Speaking of healthy lifestyle, yoga is probably on the top of the list. This type of healthy lifestyle is becoming popular recently especially among women. Yoga is generally defined as spiritual and ascetic discipline of Hinduism and Buddhism originated from India which activities are including simple meditation, breath control with specific body postures.
What Is Hatha Yoga?
There are a lot of types of yoga and hatha yoga is one of the yoga type included in the top 8 choice of yoga. The word ‘hatha’ has literal meaning as ‘force’ and this type of yoga has been found in ancient manuscript since the 20th century. It means hatha yoga has been practicing for over centuries and today this type of yoga is one of the popular ones. What makes hatha yoga different from other type of yoga is this yoga has two major elements for both practice and behavioral. So, it is not only about yoga practices but also about how you do your daily activities from proper diet up to healthy lifestyle.
Health Benefits of Hatha Yoga
If you are interested to join the hatha yoga class, finding out more about the health benefits of hatha yoga is essential.
- Excellent Stress Reliever
Not only hatha yoga, but all types of yoga are excellent stress reliever. The combination of specific body postures, breath control and meditation are good to help relieving stress and reducing the symptoms of depression because they could help relaxing the tension in your body that will affect your mind as well.
- Maintains the Ideal Weight
As mentioned above hatha yoga is not only about practice but also behavioral. In other words, when you could keep doing yoga and at the same time could control your appetite, maintaining the ideal weight is a piece of cake and not only that there are a lot of benefits of yoga for weight loss.
- Improves Immunity System
Without you realize it, when you stretch and contract your muscle during the yoga practice, those movements are able to increase the drainage in your lymph. It means your body could fight infection and dispose waste in more effective way.
- Good for Body Metabolism
Do you know that there are actually benefits of yoga for cancer patients? When your body could fight infection optimally and dispose waste essentially while at the same time is also able to destroy cancerous cells, generally your body metabolism is working normally and optimally. Healthy metabolism will lead to healthy body.
- Natural Detox for Mind and Body
Detoxification is not only applicable for your body but also for your mind and soul. Hatha yoga with the perfect combination of practice and behavioral are natural detox for both your mind and your body just by simply doing it regularly.
- Boosts Energy
In most yoga practice, there is one term well known as ‘prana’. It is the other name of energy found in human body. The yogic postures of hatha yoga when combined with breathing technice could help regulating the prana and maintaining it to produce a natural energy booster.
- Improves Flexibility
Do you know that inflexibility is the root of some muscle conditions such as back ache and neck pain? Well, yoga practices will help you improving your flexibility and the result is you could get all the health benefits of yoga for arthritis and prevent conditions like back ache, neck pain or even bad body posture.
- Builds Muscle
The stretching and contracting your muscle through specific hatha yoga postures could help building muscles. Though the result is not instant but strong muscles are beneficial when you reach old ages, so the benefits are for long term.
- Tones the Spine
If you want to have a perfect and ideal body posture with toned spines, don’t hesitate to choose hatha yoga as your daily practice. Furthermore, hatha yoga could help you maintaining your balance as well.
- Great for Heart
During the hatha yoga practices, without you know it, your body is flowing with the movements. It means the regulation inside your body is moving smoothly including the blood regulation. In other words, it helps reducing the pressure of your heart.
- Good for Body Balance
As mentioned above, regular practices of yoga postures are not only strengthening the muscles but also improving the body balance.
- Have A Better Focus
Hatha yoga is not only focusing on maintaining your physical appearance but also your mind health. The deep breathing technic of hatha yoga will help you having a better focus. You will become sharp and more alert.
- Increases Blood Flow
One of the yoga postures of hatha yoga is well known as ‘asana’. That posture enables blood to flow throughout your body and the result is all parts of your body will be fully oxygenated. So, the direct benefit you will get after doing hatha yoga is instant energy booster.
- Overall Fitness
A study conducted in 2011 about Preventive Cardiology stated that doing hatha yoga regularly could help improving the oxygen uptake, endurance, joint mobility and muscular strength.
- Be A Better You
Well, it is the most important benefits you could get when doing hatha yoga, you will become a better you. It is because after doing hatha yoga, you are not only giving your body the proper exercises but also your mind.
Cautions of Hatha Yoga
When it comes to benefits of yoga and then you should know about the cautions of yoga as well. Hatha yoga is not that different but still some of cautions below are not something you should take for granted.
- If you are a newbie, don’t ever try to do the yoga postures yourself because the risk of injury will be really high.
- It is okay to change teachers until you find the right one. Sometimes people are choosing one teacher because they got recommendation or because the teacher is so famous. However, yoga is about how you feel not about what your teacher fell.
- Hatha yoga is not only focusing on your physical activities but also your daily lifestyle, so it is better to discuss everything with your trainer or teacher to optimize the result.
Hatha yoga is probably one of the ancient types of yoga highly recommended for beginner. If you feel it really hard just because you are a newbie and then don’t stop because all newbie will suffer the same thing and what you should do is keep doing it.