Did you know some of the benefits of yoga are increased flexibility, better heart health, a stronger body, increased athletic performance, or protection from injury?

If you answered yes to even one of the benefits above…yoga is for you!

From personal experience, I can tell you that yoga has helped me feel healthier and stronger in daily activities that were getting harder as I got older.

At 31, I never imagined having back pain to the point where I couldn’t lift my laundry basket, or bend down to pick up items off the floor.

Somehow last winter, I injured my back. How you ask? I HAVE NO IDEA. All I know is that my back muscles were not as strong as they needed to be, causing severe back and neck pain. I went to the chiropractor, I took pain relief medication, and I laid in bed for hours of the day, and nothing seemed to help.

After dealing with the pain of my back being stiff, achy and extremely tight, I decided to give yoga a try. And I mean a legitimate try. While surfing YouTube and found a 30-day yoga series for beginners, and my love for yoga took off from there.

I learned moves that were specific to my needs, and progressed to creating my own flows without guidance. I am so happy I began my yoga journey to a healthier and stronger body.

Here are 8 benefits of yoga that can help anybody of any age feel physically better, or even mentally healthier!

Benefits Of Yoga #1: Increased Flexibility

The most obvious benefit, is increased flexibility. But why is this important to anyone? With flexibility comes increased range of motion. Once you develop your range of motion, your body will be able to handle more physical stress.

Your body will be able withstand greater impact, while reducing your chances of injury during physical activity. You will notice your body correcting the muscle imbalances you may have by strengthening the under active muscles and stretching the overactive (tight) ones. Who wouldn’t want a balanced body?

Benefits Of Yoga #2: Builds Muscle Strength

You actually get stronger through yoga. The stronger our muscles become, the easier day to day tasks become.

Building strength is so beneficial for our bodies, and protect us from conditions like arthritis, back pain and help prevent falls in the elderly. In my case, I strengthened my back through poses I learned and over time it completely cured my back pain.

I feel just as strong doing yoga as I do when I lift weights in the gym. The only difference yoga has one up on weight lifting is because you are also increasing your flexibility at the same time. It’s a win win!

Benefits Of Yoga #3: Better Posture

Having good posture is HUGE when it comes to healthy bodies.

When your head is balanced directly over an erect spine, your neck and back muscles don’t have to work as hard to support it. When your head sits several inches forward over your spine, you start to strain the neck and back muscles. Imagine holding up your head improperly for 12 hours a day. Oh the fatigue that sets in!

Take it from me, when I say my back and posture was messed up.

My head was sitting forward over my neck and I discovered this caused a lot of my upper body pain (thank you chiropractor for bringing this to my attention). Poor posture can cause neck, back and other joint problems, and I have first hand experience with this pain.

I would get knots all over my upper back to the point where they would sit on nerves, causing dull pain all down my right arm. The kind of pain that you can feel in your fingers, but you know the problem is in your neck/back. Yoga has helped my posture tremendously.

It’s a work in progress, but a lot of my knots, aches and pains have subsided, and I continue to work on this DAILY!

Benefits Of Yoga #4: Protects Your Spine

Your spinal disks are the shock absorbents between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves and they need movement.

Luckily, most back injuries are not disk injuries, but disk injuries are serious because they are so debilitating and long lasting. Back bends, forward bends, and twists are going to be your discs best friends.

These moves help strengthen the spine, increase flexibility, and keep your disks supple. Again in my personal experience, this huge for my back pain. I make sure I get plenty of twists and bends.

You should too if you want a strong healthy spine.

Benefits Of Yoga #5: Increased Blood Flow

The moves you learn in your yoga class, or YouTube video can help your circulation. Especially in your hands and feet. Your cells function better due to more oxygen traveling to them.

Twisting poses which are my favorite, wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Release of these poses feel amazing, and can get quite addicting once you understand what your body is doing. Inverted poses such as Handstand, Headstand, and Shoulder stand promote venous blood from the pelvis and legs flow back to the heart.

From here, the blood is pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. The benefits of this can reduce swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Deceased chance of heart attacks and strokes can also be achieved due to yoga boosting levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells which carry oxygen to the tissues. It thins the blood by making platelets less sticky and by cutting the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood.

Benefits Of Yoga #6: Immunity Booster

The various yoga postures you practice in a single session contract and stretch your muscles, and move your organs around which in turn increases the drainage of lymph.

This viscous fluid rich in immune cells helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular function. This is a HUGE benefit, and I almost feel bad for not placing it in the top 5.

Benefits Of Yoga #7: Yoga Makes you Happier

Studies have found that consistent yoga practice can improve depression.

Yoga can cause a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in monoamine oxidase levels and cortisol. Yoga can trigger something in you that makes you crave the benefits and the enjoyment of the poses you practice.

I know that when I am winding down for the night and I haven’t done my yoga, I crave it. I enjoy it. And I enjoy the happiness that comes along with what my body is doing physically, but also internally.

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Benefits Of Yoga #8: Focus Improvement

Regular yoga practice of course improves reaction time, coordination, memory and even IQ scores. The saying healthy bodies, healthy minds is especially true when being physically active through yoga.

The focus you put in to your poses, helps you de-clog your mind. Moderate intensity yoga promotes increased performance in working memory and cognitive flexibility, and high intensity exercise though yoga can improve the speed of information processing.

I suggest doing yoga before a big work presentation, or before an important test, to improve your performance!  

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