Get on the Mat: 7 Reasons you should be practicing Yoga!

This week I started the process of trying to publish some of my blogs as a book. It’s the next logical step for me, the goal is to spread the message of health, increasing your quality of live as well as your level of fitness. I also met with one of my readers who is a friend he had some questions and wanted answers from someone he can trust. It was awesome that one of my readers reached out, that is the point of this blog to spread the word, and give you options allowing all of us to make an educated choice.  We discussed many of the things we talk about here, two subject came up one that kept coming to mind was Yoga which is the subject of this weekends list. The top seven reason you should be practicing Yoga.

What is Yoga? It is an ancient body of knowledge going back at least 5000 years, which focuses on harmonizing the consciousness of a person to the universal consciousness. Its name comes Sanskrit Yuj meaning to unite or integrate. The belief is to integrate the mind body and spirit while balancing emotion, action and intelligence. You can achieve this through the framework of yoga exercise breathing and meditation. A yoga practice can effect the body by stimulating the abdominal organs, improve circulation, and squeeze the glandular system to bring the system back into proper order. The key to life is breath, though a healthy practice people learn to control their breath. They also learn to relax which is a key component to the next step meditation. We are looking for a quiet mind in meditation, turn down the outside influence to a minimum. In the framework of yoga we learn to focus, through that focus we can relieve our stress or put the stress in its proper place. You learn to see the bigger picture to act from integrity instead of going off. Lets look as some of the different types of yoga and find one that may be beneficial for you. 

Choices Choices Choices :

Hatha translated means sun and moon, this yoga brings about  the synchronizing of opposites. Hatha yoga can be described as gentle with a slow pace, with a focus on the basic poses, breathing and meditation. The benefits for this type of yoga is stress relief, exercise and it improves breath control. 

Vinyasa means flow and in this yoga you match your breath with movement. As you move in and out the poses your breath flows. It uses sun salutations as a basis but the sequencing of poses will vary. The benefits are improved strength and flexibility, engages the core, and has been said to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. 

Ashtanga comes from the yoga sutra of patanjali referring to yogas eight limb practice. The eight limbs are restraint, observance, posture, breath control, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditative absorption and entasy or bringing into harmony. It is fast paced and very intense focusing on push ups and lunges. The benefits are relief of stress, can help with weight loss and improve coordination.
Iyengar  is named after BK Iyengar its creator. It uses the same eight limb base as ashtanga it also focuses on body alignment. It emphasizes detail, precision and alignment with strength, mobility and stability is gained in the poses. In Iyengar yoga they will sometimes use props like blankets, straps, and blocks. They will sometimes use suspension as well. The benefits of this type of yoga are builds strength, its good while rehabing an injury, and improves balance. 

Bikram is named after its creator as well. It is also known as hot yoga and is practiced in a room around 95-100 degrees. It uses a series of 26 poses that loosen tight muscles and cleanses the muscles. It is good for speeding up recovery from injuries, enhancing flexibility, cleansing the body and weight loss. 

7 Reasons you should be practicing Yoga 

1. Stress Relief: Yoga can ease the effect of stress on the system. Yes, there is a good amount of work that relieves the tension in the body, but the pay off is in the end. Yoga helps to reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Other benefits of yoga include lowering of the heart rate and blood pressure, improved digestion and boosting of the immune system. 
2. Pain Relief yoga does ease pain, the poses and meditation will help to ease pain. I have used yoga myself to reduce pain of chronic or acute injuries. It has been used to help people with Cancer, Immune diseases, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, arthritis and back pain. 
3. Better breathing One of the basic tenants of yoga is breath. It teaches people to take slower deeper breaths improving breath control and lung function. This also triggers the body’s relaxation response and increasing the amount of oxygen available to the body. 
4. Flexibility Yoga will improve your flexibility immensely through the breathing and the poses increasing your range of motion and reducing aches and pain.  The key thing is that tendons and muscles with lengthen allowing you to access more poses and getting into proper alignment. 
5. Increased strength cardiovascular conditioning and circulation Yoga postures work every muscle in the body increasing strength and releasing tension.  Some of the poses allow oxygenate blood to the body’s cells. Through breath control we lower our resting heart rate, increase endurance and improve oxygen efficiency. 
6. Live in the moment Yoga will help us to focus and concentrate on the present. In this awareness we help to create a unified mind body health, allowing for improvements in memory, reaction time, concentration and coordination. I believe in this awareness we can recognize things like pain and stress and put them in there proper place. Like a negative person high your here, but your not taking over my day. 
7. Inner peace through yoga meditation you can reach a deeper more spiritual place in your life. This has happened for many people and it is the reason they keep coming back. 

It my hope that this inspires you to try yoga for a couple of classes. The key is to find a place your comfortable and a teacher who your comfortable with as well. If your on Groupon by a package and go see if you like it. I have practiced yoga on and off for over five or six years and it has helped change me for the better. As always please read and share this blog.