purity, tolerance, study, and remembrance
- Yama; Refraining from hoarding, casual sex, stealing, lying, and violence.
These are some basic traditions that classical yoga is based on.
Yoga Offers Variety
Yoga has many various types and styles. Yoga and variety do indeed go together. Some of these include:
- Hatha: This could be considered the original yoga style that many others have been based from. This is a very basic and straightforward method. There are many who begin with Hatha.
- Jivamuki: This is Spiritual, Holistic, and Bhakti. This incorporates reading, vegetarian, and activism. These are traditional yoga elements. This is really more of a lifestyle choice.
- Kundalini: This is about posture, chakras, and alternate nostril breathing.
Various Yoga Classes
There are also a variety of yoga classes available. Yoga does offer something for any physical level.
Yoga can also be practiced at any age. There are many classes that will offer a fast paced physical experience. There are also some that will have a focus on spirituality and a mind-body awareness. Every person that practices yoga may have a different goal in mind. A sample list of classes:
- Flow-based yoga: This involves movement that will flow with breathing. It may be vigorous and will move from one posture to another.
- Vinyasa: This offers continuous movements of the various yoga poses. This may be fast paced. It is often done with music.
- Kripalu: This will start with slow movements. It will progress to 3 levels of a deeper mind-body awareness.
- Power Yoga: This is a very athletic yoga class.
- Ashtanga: This is based on yoga poses. This may be a very challenging class.
Yoga does offer many different classes. Physical ability, goals, and personality play a role in determining the best suited class for each individual.
Yoga Is Popular Today
Yoga continues to rise in popularity in this day and age. There are statistics that make the claim that over 22 million people are practicing yoga. The prominent principles for yoga are:
- breath to calm the mind, link mind and body,
- offers the whole body relaxation.
Note that during this time of COVID-19 pandemic, yoga classes carry a risk like any gym activities. But the risk is much less than more intense classes like zumba or close combat martial a classes. So by using proper social distancing, social classes can still be enjoyed, preferably in smaller groups.