How Yoga Enhances Strength, Health, and Wellness

By Dennis Bluthardt, Namaste Studios

Yoga has seemingly gone from this weird thing your slightly odd aunt does to a practice that’s become relatively mainstream over the last twenty years. Why? Coming at it from a fitness growth perspective, you don’t just get better at moving your body, but you find yourself enjoying a balanced temperament and being able to think more clearly by picking up on postures and their accompanying techniques for breathing.

Furthermore, you can follow a “scale” almost immediately. From this, what’s otherwise a spectacle of physical prowess (offering a meditative aspect because of the mental connection it affords) is translated into something you do on your knees and elbows to develop a personal relationship.

However, while for some, yeah, this “fixed firm” pose might lead to pain and popping, going down this path is not only incredibly healthy for you but, believe it or not, biologically normative! That is, sitting on your knees on the floor with your butt resting backward on your heels is the de facto standard way for human beings to have a seat that doesn’t involve standing or lying down. In general, developing your capacity for natural human movement is the prescribed message of this military fitness guide.

What is Yoga?

Ancient practices developed in India over 5,000 years ago tie physical postures, breath control, and meditation to ethical disciplines that all take root in yoga philosophy. Historic yogic documents such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe the “Eight Limbs of Yoga” leading to self-realization/union with the universe (samadhi). This perspective on the right way to live has affected its physical journey to what it is now.

Today, hatha yoga is not the most popular form of exercise, but it is often learned traditionally and is found to be the root of many other types of yoga. If you want to start doing yoga for the first time, you might seek a hatha yoga class.

Before and now, we see that most versions of yoga styles focus on achieving physical, mental, and emotional health. By customizing unique blends, individuals who incorporate yoga into their lives go through a beautiful personal development journey. They find styles that resonate with them, not only because of their personality but also because of what they are going through in their lives.

How Yoga Enhances Physical Strength

Yoga doesn’t just encourage flexibility and a calm mind. It builds serious strength, too.

Yoga is an intense form of bodyweight training. Poses like Virabhadrasana (Warrior Pose) require you to hold yourself in a way that engages your muscles, from your legs to your core and arms. You need to balance yourself and adjust your stance to be stable, which requires endurance in the strength of multiple body parts at once. Phalakasana (Plank Pose) works similarly: Your body needs to be in a specific line from your head to your heels while you balance and gain strength to support yourself.

Yoga provides a training format that relies heavily on body weight to build strength. Its functional strength will make you better at performing tasks of living because the movements are, if not identical, then at least explicitly made to focus on the process of moving.

What else makes Phalakasana unique? It’s a pose that builds strength in the arms and powerfully in the core and the upper back. Simply using your body weight, you can build strength sufficient to tax much more of your body heavily than what is traditionally done with most weightlifting.

The Health Benefits of Regular Yoga Practice

Yoga isn’t just good for your heart, though. It’s also good for your mind, studies suggest. More specifically, it can be perfect for fighting stress (and might even help with conditions tied to stress, like high blood pressure). What makes yoga so good for stress? Some researchers believe the credit should go to the mindfulness many practices require. According to the Mayo Clinic, “By being fully present in the moment, psychological distress, stress, anxiety, depression, and general mood are all significantly improved.”

Integrating Yoga into Your Wellness Routine

Mindfulness and meditation, hallmarks of the yoga practice, give people the tools to ground themselves in the body, left only to observe with curiosity what both the mind and body do when connected. This mind-body connection gives you many benefits, like less stress, better emotional coping skills, and overall tranquility in times of PEACE!

How can you include more yoga in your life? Try beginning a practice in the morning. You may pick up yoga and coffee in the first 15 minutes of your day! No, really! Some people claim that starting a morning routine is the first step toward change; spotting any apparent set ways can make adopting or permanently deleting them easier.

Decide to cut time during your day intended for breaks, and during those 5 minutes, you’ll automatically roll out mats (because obviously you would, or you clearly wouldn’t need the break anyway). You can do yoga during your lunch break (even if it’s just 5-8 minutes long).

Designate a reliable spot in the home to practice (daily/weekly) and then set a mat where you decide is the best place to stop, drop on your knees, inhale, close your eyes, and relax on a soft yoga mat for a minute here and there throughout the day.

Tips for Beginners: Starting Your Yoga Journey

Thinking critically about which class to take is vitally essential for novice-level students. The array of courses available for one activity, like yoga, martial arts, or dance, can be overwhelming, to say the least. But your taste and fitness level should guide you through your options. Find out what you can expect in each class so that you understand what you’re getting yourself into. Many options are suitable for beginners, and you should enter a class that sets an expectation of foundational and beginner-friendly skills exploration. Maintaining your motivation is easiest when you feel like you’re quickly learning and conquering introductory sessions.

As an added note, the instructor most certainly matters, too. Aside from any good instructor, the instructor you need is good. They should be someone who has expertise and creates an exceptional environment for skill-building among beginners. You should feel comfortable asking questions. Good instruction means personalized and less specific callouts for athletic cadence; it’s the same story. Your instructor should match your taste for goals and learning style, good or bad.

Feeling comfortable walking into Level 1 or a bare minimum skills session is also essential. Beginners can learn a broad skill set composed of many basic-level maneuvers they’ll build upon with miles and miles of repeat practice in the coming years. Slow down, be patient, set goals, celebrate, and set the next goal, and then walk proudly across the finish line and set the next goal again. It may take years to improve, but many milestones for the patient happen well before their skills top out.

Your chance of ever getting there is likely low. Yoga is a comprehensive practice that not only forces you to be stronger but also helps you to be healthier. Most yoga will have a “workout” element to the routine, even if just due to the yoga postures you move through. Movements and postures build muscle strength, as does flexibility and the increased ability to endure through a class in the sun. The other side to this notion is that you’ll likely improve your posture and your body’s proper alignment. This will maximize peak performance when physically tested and reduce the risk of injury in general. These benefits can eliminate unnecessary chronic pain; who doesn’t want that? Additionally, your body will naturally begin to protect itself. Most yoga incorporates a core strengthening routine, which helps maintain a healthy muscle group that typically becomes weaker with age and/or injury.

As I’ve mentioned, most yoga has proven to improve mental health. Through sitting for long periods or the art of breathing through postures, you are required to be cognizant of your mental clarity. Overall, this helps many people get through depression and/or anxiety. Some people have trouble breathing due to sleeping, allergies, strenuous exercise, etc. This activity will improve lung capacity and increase lung health and life span.