Healthy Living:The Benefits of Yoga
Today's post is from contributor - Natasha Gelder. Natasha
is a full time Literature student based in Leeds who is juggling the quests for
higher education, money and rock hard abs. She believes exercising is a vital
part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle and should not be seen as a chore.
Over the last couple of months I have started experimenting
with Yoga. I have been a fan of Pilates for a while now so I thought I would
branch out and see what all the fuss was about. Many people dismiss yoga as an
easy option and claim that it is not a ‘proper’ workout due to its lack of high
intensity cardiovascular activity. Many people assume it is entirely made up of
the meditation and breathing techniques that are part and parcel of Yoga.
Although these techniques are a crucial part of the practice, there are many more
elements involved.
The large focus on breathing exercises may be deemed as
‘pointless’, but the techniques enable you to synchronise your breathing to the
movements that your body is making, allowing you to develop a better awareness
of your body itself. This can then be transferrable to other exercises,
particularly cardiovascular exercises such as running or rowing, to ensure you
keep your body oxygenised through your workout. Arguably the two most important
things during exercise are focusing on your breathing and stretching to avoid
injury; Yoga is a combination of both these things.
A lot of the beginner Yoga moves are relatively easy, but
they are still useful as they present you with the opportunity to stretch out
muscles properly and open up entire muscle groups, resulting in better posture
and beautiful lean muscles. Some of the intermediate Yoga moves are difficult,
as are basically all of the advanced moves. These focus on strength and
flexibility and are extremely challenging. Again, developing your strength and
flexibility are both things which can be transferred to other sports or forms
of exercising, leading to all round athletic improvement. The suggestion that
Yoga is easy becomes completely discredited at the advanced point, unless of
course, balancing on your head for a couple of minutes with your entire body in
a straight line is easy? No, I didn’t think so.
There are many varieties of Yoga, with some being more
vigorous than others; all these different types have their own health benefits.
With less vigorous forms of Yoga, certain poses have been derived specifically
to aid certain ailments, with back pain being a common example of something
that Yoga can help ease. Less vigorous forms of Yoga are also used as a common
way to ease Rheumatoid Arthritis due to the gentle stretching that is involved
in the practice. Heart disease and high
blood pressure can also be helped through frequent Yoga sessions, as can
‘invisible illnesses’ such as depression.
Even if you are a perfectly healthy person with no health issues
whatsoever, Yoga can help diminish high stress levels, something which we are
all susceptible to at one point or another.
Natasha Gelder, full time Literature student based in Leeds
who is juggling the quests for higher education, money and rock hard abs