The Surprising Benefits of Yoga: Physical and Mental Health

What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient mind and body practice that originated in India. It involves a combination of physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation (dhyana). 

Regular practice is now regarded in the Western world as a holistic approach to healthy living and preventive medicine. A 2017 survey found that 1 in 7 adults in the U.S. practiced some form of yoga in the past 12 months. Please keep reading to learn how yoga benefits the body and mind.

Forms of Yoga Practice

• Hatha yoga is a gentle form of yoga, ideal for beginners, and it combines static poses with breathing exercises for relaxation and stress relief.

• Vinyasa yoga consists of fluid and dynamic movements in which each pose flows into the next, similar to dance.

• Iyengar yoga places emphasis on precision and alignment with the use of props such as straps, blocks, and bolsters.

• Ashtanga yoga is a rigorous routine of specific postures that improve focus and discipline and reduce stress.

• Bikram yoga consists of a series of poses (asanas) done in a hot room for detoxification.

• Kundalini yoga unlocks energy and enhances self-awareness and inner peace through chanting and meditation.

• Prenatal yoga helps pregnant women prepare for childbirth with gentle poses and breathing exercises to improve strength and flexibility and reduce stress and anxiety.

• Yin yoga requires you to hold poses for long periods to build patience and flexibility.

• Restorative yoga involves holding postures for longer periods to promote deep relaxation and stress reduction.

• Anusara yoga emphasizes alignment and can boost self-esteem and positivity.

Physical Health Improvements From Practicing Yoga

Increased Flexibility and Balance

Yoga stretches your muscles and helps you move better with less stiffness. Studies on athletes have shown practicing yoga increases flexibility and balance in just eight to ten weeks. Research has also shown that healthy people who attend yoga classes or practice yoga at home have improved balance. Additionally, there is evidence that yoga has a beneficial effect on balance in older adults.

Enhanced Strength

Some vigorous styles of yoga, such as ashtanga yoga, are very effective in improving muscle strength and tone. Less rigorous forms, such as hatha and Iyenger, also have muscle-strengthening benefits. 

Yoga poses, such as downward dog and plank, build strength in upper body muscles. Standing poses increase strength in the core, hamstrings, and quadriceps. Therefore, a well-rounded yoga session can improve muscle strength in every part of the body.

Improved Posture

Yoga increases body awareness, which makes it easier to notice when you’re slouching or slumping. Also, many body postures build core strength and improve alignment of the spine to help you sit or stand “taller”. 

Healthy Eating and Regular Physical Activity

Many studies have shown that regular yoga practice encourages better eating and physical activity habits. Surveys have found people who practice yoga regularly are more mindful, eat healthier, and are motivated to participate in other physical activities. Yoga also encourages connections with other people who practice healthy living. For this reason, yoga can play a role in the healing process from eating disorders.

Boosted Immunity

Research suggests stress affects immunity and the body’s ability to fight infections. Yoga significantly reduces the hormonal and psychological changes in the body caused by stress. The practice of yoga creates a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system during periods of stress. Yoga can therefore have beneficial effects on the immune system through stress reduction. 

Mental Health Advantages of Yoga

Reduced Stress

Many controlled clinical trials have shown that various forms of yoga can help with stress management. Practicing yoga leads to improvement in both physical and psychological symptoms of stress.

Enhanced Focus

One of the practices in yoga is meditation (dhyana), which is the Sanskrit word for concentration. Focused attention is required during yoga poses and breathing exercises (pranayama). Yoga increases blood flow to the brain when you do a yoga pose, such as a headstand. These practices promote mindfulness (being in the present moment), reduce mental distractions, and enhance focus, attention, and concentration.

Better Sleep

According to the National Institutes of Health, multiple studies have shown that yoga is beneficial for improving sleep in people with sleep problems, older adults, menopausal women, health care workers, and people with health conditions such as cancer and arthritis.

Emotional Health

The mental health benefits of yoga include increased feelings of relaxation, improved self-confidence and body image, better interpersonal relationships, improved resilience, an optimistic outlook on life, and overall improved mental well-being. 

Therapeutic Benefits of Practicing Yoga

Ease Chronic Pain

Postures such as the upward-facing dog and the chair pose to strengthen the lower back muscles and can help people with chronic lower back pain. Studies have found that yoga can improve physical function (the ability to be active) and quality of life in such individuals. 

Improved balance, flexibility, and muscular strength from practicing yoga can help with chronic pain in other parts of the body, such as neck pain and arthritis pain. Stretching can relieve compression and improve joint mobility in people with carpal tunnel syndrome. Yoga is also beneficial for people with tension headaches and migraines and regular practice can result in decreased pain intensity, headache duration, and headache frequency.

Assist in Managing Anxiety

A systematic review of studies has shown that regular yoga practice reduces stress, anxiety, and depression and improves sleep and chronic pain. Studies have also shown that people with high levels of anxiety, for example, due to examination stress, have lower amounts of circulating cytokines, which are substances secreted by immune system cells during stressful situations.

Support Lung and Heart Health

Yoga can potentially help with high blood pressure, increased heart rate, elevated blood cholesterol, and high blood sugar levels, which are risk factors for heart disease. Studies have shown that practicing yoga for 3 months is linked to health benefits such as improved blood parameters and a reduction in waist circumference in people with metabolic syndrome. 

Other studies have found that twice-weekly classes of slow-paced yoga reduced the number of times people with atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm abnormality) experienced episodes.

Studies have also found yoga benefitted heart failure patients who did an eight-week program. These individuals had a decrease in blood markers of inflammation that contribute to heart disease, improved exercise capacity, and better overall quality of life. 

Deep breathing during yoga practice can help to improve lung function and lower blood pressure.

Aid in Digestive Health

Yoga can aid digestive health through increased physical movement, which improves circulation to internal organs as well as gut motility. Various studies have shown that yoga is particularly effective for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease. It can therefore play a complementary role in the treatment of these conditions.

Common Questions About Yoga

What is the main benefit of yoga?

The main benefits of yoga include improved balance, flexibility, muscular strength, and sleep and reduced stress, anxiety, and pain.

What does yoga do to your body?

Yoga is an ancient practice that consists of mind-body interventions. It has both physical and mental health benefits, including yoga’s ability to:

• Improve flexibility, strength, and balance 

• Ease chronic low back pain and arthritis pain

• Benefit heart health

• Improve sleep with relaxation techniques

• Boost energy and mood 

• Aid with stress management 

• Promote mindfulness, healthy eating, and physical activity

How often should you do yoga?

You should do yoga at least 2-3 times a week for best results. If you are doing daily yoga practice or more than 5 times a week, make sure you include at least one day of gentle yoga and one day for rest and recovery. 

Keep in mind that yoga is not a form of aerobic exercise (exercise that increases your heart rate). Therefore, in addition to regular yoga practice, you should also get the recommended weekly moderate to vigorous aerobic activity.

Does yoga tone your body?

Yoga can tone your body and improve your physical appearance. Some asanas (postures) tone your arms, while others tone your legs or abs (core). There are also postures that can tone your whole body.

Is yoga a good way to lose weight?

Regular yoga practice can help with weight loss and reduction in body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, and waist circumference. Longer yoga classes (75-90 minutes) and more frequent yoga sessions (3 times a week), done for at least 3 months, are associated with the best weight loss results when combined with healthy eating.

Can yoga help with health problems?

Yoga interventions may help with health conditions such as chronic low back pain, neck pain, knee osteoarthritis pain, headaches, menopause symptoms, mood problems, and smoking cessation. Yoga poses and breathing interventions can also improve health in specific body systems, such as the digestive, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems.

Tips for Beginners

Start with Basic Poses

People who are new to yoga often feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of poses. But yoga is not complicated. If you stretched your arms above your head after getting out of bed in the morning, you already did a yoga pose. Going to yoga classes can teach you certain sequences of postures (asanas) and breathing techniques for maximum benefit. 

It’s a good idea to start with basic yoga postures because they will feel familiar to how you already move and bend your body in daily life. Start slow and focus on your breathing as you mindfully relax into and deepen each pose. From here, you can build up to more challenging yoga asanas. 

Find the Right Style of Yoga

Yoga offers something for everyone. The different styles of yoga all share a mind-body connection but have certain distinct features. Some require you to move quickly from one yoga pose to another, while others require you to hold a pose for a longer period of time. 

Choose the type of yoga based on your main goal. If you want to reduce pain and fall asleep faster, a gentle yoga form such as Hatha yoga may be ideal. If you are looking for a more dynamic and strenuous form of yoga, consider Ashtanga yoga. Restorative yoga with controlled breathing practices and relaxation poses like savasana (corpse pose) have obvious benefits for stress management.

Incorporate Yoga into Your Routine

Research suggests yoga’s benefits are maximized by practicing it regularly. Try to include a yoga class with a yoga instructor or a yoga session at home at least 2-3 times a week for improved mental and physical energy and well being. Yoga should be combined with other forms of exercise, including aerobic exercise, for overall health benefits.