As a group of spiritual, physical, and mental disciplines, there are many types of yoga. Just about all of them come with some pretty amazing health benefits.
By combining meditation, physical postures, and breathing exercises, yoga is good for your body, your soul, and your mind. It’s no wonder it has become a life-changing experience for so many practitioners.
If you’ve had your doubts about it, you might be surprised to find how incredible it can be. Don’t believe us? Here are just four of many proven health benefits of practicing yoga.
Multiple scientific reports have shown that adults who practice yoga regularly feel less stressed. But you don’t have to take their word for it, even cortisol tests have supported the findings. It seems most people produce lower levels of the stress hormone after a yoga session as opposed to simply resting.
In 2012, researchers at UCLA conducted two studies on Kirtan Kriya meditation. Just twelve minutes a day, every day for a total of eight weeks helped lower the immune system’s inflammatory response.
A research study conducted in 2014 showed that yoga actually helped older adults performed better on cognitive tests. After practicing hatha yoga for eight weeks, they subsequently outperformed a test group that simply did stretching and toning.
In another study conducted a year later, it was again shown that yoga has its benefits. This time, people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and knee osteoarthritis participated in eight weeks of classes. At the end of those eight weeks, they felt approximately 20% better.
Yoga has also been proven to help alleviate chronic back pain. In fact, some scientists believe it’s one of the most effective ways to do so when it comes to exercises.
Neck pain? Yeah, it can help with that, too – especially Iyengar yoga, which involves holding specialized poses for extended periods of time.
