Yoga is one of the fastest growing activities around the world. Not only does it increases flexibility, reduces stress, helps you twist your body into pretzel shapes and find inner peace, but it also provides many health benefits. Some of the health benefits are:
Boost Immunity
A recent study found that yoga practice helps boost immunity by simply increasing overall health. Since you are breathing, moving and circulating better, all your other organs function better.
Yoga Pose: Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar)
Ease Migraines
Yoga is an important activity for migraine sufferers, because it impacts the nervous system calming the part of the brain that causes pain. It also stimulates chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, that keep the blood vessels from setting off migraines in the first place.
Yoga Pose: Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
Sleep Better
Yoga significantly improves the sleep quality for people with insomnia, because breathing and mental exercises allow the mind to relax and deal with stress.
Yoga Pose: Corpse Pose (Savasana)
Fight Food Cravings
Food cravings strike when our bodies are tense. Yoga practice strengthens the mind-body connection and breathing exercises can help you slow down and make better decisions when craving strikes.
Yoga Pose: Meditation
There are many different types of yoga being taught and practiced today. Below is an introduction to some of the most common and popular types of yoga and their benefits:
Bikram Yoga
Also known as hot yoga, Bikram is a series of 26 poses practiced in a 95 to 100 degree room. Its purpose is to eliminate toxins, cleanse the body and stretch the muscles. It speeds up recovery from an injury, enhances flexibility and is perfect for beginners.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha is a slow-paced, gentle, and focused on breathing and meditation type of yoga. Its purpose is to relieve stress, provide physical exercise and improve breathing. It is good for beginners and people who want to learn the basic poses of yoga and relaxation techniques.
Vinyasa Yoga
Vinyasa is very similar to Hatha, covering the same breathing and basic techniques. However, Hatha yoga emphasizes on the Sun Salutation pose, which is a series of 12 poses. Its purpose is to match breathing with movement and build lean muscle mass throughout the body. It helps improve flexibility, strength, tone the abdominal muscles, and reduce the risk of heart diseases, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Ashtanga Yoga
Known as Power Yoga, Ashtanga is fast-paced and implements lunges and push-ups in the practice. It focuses on eight limbs and relieves stress, improves coordination and helps with weight loss. It is perfect for fit people looking to maintain strength and stamina.
Lyengar Yoga
Lyengar covers all aspects of Ashtanga yoga and focuses on body alignment. Many props such as straps, blankets, and blocks are used to assist in strengthening the body. This type of yoga helps improve balance, speeds up recovery from an injury, and is great for beginners who want to learn correct alignments in each pose and for those with injuries, balance issues or medical conditions such as arthritis.
These are only some of the many styles of yoga. Try one of them and find out which one suits your needs the best!
Namaste!