Fitness and Health

Yoga for Health and Fitness

By DH Owens

Fitness: The postures overhaul the body inside and out, increase mobility, and increase the range of motion of joints and muscles.

The role of fitness in health: 

Yoga should feel good. the exercise concept of "no pain, no gain," has no place in yoga.

Yoga is a gentle approach to exercise. Because the poses easily adapt to each individual's needs, children, adults, senior citizens, the bedridden and physically handicapped as well as pregnant or postpartum women can all call Hatha Yoga a suitable form of exercise.

The benefits of yoga are many and include:

• Fitness
• Safety
• Weight Management
• Vitality and Energy
• Portability
• Proper Breathing
• Improves Athletic Performance
• Stress Reduction
• Flexibility
• Inner Balance/Calm
• Spiritual Awareness

Yoga is very adaptable. It can go anywhere you can carry a beach towel or a rolled-up yoga mat. This portability  makes it the perfect exercise for travelers and business people.

The key to yoga lies in its breathing practices. It emphasizes breathing with movement. Correct breathing brings out steadfastness in a yogi or yogini.

Patanjali offers the best definition: “Yoga is the cessation of mind.”

Although yoga is considered to be scientific by modern standards, it comes from an ancient tradition. Archaeologists have found figurines in what appear to be yoga poses that are 4,000 years old.

When people refer to "yoga," they generally mean Hatha Yoga. "Ha" and "tha" refer to the positive and negative currents of our energy, and the flow of breath.

Hatha Yoga is the yoga of physical well-being, designed to balance body, mind, and spirit. It is practiced for the purpose of strengthening and enlivening the physical systems, although it also opens us up to spiritual awareness.

Stretches and postures harmonize the positive and negative currents of our energy resulting in vitality, inner balance, mental calm, and purified awareness. The correct practice of Hatha Yoga encourages physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual clarity plus confidence.

More information about health and fitness issues

Hatha yoga comes from an ancient tradition. In fact, archaeologists have found 4,000 year old figurines in what appear to be yoga poses.

Someone who practices yoga is called a yogi, although the word "yogi" generally refers to a male practitioner of yoga. A female practitioner of yoga is normally called a yogini.

Additional information about health and fitness.