What is the benefit of yoga? I mean Physically.?

Question

What it the benefit of yoga? Except for relaxation. Is there more benefit to it more than "You become more flexible" or you become calm as a hindu cow?

What it the benefit of yoga? Except for relaxation. Is there more benefit to it more than "You become more flexible" or you become calm as a hindu cow?

Also what are all the different terms for it.
Bikram, Hatha?? What is what?

Answer 1

I practice yoga pretty regularly. It is also strength building and can be a cardiovascular workout as well, depending on how fast you go. Vinyasa seems to work more on my chest and arms, whereas Bikram yoga really gives my legs a workout.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

Some of the physical benefits of Yoga are:

improved efficiency of the lungs and cardiovascular system
more efficient use of the respiratory muscles
improved coordination
prevention of loss of bone density
decreased risk of injury in other endeavors
reduced likelihood of being overweight
less likelihood of breathing difficulties such as shortness of breath
tunes and tones organ systems, including respiratory, digestive, reproductive, endocrine, lymphatic and nervous.

Another one that I know personally is that it definitely helps certain conditions like scoliosis. I had scoliosis pretty bad when I was younger. After doing yoga, if I ever go to get a physical check and they do a scoliosis check, certain doctors tell me that my back is fine! Certain doctors say I have it slightly, but compared to how bad it was when I was young, it's great. It will only get better with time, too.

Physical benefits of yoga are just the beginning. There are also many physiological benefits. I stated taking yoga two years ago at the Gym and I love it. It makes you so much more calm and relaxed. Every time I get stressed out I can easily calm myself.

It also helps your breathing. We always breath through the top part of our lungs, but it is proven that if you breath a full belly breathe that you will reduce stress hormones in your brains. If you put your hands on your stomach and breath so deep into your lungs that you feel your ribs separate and your stomach rise, you are breathing throughout your whole lung. If you do this for about 10 minutes, you will feel so much more relaxed and less stressed. This is what I do every time I get stressed out and it makes me feel so much better.

Yoga is also a good way to lose weight combined with cardio workouts. Doing yoga strengthens your muscles, which speeds up your metabolism.

If you are thinking about doing yoga, give it a try. I tried it once about three years ago and I hated it. The instructor was very peppy and loud and not relaxing at all. I gave it another try about a year later and with the right instructor, I love it. Good luck =)

EDIT: Bikram refers to Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury, who is the founder of the Yoga College of India. He founded a type of yoga which is done in a heated room for 90 minutes and it is 26 different poses. Apperently it has very promising results, but I have never tried it personally.
EDIT:: Hatha yoga is a gentle, more relaxing form of yoga. It is a lot of inhaling and exhaling practices in yoga. It promotes harmony and is the most popular form of yoga in the USA. Most of the poses in an Intro to Yoga class will be Hatha Yoga.

Answer 5

Yoga is awesome! Doing the more relaxed routines, you stretch and lengthen every muscle in your body. This creates balance in your whole system, because you are using muscles that you NEVER use in your everyday life. It is important to have that balance, for example if you use your back muscles a lot in your work, but you never use your abs, the imbalance is physically damaging because your abs are too weak to support your back muscles. Everything works together, and Yoga will help "activate" all of your muscles and keep you healthy.

Flexibility is an important part of Yoga, and you have to remember that it is also an important part of physical fitness. Lack of flexibiilty causes injuries. However, Yoga can also be a wonderful workout for building muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance. That comes with the more advanced/intense routines that you can get into after you learn some of the basic poses and stretching. It's sort if like Pilates in that way - you exercise using your own body weight (things like ab routines, leg lifts, etc.) You can *really* work up a sweat.

Another important part of Yoga is what they call "inversions" - putting your body upside-down (everything from bending over to doing headstands) to counteract the effects of gravity. This is great for your circulation too. Once again, Yoga is awesome!

Answer 6

It helps your whole body become more flexible, especially the spine. When the spine is flexible, it is more ready to be prepared against sudden twists and jerks, and therefore, better defended against injury.
Yoga can help posture and core muscle strength, too and makes you stand taller and straighter, therefore making you look slimmer.

It's also good preparation for a gym workout and helps get rid of lactic acid build up which causes the pain and stiffness after a workout.

Hatha means posture. I don't know what the other yogas are. Hatha is the one you most commonly see.

Answer 7

yoga talking about physical stuff...

it has diff purposes...
like there are specific yoga asanas for different ailments...

yoga means communion, with god actually...

yoga asanas, calm the nerves, and bring balance to the "prana"
the life force in the body...

all ailments occur because of lack of balance...and yoga asanas balance them..

the above explanation is for kids...

hinduism has 6 systems of philosophy...

of them, yoga darshan as it is called is consists of raja yoga hatha yoga. and many others...

hatha yoga deals with the physical body and things like that

raja yoga is psychology, deals with the mind...

if you are asking about benefits....

if you are a siddha, a perfect yogi,

then u get these benefits

you can fly in the air, you can turn metal to gold, you can understand all animal languages, you can become as big as a mountain or as small as an atom, you can read peoples thoughts,you can go to any destination in a second, fire will not burn you, water will not drown you...you can create and enter another body before dying, so as to avoid death...there are many benifits, neways i dont think its worth mentioning it to you...

In your cow language if i have to explain,
it will cure your ailments,
give you supernatural powers,
make you immortal, and make you one with god...

Answer 8

Yes- when you are born and when you are a child you breath through your stomach meaning you can see lil kids big ol' bellies breathing in and out. As you grow older and because of life you start to breath through your chest meaning you see the rise and fall in your chest. Yoga-if you do it right that means not just the poses but actually teach yourself how to breath correctly through your stomach as you do the poses, helps with your whole body system. Helps your breathing, helps your metabolism, helps your body work the way it is supposed to and thats why alot of the time people loose weight because their bodies are working correctly. It is hard though because people start doing yoga and just do the poses. The poses help your stretching but when you do it correctly your body will respond.

Answer 9

Practicing yoga can reduce blood pressure, increase flexibility, releave back and body pain, strengthen and tone muscle all over the body, and is excellent for core strenghtening.

Answer 10

Well you can't knock flexibility. And you strengthen your body, improve your posture and balance. It isn't easy.