Yoga is an easy fitness goal. Find which yoga practice fits your plans to improve stretch, flexibility, and mental relaxation for easy yoga resolutions.

Starting a yoga practice may be foremost in many people’s minds as an easy fitness start to the New Year or their new self. Yoga has gotten to be mainstream, with many considering it or, at the minimum, dressing in yoga attire to go to the supermarket. Here is how to begin a new yoga year with simple resolutions that won’t disappoint.

Choosing the First Yoga Class

Fortunately, many yoga schools have a first free class. If it isn’t advertised, ask about it. That said, don’t form any lasting permanent opinions about yoga from that first session. Much depends upon the teacher, the style of the class, the room, the fellow students, and how full your stomach was on that first day. Seriously, yoga on a full stomach prevents easing into some positions and causes extra pressure when folding the body over itself.

If this is first-time yoga, resolve to start with an open mind and try a few different classes. Suggestions follow to help this entrance into yoga.

• Select a class called gentle yoga or relaxing yoga if exercise or movement hasn’t been a part of your life for the past year.

• Restorative yoga is a good selection if you have a known injury or otherwise go to some form of rehab or a chiropractor. Likewise, Iyengar yoga uses props to help enter poses and eases the transition into a moment for those who feel stiff or have injuries or other issues.

• Ashtanga and power yoga are for those who want athletic yoga and don’t want to be hampered in practice with too much lying on the floor. Both types of yoga utilize a certain degree of strength and athleticism but can be enjoyed by beginners.

• Hatha or Hatha flow yoga is an excellent combination of ease and exercise for the new practitioner. Often each pose can be done on several levels to provide the experienced practitioner and the beginner a chance to participate.

• Kundalini is a more spiritual practice but, of course, has poses and postures to learn.

• Bikram has the advantage, like Ashtanga, of using the same set of sequences in every class to quickly learn the course’s pattern. Bikram is practiced in a very heated room. The heat helps the body become more flexible quickly and has both supporters and foes.

• There are further variations of yoga classes, including stretch yoga, Pi-Yo (a yoga and Pilates combo), as well as laughter yoga, yoga with your dog, and numerous popular derivations here in the west.

How to Do a Deep Stretch or How to Have Your Fingertips Touch the Ground

Setting a goal of improved flexibility should be on the list, whether it’s fingertips to the ground or heels down on the floor in the down dog (see photo). Some people are naturally flexible, but all have to work to maintain a modicum of limberness.

• Use the breath to achieve this goal by deeply inhaling in mountain pose (standing pose) and stretching higher toward the sky with the belly pulled in as you flow forward and out of the body toward the floor. It is different from crumbling over the stomach toward the ground. It hurts the upper body from the hips down.

• Never bounce and force it, but with each inhale, push forward to the floor with an exhale.

• In a down dog, walk the dog, that is, move the balls of the feet one at a time, pressing down to the heel. Feeling the heel on the floor is the first step toward maintaining the heel on the ground.

• Lengthen or decrease the distance between the hands and feet in this pose as needed to get the heels on the floor.

• Stretches need to be practiced in some form every day to maintain mobility. Watch a cat or dog stretch as they awaken and understand the need to practice frequently.

Change your Mind, Easing the Brain, Kindness to Yourself in Yoga Meditation

Starting present in the here and now is a gift to oneself. If only a few minutes a day or a week, practice this year to clean out the busy mind by either chanting in class or emptying thoughts during savasana.

Zen yoga focuses on the present, although all yoga does. Any physical exercise requires concentration and letting go of outside stimulation. The brain needs downtime to refresh and approach life on a new scale. Focusing inward doesn’t mean thinking only of yourself but not thinking. Experiment with being in the moment. This, too, is a vital yoga goal.

Fitness Program for Aches, Impotence, Weight Gain Relief

Many men looking for meaningful fitness activities find yoga has been described as a cure-all for many physical ailments of the middle and senior years. It really can help.

Sometimes yoga is described as a panacea for all the ailments of the middle-aged man, from indigestion, hair loss, bad backs, joint pain, obesity, depression, anxiety, and impotence. In reality, yoga has many benefits, but it isn’t magic.

Yoga for Hair Loss

Losing scalp hair can be genetic. Hair can also be lost during times of stress, diet, or due to illness or medications. Inversions increase circulation to the scalp. Blood nourishes the area.

Proper breathing will decrease tension and anxiety. A calm mind puts the body back in balance, so stress-related problems such as hair loss could diminish.

Yoga for Middle-Aged Weight Loss

Yoga also emphasizes a proper diet. And has been shown to decrease middle-aged spread. Any regular exercise that moves a person off the couch will induce some weight loss and a feeling of well-being, but yoga can benefit in the following ways:

• Ashtanga yoga is an athletic style of yoga that builds up heat within the body and can effectively be combined with a weight loss program.

• Bikram is very popular for those wanting to get thin and initially heats the body externally in an overheated room. Water weight via sweat is instantly dropped, and with decreased food consumption, pounds are also lost.

Yoga for Men with Achy Joints and Bad Backs

Undoubtedly, yoga is a program that will increase flexibility. Select a Hatha style with props or Iyengar yoga, ideal for modifying poses and easing the body into a posture. Massaging with a bolster may help break up tight fibrous muscle tissue. A good instructor should be aware of back problems to modify the body and strengthen opposing areas to diminish the pain eventually. Yoga isn’t really about extreme flexibility, although becoming more limber in mind and body is a certainty of the practice regardless of its start. Regular exercise can lubricate joints and help back pain.

Yoga for Depression and Anxiety

Studies have verified the power of practice on mood disorders by elevating the brain’s GABA levels. The physical aspect of improved blood flow and concentration but decreasing the stress hormone cortisol and increasing endorphins works to improve mood. The April 2009 Harvard Mental Health Letter details positive results of yoga for anxiety and depression, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Achieving physical balance in postures seems to create emotional balance as well.

Yoga and Impotence

Psychological aspects of impotence can be helped by regular practice with its stress reduction techniques.

• Postures such as Kandasana that focus on the endocrine system and increasing oxygen intake have been discussed as a possible help, if not a cure.

• The Cobra Pose increases oxygen intake while maintaining a flexible back and strengthening the shoulders, abdomen and arms. “Baby cobra” is a modification.

• Anal lift affects the ductless endocrine gland. Mulabandhasana poses also affect the anus and pelvis.

Someone new begins yoga somewhere every day… At this point in life, there is no need to feel foolish as the newbie in class. No one cares, and the teacher is glad to have another student. Find a good beginner class at the Y or a community center to start. Some local schools only have beginner classes since all the students are new to yoga. There is no doubt yoga will improve well-being. A year from now, the new student is experienced. Begin now, where you are.

Yoga’s Effects on the Mind, Body, and Soul

Yoga can improve physical health & psychological disorders. Yoga has many health advantages, including better body image, decreased sadness, and weight reduction.

Yoga enhances the mind-body connection, which can improve your mood and physical health, and even lighten various psychological disorders. Improved depression, body image struggles, eating disorders, and even physical problems such as back pain and asthma are some of the health benefits of yoga practice and meditation.

The health benefits of yoga are initiated because you’re focusing on inner peace. Yoga is founded on the principles of self-realization, relaxation, concentration, and harmony. According to research, yoga advantages include alleviating a variety of illnesses, ranging from back pain to tiredness.

The health benefits of yoga: depression

Yoga can lift your mood and disposition, especially when combined with traditional treatments, by focusing your attention on how your emotions are expressed in your body. Negative feelings that are blocked or suppressed may come to the surface during certain hatha yoga poses, which move negative energy from “stuck” places in the body.

Psychotherapist Stephen Cope wrote Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. In this book that reveals many health benefits of yoga, Cope states that yoga creates familiar feelings of well-being. The National Institute for Mental Health in India found a 73% success rate in treating depression with the Sudarshan kriya technique. The relationship between yoga and depression is still undergoing scientific scrutiny – but whether you’re depressed or not, yoga can’t hurt your mood!

The health benefits of yoga transcend your mood and how you see yourself.

The health benefits of yoga: improved body image

Women who practice yoga report higher levels of body satisfaction, less self-objectification, and increased contentment with their physical appearance (compared to women who do not practice yoga). Women who practice yoga also report experiencing fewer symptoms of eating disorders, perhaps because yoga teaches you to listen to your body’s input and develop an awareness of your physical feelings. It, in turn, makes you less preoccupied with your appearance, gives you more positive views of your body, and helps you incorporate healthy eating habits in your life. Yoga may also help you tune out society’s messages that thin is the only excellent body shape, and only beautiful people are valuable. A healthy body image is one of the health benefits of yoga.

The health benefits of yoga: weight loss

According to a National Cancer Institute-funded study, regular yoga practice (30 minutes once a week) was connected to weight loss in subjects between 45 and 55. Yoga isn’t about burning calories; it’s more about becoming more aware of your body and when it’s full of food, stress, or conversation.

The health benefits of yoga concerning weight loss are that it’s easier to stop eating when your mind-body connection is strong. It is your knowledge of your body that improves, not necessarily the calorie burn. Yoga improves mindfulness and encourages a “gentle strength”, which positively affects weight loss and weight management.

The health benefits of yoga: improved physical health

Research is proving connections between good physical health and yoga. For instance, epileptic stress, back pain and fatigue caused by multiple sclerosis are all health problems that have been proven to be reduced by yoga practices – and that’s just barely scratching the surface of all the scientific research about yoga and health!

The health benefits of yoga: improved sensuality

Yoga can even improve your relationship and love life. When my husband and I participated in a weekly yoga class, we found ourselves much more romantic in the evenings! Depression and health problems aside, it can improve your overall disposition and mood. Even struggles like fear of intimacy and anxiety-based phobias can be enhanced with regular meditation and yoga.

Yoga is a holistic practice that benefits overall wellness. Yoga empowers the practitioner to be self-healing and can address specific conditions.

The infinite variety of yoga movements has something for everyone. However, yoga is not practiced exclusively for the hale and hearty, the fit and flexible, and those suffering from ailments and injuries. Yoga may help repair bodily imbalances caused by cancer, diabetes, hormone problems, and digestive issues, among other things. It can also soothe pain and discomfort and facilitate healing after an injury or chronic physical ailments manifested by genetics or lifestyle.

While every case is specific, some general principles can be applied broadly to the topic of therapeutic yoga.

Pranayama and the Body’s Natural Healing Power

The breath is the body’s most powerful tool and most direct form of energy in its healing power. Prana is transported throughout the body by deep breathing in positive ions carried by oxygen molecules. It also stimulates the thymus gland, located beneath the sternum and connected to the fourth chakra. This gland controls the body’s immune functions.

Yoga’s Relaxation and Visualization Techniques Alleviate Stress and Promote Healing

Many relaxations and meditation exercises can help calm the mind and direct its energies towards the necessary positivity that stimulates the body’s healing power and restores balanced hormone production. Though meditation can be a complex process for some, any breathing or visualization exercises that relax the mind and body can be beneficial, regardless of the duration of the exercise. Whether or not the practitioner reaches a “meditative state” is irrelevant. “

Numerous practitioners have reported benefits from Yoga Nidra (yoga sleep), a guided type of relaxation accessible on CDs, DVDs, and in certain studios. The principle of yoga Nidra rests on setting a positive intention before the practice and allowing the subconscious mind to rest on that intention as one enters deep relaxation through a progressive series that relaxes the body, the mind, the conscious, and finally, the subconscious mind.

This procedure may be utilized to activate the body’s natural healing ability. It has been used to treat addiction, chronic illness, and conditions such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression, often with dramatic results.

The Restorative Aspects of Mind/Body Practices

Hatha yoga’s asanas (poses) may be used to treat virtually any injury to the body’s soft tissues and misalignment of the skeletal structure and disorders affecting internal organ function when done correctly with yogic breathing. It involves directing the body’s healing energy to the area needing treatment using the breath and the mind’s awareness. It is also simply a matter of stretching, massaging, or aligning the space with simple movements.

In cases of strains, sprains, and soreness, passive stretches are best applied. In addition, such styles of yoga as Yin Yoga and Restorative Yoga should be practiced. Suppose pain in the body arises from misalignment of the spine, pelvis, or joints. In that case, Iyengar Yoga and Hatha Yoga are recommended to address proper alignment of the body as it moves. The Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais Method are also systems of movement therapy that effectively treat ailments and retrain the body and mind.

Anatomical Effects of Poses

Asanas are often classified, which differ depending on the yoga tradition being cited. For example, some may organize them by orientation (standing, seated, prone, etc.), others by their effects on the body’s chakras, and others by the kind of energy they stimulate in the body (yin and yang, for example). Therapeutic applications can also organize Yoga asanas.

A few examples of disease or disorders of the internal organs commonly treated with asanas are gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, poor kidney function, and conditions of the female reproductive organs. Specific asanas have been designed to target particular parts of the body inside. Consult books, websites, and teachers for tips on specific asanas as they relate to certain conditions. The more one practices asana, the more one sees inherent logic in the application of asanas to specific areas of the body:

• Asanas that compress the lower abdomen massage the organs in this area, such as the large intestine and colon.

• Asanas that stretch and relax the soft belly relieve menstrual pain.

• Asanas that twist the torso cleanse the digestive organs and soothe discomfort caused by too much acidity or toxicity in the oesophagus, stomach, and small intestine.

• Asanas that massage or compress the back have a calming effect on the kidneys and alleviate menstruation discomfort.

• In certain instances, asanas that invert the body alleviate headaches and congestion.

Poses’ Energetic Effects on the Endocrine System

The endocrine system’s main glands are aligned along the axis of the spine with the body’s seven major chakras. Asanas have the ability to excite or soothe the energies associated with these chakras; they have a direct effect on the associated endocrine glands. Thus, specific asanas can help treat thyroid disorders, reproductive issues, digestive problems, mood disorders, and depression simply by restoring the average hormone production of these glands.

Consulting professionals and professional resources in yoga to find treatments for special conditions can be a powerful complement to traditional Western medical treatment. It has been shown to accelerate healing, maintain health, and promote a holistic state of wellbeing in the hands of a regular practitioner.

Worried, Anxious or Depressed? Do Yoga.

Are life problems making you anxious? When worry takes over, stress mounts. Gone is inner peace. Depression often follows. The practice of yoga helps you reduce stress.

Psychologists can help anxiety-ridden people sort out their problems and suggest solutions. But what about the damage stress does to your heart, blood pressure, and immune system? According to Timothy McCallum, M.D., author of Yoga and Medicine, one way to get calm and undo the damaging effects of high anxiety and stress is to practice yoga. His book explains the healing benefits of yoga for 40 conditions or diseases. “The breath is utilized in yoga to relax the neurological system, which in turn helps to quiet the mind,” writes Dr McCall. “Yoga asserts that when the mind is still, more wisdom from within becomes available, promoting both creativity and healing.”

Calm Your Mind

Yoga requires concentration. The postures (asanas) are new, and they need reflective practice. While focusing on correct body alignment to do a pose beneficially, it is hard to dwell on your problems. “In yoga, you do spiritual practice that affects the physical,” Dr McCall explains. “You calm and strengthen the nervous system, which has a positive effect on the mind. You cultivate peace of mind, and it affects the nervous system, the immune system and the cardiovascular system.” In yoga, repetitive, nagging, obsessive thoughts about what you fear, or hate are examples of the “monkey mind.”

Most people think that the constant mental dialogue in their heads is regular. They are thinking continuously about past hurts or failures, or future dreams and hopes, but rarely experiencing the goodness of the present moment. Yoga trains you to live in the now and experience freedom from negative habitual thoughts. That alone will help with stress reduction, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spiritual Healing and Life Science Foundation.

Yoga for Physical Fitness

Yoga is a mind-body discipline that dates back to ancient Indian philosophy, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) website. In addition, yoga is an involved religious practice for many practitioners worldwide. Yet following the tenants of any religion, or even having any beliefs at all, is not necessary to gain significant benefit from practicing yoga.

While many people practice yoga to elevate their spiritual life, many others are merely seeking improved physical fitness. In the United States, yoga is often offered at gyms and spas and some hospitals as part of a wellness program. “Yoga has been proven in studies to improve mood and sense of well-being, reduce stress, slow the heart rate and blood pressure, and expand lung capacity. In addition, it improves muscle relaxation and body composition, and aids with conditions such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia, “states NCCAM.

Yoga Helps Meditation

Yoga has spiritual effects hard to ignore. In the conscious act of controlled breathing and focused awareness of the body, yoga practitioners frequently report an experience of “mindfulness.” In this state, you can achieve an understanding of your being in a non-judgmental way. While doing yoga, the goal is to achieve a harmonious and balanced state of mind and body which can be used as a doorway to meditation. A meditative state of contentment may not last long for the beginner, but with regular yoga practice, it will become prolonged. Teachers will spend time leading the class in a chant or mantra in some techniques, the most popular being the sound “Om” Chanting, especially in a group, calms the nerves.

How to Study Yoga

Yoga is a far more complex system of practices than a few simple exercises. It is an art, according to B.K.S. Iyengar, a yoga teacher whose comprehensive methods are famous worldwide. There are many kinds of yoga classes in almost every major city globally, and they won’t be hard to find. Some are more strenuous than others. The quality of training can pose a problem since some teaching certificates from certain yoga schools are easier to obtain than others.

Teacher training and experience is crucial. One way to get started is to study yoga by watching yoga tapes. They can be rented or checked out of the library. After watching various workout tapes, not necessarily doing them, you will comprehend that yoga has many different forms and styles to accomplish many other ends. One single method, or some schools of yoga and styles, may not be what your body needs for a healthier and happier life. Choose with wisdom.

Warning

Yoga has thousands of variations, and some specific yoga poses may not be suitable for you. In addition, you can get injured doing yoga improperly. Yoga is not for everyone. Yoga is not an instant fix. It takes time and patience to undo years of physical neglect. People with medical conditions or diseases should get the advice of their physician before starting a yoga program. Yoga is not a substitute for good medical care but can complement it.