When we use the word ‘healthy’, it means a person is taking good care of the body. As they say ‘a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body’, it means that the body and mind work with full energy when you keep yourself fit and healthy. With changing time, the work pressure has become enormous as there is a lot of competition for each one of us. To work and win at the workplace, we first need to work on ourselves.

The sedentary lifestyle of people- leaving home at 7 in the morning, sitting in the office for 9-10 hours and reaching home at late in the evening- has invited diseases like blood pressure, cardiac problems and diabetes at an early stage. A couple of decades ago blood pressure and diabetes were stapled with old age. But with increasing mechanical lifestyle, people even in the early 30s suffer from these.

Today when all of us are running to win bread, it has become difficult to hit the gym. The biggest reason we don’t push ourselves is the tiring and time-consuming weight training exercises. To break the monotony, a lot of gyms have introduced new techniques which include Yoga too.

Yoga is an art which connects our soul and mind to the body. People nowadays practice yoga for weight loss, physical fitness and stamina. Yoga revolves around elevating the life force or ‘Kundalini’ at the base of the spine. This can be achieved by a series of physical and mental exercises. Mind-body interventions such as yoga and meditation have been proven to have a pronounced and radical impact on our physical and mental health.

Benefits of Yoga-

Improves flexibility

Flexibility is a sign of a healthy body and yoga assures the same. Moving and stretching helps bring a great range of motion to tight muscle areas.

Increases blood flow

Yoga helps in boosting the level of haemoglobin and red blood cells which carry oxygen to the tissues. To improve blood circulation, one can do twisting poses like headstand, shoulder stand and some other inverted poses.

Sculpts the body

While meeting day-to-day demands, millennial live a desk-bound lifestyle. They sit for hours in the same position, eat junk and develop poor body postures. These postures lead to kyphosis, which results in the further development of the excessive rounded upper spine and arched lower back. Yoga helps in reducing such abnormal curves, correcting hunchbacks and the swayback which occur due to postural lordosis.

Improves bone health

Weight-bearing exercises help in strengthening bones which act as a prevention to osteoporosis. Many yoga poses would demand bearing own body weight either in a downward or upward movement. This improves the strength of the arm bones. Yoga also helps in increasing the bone density level in the vertebrae.

Improves the standard of living

The adjunct therapy of yoga has proven to improve the quality of life for many individuals. Practising yoga regularly keeps oneself calm, mood swings and fatigue balanced, hence improving the quality of life significantly.

Recommended for a healthier lifestyle

Yoga not only helps in burning calories but also helps in uplifting people in their spiritual and emotional journey.

(Vikas Jain is the Managing Director of Anytime Fitness)