There is so much more to yoga than bending and stretching. Yoga is a combination of meditative breathing, stretching, challenging poses, core strength, peace, and harmony. It also does great things for your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical self.

It is said that while doing yoga, you exert all of the nerves in your body, each muscle, and even your glands. There are a number of illnesses that are reported to show improvements, mental health disorders, diabetes, and even asthma.

So let’s talk about what happens to your body when you do yoga.

Lungs

Most of us aren’t taking those big breathes that our body really benefits from. Yoga incorporates deep breathing into its practice, which means for the entire session, you’ll be really expanding your lungs. The stretching of the lung tissue causes certain nerves in the tissue to become active. Exercising and stretching your lungs will improve lung capacity, which improves the function over time.

Overall Wellbeing

It is reported that people who do yoga feel a higher sense of wellbeing. The relaxing music, the time to focus on your breathing, releasing tension, and time to just ‘be’ is one side of yoga. Of course, you can do more challenging sessions and poses, and even hot yoga to give you an extra boost.

Brain

We all know that exercise releases endorphins and those endorphins help relieve pain, stress and boost happiness. When you exercise, you increase the number of alpha waves, and those brain waves are associated with restfulness and quiet thoughts. Not only that but they are thought to be involved in feelings of calmness and focus. Some hand-eye coordination and reflexes are thought to be improved after a session of yoga.

Musculoskeletal

While you’re happily doing your yoga session, the blood flow increases to your muscles, and those deep breathes you’re taking are bringing loads of oxygen to your active tissues. That increased blood flow helps the muscles function correctly, but also helps build muscle strength. It also moves blood sugar out of the bloodstream and lowers your blood sugar levels. Over time, your muscles will become more flexible, and the amount of time it takes to get flexible depends on how often you do yoga.

Cardiovascular

During yoga, you are going to stimulate your vagus nerve. The deep inhale, and slowly exhales are the reason for that stimulation. The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system. It counteracts the sympathetic nervous system, which is the one responsible for stress and anxiety. When the parasympathetic system is in play, the heartbeat slows, your blood pressure will drop too. Regular yoga practice has been reported to improve heart disease when it is a regular aspect of people’s lives. Over time the changes will become sustained.

In general, yoga is one of the most gentle ways you can make a seriously big positive impact on your health. Your entire body will feel the benefits of doing yoga, and the best thing is that anyone can do it.

Photo by Avrielle Suleiman on Unsplash