Practicing Yoga

March 12, 2009 | By spost In Health and Fitness |

Yoga has been around for ages. It is composed of age old principles that correlate with the connection between a person’s mind and body. The benefits of practicing yoga are well documented by modern science. Yoga is a short word, or can be said to be a nick name for the old word “Yogasana”. This exercise involves the body, mind and soul of a human being. People who practice Yoga are known as Yogis. To fully experience the benefits of yoga, one should have the firm belief that it will benefit him, as it is an exercise strongly connected to the human mind.

Yogis believe that yoga is a therapy that helps in increasing the peace of mind and provide stability to all the organs of the body. So, people practice yoga to feel fit and relax their minds of stress, depression and tension. Yoga is concerned with movements, patterns, postures and alignment of the human body. While yoga can be performed by people of all ages, it should be practiced under a teacher’s supervision when starting out.

Types of Yoga postures

There are many types of yoga postures. Some of the more well-known postures are discussed as follows:

Sukhasana or Lotus is a sitting pose of yoga and is easy to perform. It is used as a starting position of yoga exercises. It helps to open and strengthens the groin, hips and lower back bone.
Tadasana or Mountain pose is used to improve the balance of mind and posture of the body.
Virabhadrasana or Warrior is a yoga pose that can be performed after Tadasana or mountain pose. It helps to stretch legs and arms and provides strength to the bones, thus increasing the balance of the body.
Uttanasana is a yoga posture in which the body is extended upwards and then bent in the forward position to touch the toes. It relaxes the mind and stretches the neck, back and legs,.
Adho Mukha Svanasana or Downward Facing Dog is a yoga posture performed by putting and maintaining forehead on the floor in front of you. It stretches the spine and hamstrings.
Bhujangasana or The Cobra posture is performed by laying down flat on your stomach on the floor. It helps to open the chest bone and heart and also stretches and strengthen the back bone, legs and arm bones.
Janu Shirshasana is head to knee pose of yoga exercises. It is performed by sitting on the floor and trying to touch your foot with your hand. It helps in improving the flexibility of the arms, back bone and hamstrings.
Trikonasana or the Triangle is a yoga pose in which the body is bent in the form of a triangle by separating the feet 3-4 feet and then touching one foot with one of your hands. It opens up the torso and increases the flexibility in back bone.
Ardha Sarvangasana or Half Shoulderstand is a yoga pose that is formed by lying down on your back with elbows and lower arms on the floor and rise you legs up in the air. It helps improve thyroid function as well as circulation. It also stretches the upper spine and strengthens the abdomen and organs.
Sethu Bandhasa or the Bridge is that yoga posture in which the body is laying down on the floor with arms resting at its sides while the body is risen such that the head, neck and feet are on the floor but the middle part of the body including tail, tail bone and spine is raised in the shape of an arc. This position opens the chest while also improving the strength and flexibility of the abdomen and lower back.
Hatha Yoga is the most difficult and demanding type of yoga postures as it requires very hard exercises and practices, immensely involving every muscles of the body.
Pranayama is a yoga posture that involves breathing exercises.
Dog and Cat posture helps in increasing the strength and flexibility of spinal cord.
Savasana or the Corpse posture is performed at the end of yoga exercises session to relax the body and also provides a refreshing effect on the mind. This is consdered an easy pose to perform.

Benefits of practicing yoga

There are hundreds of benefits of yoga. Some of them are listed below:

It increases the body’s healing power and boosts the immune system.
Steadies the mind and improves concentration.
It increases the flexibility of the muscles and bones of the body.
It improves memory and learning.
It helps strengthen the heart.
It helps to stabilize the nervous system.
It decreases the pulse rate thus decreasing the blood pressure.
It increases awareness and improves brain function.
Normalizes the endocrine glands and gastrointestinal function.
It increases energy level of the body so increasing the grip and equilibrium of the body.
Many people have found that it helps with weightloss.
It improves balance.
It relaxes the mind thus decreasing anxiety, tension, and depression.
Yoga can help lower cholesterol.
It can help control diabetes.
It provides the tuning and toning of body muscles.
It has been shown to be helpful with a variety of diseases including insomnia, aids, asthma, and arthritis.
Reduces the effects of aging.