#TACTIX :: Benefits of Yoga
Yoga offers many benefits
Let’s face it. We live in very stressful times. Most of us are also glued to electronic devices that provide constant stimulus and create havoc with our posture and well-being. As a result of this havoc in our lives, our body feels the toll with increased anxiety, neck and back pain, increased headaches, weight gain, and poor sleep. One of the best ways to combat these issues and assist with mending our physical and mental well-being is through the practice of yoga.
What is yo
This Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline uses breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures to help aid health and relaxation. There’s a reason more than 36 million Americans practice yoga. It just works.
Whether you come to your mat to become more limber, or just to be away from your phone for an hour, the benefits of yoga offer a host of health improvements.
Improved poster and balance
The very nature of yoga teaches the practitioner how to hold and control one’s body in a more healthful position through helpful posing techniques. Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Through consistent practice and movement, your posture will improve so that you look more confident and healthy. This body awareness helps you stay balanced, avoid tripping, and keep grounded.
Yoga for your spine
Strength training with high impact resistance can improve bone density, structure, and strength. The spine can become rigid over time if you don’t move it causing upper and lower back pain and other complications. Yoga’s movement and poses focuses on the spine with a nice blend of meditation, which is key for pain management. Practicing spine-lengthening postures like Downward Facing Dog, as well as inversions, can help to bring some moisture and life back to our all-important spine.
Yoga helps the heart and blood pressure
Studies have shown that yoga can help reduce age-related cardiovascular deterioration. Heart health is more important than ever, with recent research from the American Heart Association showing that heart attacks, high blood pressure, and diabetes are increasingly more common in younger people—especially women. But it turns out yoga may help lower your risk. A review of studies published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that practicing yoga could help just as much as conventional exercise, like brisk walking. In fact, the studies analyzed various types of yoga—both athletic and more gentle flows—as well as a wide range of people with various health conditions. A consistent yoga practice decreases blood pressure through better circulation and oxygenation of the body to help lower blood pressure.
Yoga for less stress and better sleep
Sleep is the thing we’re always told to get more of, no matter how elusive that concept seems. For those of us who struggle with consistent sleep patterns, yoga can help here. In fact, according to a recent national survey from the NCCIH, over 55 percent of yogis report improved sleep, and more than 85 percent said they were less stressed. Much of the credit goes to the breathing practices lot of the credit (again) goes to the breathing practices in yoga which can help you relax and relieve tension after a crazy stressful day.
It’s more than just the pants
The benefits of yoga offer proven techniques for men and women to build strength, cardiovascular system, flexibility, core, posture, and protect the spine, all the areas the folks at Chiropractix work hard to correct and rehabilitate. So grab a mat and give it a try.