The practice of yoga is one of the most beneficial exercising techniques there are. It’s hard to believe that yoga was once scoffed at as a hippie practice reserved for those fashioning tie-dyed shirts and dreadlocks. A few decades later, it is one of the most popular and renowned practices in the world. It’s not hard to see why yoga has gained so much traction over the years when you take a look at the seemingly endless list of its benefits. Learn about all the amazing benefits of yoga to find out why you should be doing yoga regularly.


More than physical 

Yoga is without a doubt a wonderful physical exercise, but it is so much more than that. Practicing yoga is as much about the mental and emotional health as it is about physical health. Many people don’t realize that poor mental and emotional health can take a physical toll on the body. Yoga uses meditation-like techniques to calm and relax the body and mind. The slow flow of movements, quiet atmosphere, and relaxing lighting allows for the mind to unwind. Tension dissipates and the mind finds equal balance with the body. Throughout hectic day-to-day life, we can start to feel off center, wound up, and lose our peace of mind. Yoga helps to relieve those emotional and mental strains so that we can get back to a healthy and happy life.

Weight Loss

Whether losing weight is a goal of aesthetics or health, yoga can help you reach it. Practicing yoga boosts your metabolism and in turn, helps your body burn fat and drop pounds. If you want to increase the calories burnt you can try hot yoga, which is exactly what it sounds like: yoga in a hot room. The increased heat makes you work up a sweat. Doing yoga helps build lean muscle making your body look toned and slim. It also reduces that stubborn cellulite we can never seem to win battle over.

Improves posture and flexibility

Good posture is very important for a healthy back and skeletal system. Yoga can help keep your posture strong to relieve back pain and prevent injuries. Flexibility is also increased through yoga practices. Flexibility is much more important than most people realize. It isn’t about being able to do the splits (though it’s a plus). Flexibility helps prevent pulled muscles and other types of injuries. Flexible muscles can help you complete daily activities with less strain. Just bending over to tie your shoes can prove to be difficult without some flexibility.

Increases Energy

I will forever be a coffee fanatic, but even I must admit that the coffee buzz loses its magic after a while. I need something more to boost my energy, and better, to maintain that level of energy throughout the day. Yoga does that for me. The regular practice of yoga helps to get my blood flowing. The improved blood circulation, reduction of body fat, and the improvement of the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar all helps to increase your energy throughout the day. Don’t depend on caffeine and suffer through the coffee jitters for energy. Incorporate yoga into your daily routine and reap the benefit of long lasting energy every day.

Reduces chance of heart disease

Heart disease is the cause of 30% of deaths across the globe each year. 20% of deaths each year are attributed to a sedentary lifestyle. If that’s not correlation, I don’t know what is. Practicing yoga will keep you from becoming part of that statistic. A study was done to show that yoga reduces arterial plaque. Build up of arterial plaque can cause blood clots which can lead to numerous health problems, including heart attack or stroke. If a little bit of yoga each day can help me to avoid heart disease I’m all for it.

Improves sleep

Say goodbye to restless nights when you start to incorporate yoga into your life. Yoga can vastly improve your quality of sleep. It should be said that any regular exercise will improve your sleep. A body that exhausts energy needs to refill that energy through sleep. We can become restless if we don’t expel energy or give our body a need to repair and rest. A sedentary day on the sofa will cause a night of tossing and turning because your body was not able to burn off any energy. Yoga, however, is more than simply burning energy. The mental and emotional aspects of yoga also help to improve your sleep. How many nights have you spent struggling to sleep because you can’t seem to shut off your mind? Stress and emotional distress can greatly affect your sleep. Yoga allows you to relieve yourself of those stresses and imbalances so that you can get a good night’s rest.

Relieves pains from injury or ailments

The stretching and low impact aspects of yoga are great ways to relieve pains. Stiff joints, pulled muscles or any other injuries can often be relieved by doing yoga. Yoga is also known to relieve arthritis pain, symptoms of asthma, and even relieve a hangover! Joints and muscles are able to stretch in a natural way that feels good in order to relieve tension and stress in them. Yoga increases healthy blood flow which carries oxygen to sore muscles, helping them heal. Yoga is perfect to improve your mobility that may have been impaired by a sports injury, accident, old age, or health conditions.

Regularly practicing yoga has an immense array of benefits. Your mind, body, and spirit will be enhanced from this holistic exercising method. Do yourself a favor and improve your overall quality of life by incorporating yoga into your regular routine. You’ll thank yourself for it later.