You don’t need to lift obscenely large volumes of weight to stretch and strengthen your body. Heading to a Yoga Studio can provide all of the same benefits, in many cases delivering better gains that will impact your health for the better.
Because yoga is a whole-body exercise, it is the perfect routine for whole-body strength and health. In this article, you will discover all of the benefits an ingoing yoga routine can deliver.
Stretching Your Body Using Yoga
Developing a stretching routine through yoga is going to make your body more flexible. Many people who go to the gym, play sports or just try and stay active and healthy often view stretching as a necessity and not much more.
By placing a focus on it, you will find your body is more limber, you have an extra pep in your step, and you will have more energy for your day-to-day activities.
This stretching is going to have remarkable effects on your body which you will notice in a high-intensity gym or cardio session as you won’t experience muscle fatigue or injuries as often or as severely as you used to.
You will be able to move more freely in all of your activities and put more effort into high-intensity workouts without fear because your body is prepared from the stretching that yoga provides. Some of the benefits you can expect from stretching through yoga include:
- Improved athletic performance: your muscles will not feel tight and contracted as much, leaving you relaxed, able to draw upon your muscles when you need them and capable of improved performance.
- Improved mental performance: Stretching through yoga increases the blood circulation in your body. This includes your brain. Yoga will encourage more oxygen and nutrients to be sent to your muscles for physical strength and recovery and to your brain as well, leaving you feeling sharper and fresher. It also helps stabilise your mood and enable you to focus better.
- Reduced stress levels: Yoga focuses on more than just stretching. It is also about breathing control, balance, focus and developing a sense of calm. These are all measures that can combat stress.
How Yoga Will Strengthen Your Body
There is a lot of focus on how yoga improves flexibility and the mind. Some people are not aware that this is a simple routine that can also help you develop a strong, lean and toned body as well.
Yoga uses your own body weight to create a strength-based exercise that will work your entire body instead of gym routines targeting and isolating certain muscles. Yoga will make you stronger and build muscle mass by following three principles, including:
- Load: The more pressure you put on the body, the harder it will have to work to move and function. Gym exercises use external load devices like weights, while yoga uses internal load mechanics. This means you are using your own body to create resistance and generate muscle mass.
- Adaption: If you place the same level of load on your muscles over time, they will become used to that level and will not grow any further. Yoga works by building your load up in stages without overloading your muscles, leading to stress and injury. You will advance through adaptive loads over time, pushing your body a little harder each time.
- Progression: It is not just adding further load over time that will benefit your body. Over time you will slowly add further load parameters, including duration and frequency. This progression must be slow, building your muscles up at a healthy rate without risking injury.
It is important to develop a routine that provides the right level of challenge for muscle growth and to increase the intensity over time. Over time you will find every muscle in your body is much stronger. If you want to improve your yoga skills, here is the guide for beginners.