Will Yoga Make Me Fit? A Step By Step Guide To Yoga Fitness
Before We Get Into Answering Will Yoga Make Me Fit? Lets Understand What Really Fitness Is…
People strive for being healthy. But what do you actually mean by being Healthy? Though different people have different outlooks about being healthy, but when you are healthy, you will feel physically, mentally and socially well. Being healthy means feeling your best, it’s not about how you look.
We often equate health with physical health, like diseases or illness and forget to give enough importance to our mental health. World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
You must be fit, to be healthy, but you can be fit and not be healthy. They are not equal, yet fitness is important in an individual in daily life. Fit means in good health, especially because of regular physical exercise. Fitness is the ability to meet the demands of the environment.
Fitness And Being Fit
Being fit does not mean that you can run a marathon or lift heavy weight. Keeping yourself fit helps you live life to the fullest and encompasses the three important parts of our being; physical, mental and emotional health. Therefore health and fitness are interrelated. However, when you think of fitness, you are usually referring to physical fitness and it is important for several reasons-
Physical Fitness
- Being physically fit helps to keep blood pressure under control, and keeps you away from heart diseases. Walking is said to be the ultimate way to remain fit. That is not only good for your heart, but also nourishes your joint muscles.
- Walking, running or swimming helps to strengthen your muscles, ligaments and joints. It is great for arthritis and joint pains.
- Physical exercise and yoga makes you fitter emotionally as well. It reduces stress and depression and improves respiratory system.
- Being fit means keeping your postures correct and maintain your body structure. It prevents you from being overweight that brings with itself a lot of health problems like worn joints, heart disease etc.
- As most people age, their muscles shorten and their tendons, the tissue that connects muscles to bones, become stiffer. This reduces the range of motion, preventing optimum movement of your knees, shoulders, elbows, spine, and other joints.
Loss of flexibility may also be associated with an increased risk of pain and injury. Keeping yourself fit by regular exercising can reduce all these problems and helps you live longer.
Yoga Fitness Is More Holistic In Nature
So what can make you fit? Why don’t you try walking every day for an hour or two, along with regular Yoga Practice? That can create wonders.
It is often said that Yoga provides a complete fitness regime. Research says that yoga practice provides benefits well beyond flexibility and relaxation. It also improves strength, aerobic capacity, and lung function.
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Yoga Is Beneficial For Physical Fitness
There is never a second thought about the benefits of yoga towards a fit body. Let us go through some common benefits that are known to all, but are often overlooked.
- Holding up my own body weight in yoga will definitely make yourself stronger than what lifting weight does. Practically everything you do in yoga is engaging your core, from core-centric poses to moving from pose to pose, using your core to stabilize your body.
Yoga allows you to raise your heartbeat, strengthen your muscles, and lengthen them in different inversions and arm balances. - Some asanas like Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation, Tadasana or Mountain Pose can count as cardio. There are many more such asanas that you may love to practice in order to keep yourself fit.
- Practicing yoga changes your mind. It changes the way you approach life, your body, and eating habits. That in turn results in effective weight-loss, thereby helping in staying healthy and fit with lesser illness and health complications.
- You won’t feel monotony while practicing yoga as it has so many varieties of asanas. You never get over all the exercises. Hence it brings variety and freshness to your daily work out routine.
- Not only can you enjoy practicing yoga in the comfort of your own house, it also involves lesser risk for injuries. In yoga, you learn to unite your body and mind.
Yoga Makes You Fit Both Physically And Mentally
Stress is the reason for many of the physical problems that we face today. It is always wise never to neglect your mental health. Just like physical health, it too requires equal care and treatment.
Stress and anxiety causes high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, obesity and asthma. Yoga includes rhythmic breathing which helps release the stress from your system. This can lead to a gradual improvement in physical fitness.
4 Step Yoga Practice That Can Lead Towards a Fit Body and Mind
1. Warm-up With Joint Movement
You may slowly move your muscle joints in order to make the movement flexible. You can also practice light asanas that do not involve much strain, yet are beneficial to your body.
Movement helps to lubricate joints, and thereby reduces swelling or pain in damaged joints and improves conditions such as arthritis.
2. Yoga Postures
Learn some yoga postures, preferably from a yoga guru and then practice on your own. That will ensure that your practice is going right.
Postures like Surya Namaskar or sun salutations, Padma sadhana or lotus meditation. These help relieve you mentally and physically. Beside these are meant for complete body workout.
3. Relaxation
After practicing yoga, it is important to lie down and relax for a few minutes. This pose is known as Sav asana or Corpse Pose. It releases the muscles and integrates the fitness workout you have done.
It also calms your mind and reduces stress, headache, fatigue and anxiety. Sav asana is said to promotes spiritual awakening and awareness of higher consciousness.
4. Pranayamas and Meditation
Doing pranayama and meditation at a regular interval adds to the positive effect of yoga. It is the practice of breath regulation. It majorly contributes to physical and mental wellness.
The goal of pranayama is to strengthen the connection between your body and mind. It promotes relaxation and mindfulness. It iss also proven to support multiple aspects of physical health, including lung function, blood pressure, and brain function.
If this unique four-step yoga is practiced properly, your body can get a profound workout and relaxation. Practicing rhythmic breathing with yoga helps the mind to go deeper. Today many athletes are incorporating yoga into their training programs because of this reason.
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Conclusion
Yoga is an effective way to maximize the joy of living in a fit and healthy body. Regular practice of yoga can give more flexibility, more stability and give your body good balance and strength.
People of all ages can do yoga. There are asanas that can even be practiced by people with disabilities or special needs. According to the National Institutes of Health, when people actively seek to reduce the stress in their lives by quieting their mind, the body often works to heal itself.
In this sense, yoga can be seen not only as a way to get into shape on several levels, but also as a tool for self-healing. A fit body, mind and soul goes hand in hand with yoga.
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