By Kadence Buchanan
A number of people wonder if yoga can improve their muscle fitness and strength levels. While they recognize that yoga can help reduce stress and increase flexibility and overall health, when it comes to increasing muscle fitness people think it might be the most appropriate exercise to do the job. According to experts, yoga can definitely make you stronger.
If you would like to put your daily fitness routine into overdrive and get better results than you ever have in the past, you really should consider adding yoga exercises to your home fitness workouts. Unlike traditional weight-building exercises, in yoga your body provides the resistance. While you are not likely going to produce the bulked-up muscles of some weight lifters, you will certainly increase your muscle strength. In addition, some balance postures require enormous muscle control in order to prevent you from falling over. This helps to build and strengthen your muscles. Aerobic exercise is great for burning calories, and strength training works very well for strengthening your muscle groups, but yoga goes beyond either of those forms of exercise and can benefit you both physically and mentally.
In addition to all its other benefits, yoga can help you improve muscle fitness and make you feel and become stronger. Whether you choose to use it as your primary means of strength training or you want it to supplement your other exercises, yoga can help your muscles grow fit, balanced and strong. In fact, many yoga poses are done very slowly or require you to stay in a specific posture during several breaths. In fact -- those who have experienced it -- support that it is much more challenging to your muscles to hold a pose, or do it slowly, than it is to allow momentum to move you through an action.
Furthermore, while weight training, you isolate a specific muscle as you perform an exercise, and this leads to short, tightened muscles. The muscles you develop during yoga are more likely to be elongated, because as you are strengthening them, you are simultaneously lengthening them. Practicing yoga can help realign your muscles, so they are more balanced. You truly work your entire body when you practice yoga -- you do not focus on isolating a single muscle, but rather actively recruit the smaller muscle groups, as well. Finally, since you are not overworking any specific muscle group, you are less likely to get injured.
Yoga has a number of mental benefits, as the positions and breathing exercises help people focus inward, rather than on the outward distractions of their lives. According to related literature, yoga is a science that has been in place for thousands of years in the Indian culture. It consists of ancient theories, observations and principles about the mind and body connection. Its aim is to unite the mind, body and spirit, and if it’s given the right tools and right environment, the body can find harmony and heal itself.
Many support that this introspection helps them clear their mind and focus their attention on the more important things in life. Regular yoga exercise routines can greatly reduce a person's stress level. Since many yoga poses and breathing techniques encourage extreme relaxation of body and mind, those experiencing the mental benefits of yoga can help eliminate their daily stress and its damaging influences.
Source: articlecircle.com
Kadence Buchanan writes articles for forahealthywoman.com and iwomensworld.net.
