It’s widely accepted that yoga improves health outcomes and enhances health benefits. It helps to increase mind body awareness and it also helps people find relaxation. Yoga is good for boosting the immune system and relaxing the central nervous system. Even during pregnancy, prenatal yoga has been helpful in ensuring smooth deliveries and safe pregnancies. Yoga can help people to reduce stress which can add actual years to life, increasing longevity. Yoga can also help to improve the quality of breath and increase the range of motion for people.
Yoga teachers spend a great deal of time learning how to offer safe and effective yoga classes. Learning how to sequence a vinyasa class is a daunting task and one that yoga teachers must master before teaching a class and leading people through a yoga sequence. Finding a good yoga class for you is central in increasing health outcomes and preventing disease. Many beginners aren’t sure where to begin when it’s time to choose a yoga class.
Choosing the right class as a beginner is so important. There are many different styles of yoga and these styles all come from specific lineages. The older lineages include Ashtanga yoga, Iyengar yoga, Hatha yoga and Viniyoga. Some of the newer styles of yoga include yin yoga and restorative yoga. As yoga has become increasingly popular, many people in the Western Hemisphere of the World are viewing it as a physical fitness practice or just another movement modality. Some people even refer to it as stretching.
Yoga is much more than just movement and yoga poses. While the yoga poses and the movement aspect of yoga is important, that is only one of the eight limbs in the eight limb path of yoga. We all love to practice the most popular yin yoga poses, but there is more to the practice for sure. Yoga also includes breathwork, chanting, meditation and treating yourself and others with courtesy and respect.
The many health benefits that come from yoga can be traced not only to movement but also to the other aspects of this practice that has been around for thousands of years. Chanting and breathwork have been shown to have health benefits. There have been many studies in recent years surrounding chanting, what we know as pranayama in yoga. Breathing correctly has been shown scientifically to extend the life span, according to research performed by Harvard University. Chanting increases the release of all of those feel good hormones such as dopamine which also helps to fight off disease and increase overall wellness.
Meditation is another part of the practice of yoga that has been proven to increase health outcomes. People who have a regular meditation practice have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. Meditation is great for the immune system and also helpful in calming the central nervous system. Overall, the practice of yoga and all of its components have been linked to improved health outcomes for people all across the world, regardless of the style of yoga practice or the lineage.
