Yoga

Health Benefits

Ah yes, yoga. What’s not to love about stretching out on a comfortable mat and losing yourself in a virtual sea of calmness and quietude? Relieving your bowels of all the air, often times in a room filled with other people doing the same. Ah yes, yoga. And then getting out into morning traffic, and driving slow in the fast lane because you’re too damn self-absorbed to give a shyt about anyone else around you. Ah yes, yoga.

Despite the pretentious nature of all things having to do with yoga, and if you put aside all the images of people with perfect postures and idiotic serene looks on their faces, and all the pictures they post on the web of themselves at the beach or park in some dumbass pose, yoga can be quite the thing if you’re able to get into it, and stop laughing. Something that is more than 5,000 years old can’t be wrong, right?

Yoga is a low-impact way to stretch and strengthen – it can also be done anytime and just about anywhere. Yoga can improve flexibility, muscle strength, and endurance. It consists of breathing exercises and “poses” or “postures” that are to be held for several seconds or minutes. Some methods of yoga can involve aerobic movement.

Because of its low to no impact, yoga is a great way exercise without causing possible damage to the body. But probably the best thing about yoga is stress reduction, by calming the mind and body. Yoga could quite possibly be one of the best anti-aging practices one can do.

Yoga breathing is an important part of health. Vital for the development of physical well-being, it is both a form of meditation in itself and a preparation for deep meditation. Yoga breathing (pranayama) can quickly bring the mind into the present and reduce stress. Stress and free radicals harm each of us by diminishing our health and energy.
Yoga breathing has been used in the handling of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions.

 

Stress
Calming the body; the face, letting go of tension build up. Moving the fuq out of the fast lane if you’re not going to keep up with traffic! Ok wait…clear the mind, center yourself, be present.

Weight loss
An average person can burn 150 calories or more in an hour of doing regular yoga. So, on top of calming the body and reducing stress, ya get to lose some weight!

Memory and age
Science says there’s a physiological explanation for the feelings of calm experienced during yoga work outs.  In a recent study conducted by Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, yoga was shown to reduce cortisol levels, the so-called stress hormone. Elevated amounts of cortisol may add to age-related memory problems.

Pain
Yoga can be very effective in relieving back pain. A University of Washington study recommends yoga or stretching once a week for 3 months to alleviate symptoms.

Sleep
Although the brain’s natural sedative melatonin decreases with age, an Indian study found that yoga practiced daily for three months increased melatonin levels. I’m guessing this is probably a lot safer than taking Ambien every night.

 

Some types of yoga

Hatha
Hatha represents opposing energies: hot and cold, yin-yang, male and female, positive and negative. Hatha yoga efforts to balance mind and body via physical postures, controlled breathing, and the calming of the mind through relaxation and meditation.

Bikram
Also known as Hot Yoga, Bikram Yoga is preferably practiced in a room heated to 105°F (≈ 40.6°C) with a humidity of 40%. Bikram Yoga is a structure of yoga that Bikram Choudhury synthesized from traditional hatha yoga techniques and propagated in the early 1970s. All Bikram Yoga classes last for 90 minutes and contain the same series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises.

Vinyasa
A standard vinyāsa consists of the flow from plank, to low plank, to upward-facing dog, to downward-facing dog. -whatever

The breathing style used in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a relaxed diaphragmatic style of breathing. Throughout a practice, this precise breathing style is continued in alignment with movements. The fixed cycle of inhales and exhales provides the practitioner with a relaxing, mental focal point.

 

Anti-aging facial yoga

In addition to the anti-aging benefits of practicing yoga, there is also some belief in the benefit of what is called anti-aging facial yoga; Yup, making faces and reducing wrinkles!—supposedly.

It is said that repetition of specific facial movements help to encourage collagen growth, and tone facial muscles. I believe this is a bunch of hooey, bogus, bull honky; and simply enhances the deepening and appearance of wrinkles! Duh!

Course if it makes you feel good, right on.  But ya know, there’s a reason women get Botox injections; it calms the muscles that are involved in wrinkle creation. Also, take a look at the faces of the women promoting these facial techniques; they look a little beat up. Just sayin’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.prevention.com/fitness/yoga/anti-aging-yoga#ixzz2VKOETrV6

“Bikram’s Yoga College of India”. Bikramyoga.com. Retrieved 2011-12-28.

Corporate registration for “Bikram Choudhury Yoga, Inc.” Number: C2288343[dead link]

a b Farrell, Maureen (September 3, 2009). “Bikram Yoga’s New Twists”. Forbes.com.

Wilson, Cynthia. “Different types of yoga and their benefits”. Womenio. Retrieved 26 September 2012.