The Health Benefits of Yoga — 4 Reasons To Start Today

One of the greatest things about yoga is how versatile it can be. There are many different styles of yoga to choose from, each with varying levels of difficulty and benefits to suit your goals. Whether you do yoga for beginners, as a recovery workout or as an intense strengthening yoga flow, this beneficial practice can provide both men and women with a range of emotional and physical health benefits. 

What are the health benefits of yoga?

There are a number of reasons why yoga can be great for your health. We’ve come up with our top 4 reasons why yoga can add value to your life! 

1. Yoga for flexibility, balance and coordination

Yoga can improve your core control and balance stability — these are key benefits that can come with mastering the practice.  

By doing yoga regularly, you can increase your range of movement, as well as ease pressure on your joints. The long-term benefits of this include reducing the risk of an injury or fall, as well as making it easier to move about in your daily life.

2. Yoga for strength and fitness

Even though yoga is considered a low-impact form of exercise, don’t let this fool you — you can definitely work up a sweat and improve your fitness by doing it! 

Undertaking a regular dynamic yoga flow can strengthen and tone your body, as it works nearly all of your core muscles. During yoga, you’re required to hold yourself in one position for an extended period of time, as well as use your body weight and strength to move fluidly through poses. The more yoga you do, the more your body can tone and strengthen through the movements. Over time, a regular practice can help to increase muscle mass and lean out your body. 

If you’re looking for a gentle stretching routine, yoga can act as a calming LISS activity to help ease your mind. This can complement high-intensity exercise well, as it can help prevent sore muscles and improve muscle recovery.   

3. Yoga for mental health

One of the main elements of yoga is the interconnection of the mind and body through sequences, while focusing on your breath. Yoga teaches you to be present —in order to get through a class successfully, you need to concentrate on the poses that you’re completing. If you don’t, you might find yourself falling out of the pose! The more you learn to focus your mind during yoga, the better you can become at staying present in the moment, without letting your thoughts wander.

This concept is known as mindfulness. By developing better self-awareness of your thought-processes in class, you can then learn to do the same in life; in turn, you may find that this helps you to cope better with challenges that life throws at you.

4. Yoga for fat loss

An added benefit of becoming more mindful through yoga is the potential for fat-loss. While yoga might be a low-intensity form of exercise, it can help you become more aware of your body and mind connection. This is where the concept of mindfulness can also come into play; studies have demonstrated that many people find a regular yoga practice helps them to be more mindful about their food choices and how they fuel their bodies. In the long-term, this related to them being more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

Reasons to start yoga today

One of the greatest things about yoga is that it can be done anywhere. This can save you a lot of time and money in the long-run and can be especially useful for those times when you don’t feel like leaving the house. It’s so simple to create your own private space and start a regular home yoga practice. It doesn’t require anything except for a little bit of space and a yoga mat — so what’s stopping you? 

BAM, the yoga program in the SWEAT app, is a great way to start feeling the many health benefits of yoga, with other like-minded women from around the world. By combining a regular practice with other ways to deal with stress, yoga can have a really positive impact on your overall wellbeing and approach to life.