Yoga health benefits: The pandemic has been a difficult time for all of us. Loss of jobs, paycuts and staying at home for all day has taken a toll on many, especially those already suffering from mental health issues. The importance of improving lifestyle and taking up stress-management activities at this point of time, cannot be stressed enough. Yoga has been found to be an effective way to align your thoughts, calm your mind and also lose weight if that’s your goal.
Reasons to include yoga in your fitness regime
Apart from its stress-relieving benefits, yoga can also improve flexibility and core stability. What’s more, it promotes mindfulness and helps you feel your best.
Here are some benefits of including yoga in your daily routine:
1. Yoga can help in improving your mood and brain function. It helps in relieving tension and stress in the body. If the pandemic has severely affected you physically and mentally, then doing yoga can be helpful for you.
2. If you want to strengthen your core and improve your posture, then you must include yoga in your daily routine.
3. Yoga is great for improving body flexibility. Most yoga poses can be great for stretching out your muscles.
4. An important part of yoga is breathing exercises. Doing breathing exercises regularly can reduce stress and improve your concentration and focus.
5. People with high blood pressure can benefit by doing yoga. It helps in improving blood circulation and its stress-relieving benefits can be good for your heart health.
If you are aiming towards making your workouts more mindful, then yoga should be your top pick. Celebrities like Malaika Arora and Shilpa Shetty Kundra have been doing it for years. Their flexible and lean bodies are convincing enough to take up the practice.Know that there’s no ‘right age’ or ‘right body’ to begin with yoga. You can start it anytime, anywhere. Start slow with some basic yoga postures. Seek guidance from an experienced yoga practitioner near you and feel the difference.Apart from this, there are several kinds of workouts that you can do at the comfort of your home, without going to the gym. These workouts require no equipment and can be completed in a span of half an hour and even less. You can also include body weight training exercises in your routine like push-up, pull-up, planks and much more.
You can take out the time for exercising by waking up half an hour early in the morning, or by squeezing in a short 15-minute workout in your lunch hour. Here’s one such workout that you can do by taking a 10-minute break in your lunch hour at work or work-from-home.Moving or exercising for longer than this is definitely going to be more beneficial. In order to increase your physical activity, you can do some jogging, walking, cycling or running. You can choose the activity of your choice. These kind of activities come in the category of cardio exercise, which can help you weight loss. They are also beneficial for reducing stress and anxiety.Time and again, we have stressed on the importance of exercising regularly and being physically active for your overall health and well-being. Regular physical activity is the gateway to being fit and disease-free. Now, the World Health Organization has said that living a sedentary behaviour can have serious repercussions, and exercising is important for both physical and mental health. “WHO urges everyone to continue to stay active through the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Ruediger Krech, head of health promotion of WHO. “If we do not remain active, we run the risk of creating another pandemic of ill-health as a result of sedentary behaviour,” he added, reported AFP.
Movement restrictions, lockdowns and gym closures have compelled people to stay home. It has disrupted their regular activities and exercise routines, which can increase risk of weight gain and several other health concerns.
