Stay in Shape with Daily Yoga

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Rooted in the Sanskrit word that means “union” or “concentration,” yoga is a blend of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises that help reduce stress, relax the body, strengthen muscles and keep the mind alert. These exercises, which are more commonly known as postures or poses, include mountain pose, tree pose, standing forward bend pose, bridge pose, locust pose, caterpillar pose, butterfly pose, ankle pose, and so on, as well as quality meditation and breathing techniques.

With its 5,000-year history in ancient Indian philosophy, the reason yoga has survived for so long and continues to increase in popularity and acceptance throughout the world is not hard to guess. It has indeed been proven that just 30 minutes of practicing yoga every day can enhance your brain interaction and boost up your mood. Beyond this, several reports have shown that putting some minutes aside to practice yoga every day could transform your health in more ways than you could imagine.  Even more impressive is that wherever you are and whatever you're doing, it's easy to squeeze in just 30 minutes of yoga practice a day. Here are some reasons why it will be worth it:

1. Weight loss
Since yoga involves a combination of physical and mental exercises, it proves more effective than most other exercise techniques. And in no other way is this effectiveness more remarkable as in shedding off unwanted weight. Healthily shedding weight is a conscious effort that requires the harmonious involvement of every part of a person's being. These are unlike most other weight loss methods, which not only ensures that the goal is easily attained but also sustained.

Daily yoga strengthens your overall mind-body connection and helps you deal more effectually with unpleasant feelings rather than looking out for food to suppress those emotions. Even the most basic forms of yoga practice, when done regularly, will fire up your body's absorption system, helping you to shed excess fat and leading to weight loss. Daily yoga can also help restore the hormonal balance in your body, which can normalize your body weight.

Questions have often been raised on how much yoga helps to burn calories. The truth is that while yoga isn't traditionally considered an exercise, there are specific types of yoga that are more physical than other ones. Active, deep styles of yoga help you burn the most calories. This yoga keeps you moving almost immediately, which allows you to burn calories.

Practising yoga may also help you develop muscle tone and improve your metabolism.
While restorative yoga isn't a primarily physical type of yoga, it still helps in weight loss. Another study found that restorative yoga was effective in helping overweight women to lose weight, including abdominal fat. This research is especially promising for people whose body weight may make more vigorous forms of yoga difficult. A review of studies from 2015 showed that yoga is an assuring way to help with social change, weight loss, and maintenance by burning calories, heightening mindfulness, and reducing stress. These factors will help you to reduce food intake and become aware of the effects of overeating.

2. Improved posture 
Daily yoga practice will help expand and tone your body muscles. Trendy poses like the plank will concurrently work on reinforcing your arms, shoulders, hands, feet, and abs. And guess what? One doesn't have to be super bendy to practice yoga; its beauty lies in the fact that it can be practicalities at all levels. Daily yoga helps improve your posture, making you walk taller and sit up straighter at your desk. Pains caused by incorrect body position such as back pain can also be alleviated.

3. Better all-round fitness 
Whenever most people think of improving their fitness, what comes to their mind is huffing and puffing away at a gym. Yet, lifting weights or using the treadmill is not the only way to work out. Yoga gives you all that a gymnasium can, but more safely and completely. It combines aspects of cardio, efficient, and strength training all in one. And it can be done within the comfort of your home. What more could you ask for?

4. Energy boost
Rare minutes of yoga every day will produce that much-needed energy boost in your busy life and will keep you fresh for longer.
Everyday yoga practice will awaken the primary energy centers in the body. Amazing poses for extra energy are those that extend to the vertebral column, such as the tree pose, allowing heat to mingle throughout the whole body and poses that open the upper body, like the cobra pose, encouraging the intake of more breath.

5. Reduced Tension
So many workplaces now offer lunch-time yoga sessions because it's been shown that yoga is a fantastic stress buster. Any yoga practice, even a short daily one, is often made up of three elements: poses, breathing, and meditation. Studies have also found that people who frequently practice all these elements are better able to control their heart-rate variability (HRV).
This usually means that their heart rate is lower, giving their body the capability to respond to stress in a more agile approach.
Relaxing yoga poses still both your body and your brain.

Are you dealing with so much stress that it's keeping you awake at night? Several studies have shown that practicing daily yoga can also decrease sleeplessness. When experiencing sleeplessness, practice relaxing postures, such as a forward fold or lying on your back with your feet up the wall, will calm both your nerves and brain.

6. Better breathing
Breathing intensely and calmly is an integral part of every yoga exercise. Yogic breathing method is focused on trying to slow down the breath and on breathing fully from the deep part of your belly to the top part of your lungs.

These techniques will make you feel more calm and neutral and will help you face the day with assurance and calmness. They also have some great side features which include increased lung capacity and more tidal volume (the total amount of air one's lungs can hold at any time). You can accept these techniques whenever needed in daily life. They can help you stay peaceful in tragic situations, think clearer in stressful situations, and they can help reduce pain.

7. Happier mood
Adding a few yoga poses to your usual procedure can make you a powerful and happy person. A new study has shown that practicing regular yoga and meditation results in higher serotonin levels (the happiness hormone). Another study has also shown that yoga experts have more mass in the areas of the mind associated with being content.

A new study has also shown that the brain's gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels are more after the practice of the exercise. Higher GABA levels are related with lower levels of despair and sadness. To put it, just 30 minutes of yoga a day can start changing your brain chemistry and improving your frame of mind.

8. Enhanced mindfulness 
Yoga and mindfulness move hand-in-hand. When practicalizing yoga, one has to shift their alertness to the sensations, and emotions that accompany a given pose. That kind of awareness will bring the mind back to the present time– the main objective of mindfulness – where it can stay happy and fixated.

Practicalizing mindfulness has lasting physical and advantages that are very much in line with the importance of yoga. You will feel more calm and relaxed and less stressed and anxious. You will experience higher levels of energy and enthusiasm and more self-confidence and self-acceptance.

9. Enhance meditation and clearer thinking
Yoga poses and meditation require you to concentrate on your breathing. This process of observing your breath calms your mind and makes you more mentally relaxed. As a result of this psychological stability, you'll able to recollect and retain more information. Meditating for just a few minutes in the morning can result in better concentration throughout the day.

The process of observing your breath calms your mind and makes you more mentally relaxed.

By reducing psychological stress and emotional tension, we can recall more comfortable and have more organized thoughts. The improved intellectual function will happen when one is able to clear our minds and refresh them. From a place of serenity and calmness, we can use our mental facilities more effectively. Overall, by reducing psychological stress and physical tension through daily exercise, you'll be able to think more intelligently and have more organized thoughts.

10. Longer life
Regular yoga will help you increase your level of fitness, regulate your cardiovascular rate, reduce your stress levels, and make you a powerful and happier person. All those components may add precious years to your life.  It's also known that yoga reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it reduces the rate at which you breathe, which has been directly linked to a longer lifespan. New research has also found that the reflection element of yoga can also help delay the process of aging by protecting the telomeres (caps) at the end of our chromosomes, too.

Bottom-line
Practice yoga as frequently as possible to lose weight. You can do a more active, deep practice at least four to five times per week for at least one hour. On other days, balance out your practice with a more relaxing, gentle routine. If you are very new to yoga, start slowly and steadily build up your training. This allows one to build up your ability and flexibility and prevent injuries.

You can combine your yoga practice with activities such as swimming, jogging, brisk walking, or cycling for added cardiovascular benefits.