THIS POST IS PART OF THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
What can yoga do for your body? Yoga is a form of exercise that incorporates poses to help stretch and strengthen the muscles. Yoga includes breathing exercises, meditation and moves designed to encourage relaxation.
Yoga can do a lot for the human body and can be worked into any lifestyle or schedule. OrthoIndy spine surgeon, Dr. Gregory Poulter explains three advantages of doing yoga.
- Flexibility benefits your posture. Yoga is helpful in maintaining flexibility, which is important for posture and correct alignment of the spine. Over time it can also protect wear and tear within the spine that comes from chronic misalignment, which leads to back pain.
- Yoga can eliminate low back pain and stiffness. However, depending on your age, weight and yoga poses you perform, results can vary. The relaxation techniques in yoga can reduce chronic pain such as lower back pain, arthritis and headaches.
- Yoga can help manage a person’s stress. Aside from the physical benefits, yoga can help a person mentally. Yoga is very effective in helping people reach a more positive outlook on life.
There are many other physical and mental benefits from practicing yoga. Additionally, there are many forms of yoga that can benefit different types of people. For example, pregnant women can benefit from a prenatal yoga class.
If you are new to yoga, start slowly and be mindful of any positions that cause pain. Yoga should not hurt your spine, however, if yoga causes pain, do not push through it. Given that there are many yoga poses, try to find a few that fit your body’s needs.
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