Many people practice yoga to improve balance, flexibility, range of motion and mental focus, as well as to ease a host of ailments including stress, menstrual cramps and low-back pain. How can one activity do all this? Whether you choose a relaxing, meditative class or the sweat-producing, high-intensity approach, each yoga pose is attained via several small steps involving deep stretching and breathing control. Poses are held for an extended period ranging from 90 seconds to two minutes. This slow and controlled movement followed by a prolonged hold strengthens the engaged muscles, while the focus on long, slow breaths brings oxygen back to the muscles. And since yoga is as much a mental practice as a physical one, it can help your thoughts become more directed and your attention more focused.
Body Awareness & Active Recuperation
“Properly done, yoga practice can affect every part of the body, mentally
and physically,” says Rich McCord, worldwide director of Ananda Yoga and
Ananda Yoga Teacher Training Programs at The Expanding Light Yoga and Mediation
Retreat in Nevada City, California. Any form of this powerful exercise requires
you to concentrate on your body in a way you’ve likely never experienced
before, and the athletic benefits could easily include an enhanced focus on
targeted muscles when weight training.
Annie Carpenter, a yoga instructor in Santa Monica, California, says that by building good body awareness, good alignment and posture can eventually be achieved — a boon to those who have trouble maintaining proper exercise form or even hitting contest poses. McCord adds that when you move slowly, consciously and gracefully, you get a sense of how your body is and isn’t meant to move. This heightened awareness can be useful in everyday activities like working and training, helping to prevent debilitating joint and muscle injuries.
