by 
We all know someone who improved their life with yoga and is more than willing to share their success story. There’s a reason yoga has transitioned from a small niche group to an integral part of our global society. The values and traditions of yoga are so simple that it’s become a great exercise to integrate into your every-day life. To help start you reaping the rewards of yoga, here are 13 ways it can improve your overall health today:
1. Improves Respiration, Energy, and Vitality.
Yoga encourages you to take deep breaths while focusing on finding a balance with your respiratory system. You focus on the present moment. You shift your balance from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system. You initiate a more calm and restorative blood flow that strengthens the heart and organs while decreasing blood pressure.
2. Increased Flexibility.
It’s one of the most noticeable benefits taken from your first class. Inflexibility can cause poor posture and other injuries. You’ll notice flexibility gradually returning, and those hard yoga poses will become effortless.
3. Protects against Injury.
While building core muscles, yoga can also prevent arthritis and back pain. Your muscles become more flexible and less prone to sudden injuries when performing other physical activities.
4. Lowers Stress Levels.
The most crucial part of yoga is focusing on the present. This, in turn, creates less distractions and worries for a more comfort-driven lifestyle.
5. Helps Reduce Weight.
Yoga promotes more physical movement and reduces unwanted cravings and overeating. The desire to fuel up with beneficial foods is vastly enhanced. Practicing yoga encourages you to be more in tune, on a deeper level, with your eating habits, while promoting self love.
6. Increases Muscle Strength.
Most yoga poses require using muscles that don’t typically get used on a daily basis. While releasing tension in certain muscles, it creates tone and growth in other crucial core areas, giving you strength from within.
7. Improves Cardio and Circulatory Health.
With yoga, your heart rate spikes and plateaus while pushing blood to all the body’s extremities. Most yoga poses and positions move venous blood from internal organs and allows oxygenated blood to flow easier to the body. Yoga boosts level of hemoglobin and red blood cell production, which carry oxygen to all tissues and extremities.
8. Balances Metabolism.
Yoga is proven to lower blood sugar and bad cholesterol. A regular yoga practice stimulates caloric intake, burns more calories, and lowers cortisol and adrenaline levels.
9. Relieves Back Pain.
Incorporating twists and back-bends into your yoga routine keeps your spinal disks aligned while releasing and absorbing the nutrients they need.
10. Improves Concentration.
Yoga helps release unhealthy tension from your mind and body and promotes more self-awareness. It slows down the mental frustrations of every-day living and focuses on the present moment.
11. Strengthens Athletic Performance.
Most professional athletes incorporate yoga into their extensive training programs to regroup and focus on their bodies’ abilities. While boosting your immune system and expanding your lung cavity, you’re becoming more agile, which in turn creates more endurance capability.
12. Relieves Anxiety.
Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind. It gives you the tools to quiet your mind while resting or eliminating all internal worries.
13. Boosts Focus and Memory.
Yoga promotes involvement in your own self care. When contracting and stretching certain muscles, you’re increasing the lymph system’s drainage. This helps your lymphatic system dispose of toxic products and promotes cellular function. While practicing basic mediation, you’re demonstrating the ability to solve problems and to recall information better.