Women and Yoga: Why Yoga is Especially Beneficial for Women

Our contemporary lives are designed for comfort. But as our lives become more convenient and comfortable, we somewhere pay the price with stress, obesity and health problems. Luckily, there are ways to counter the stress and strain of modern life without compromising on your goals. Yoga is one such discipline that provides multiple benefits to the modern woman as she tries to wear multiple hats and juggles many roles. Apart from its numerous flexibility and strength benefits, yoga brings a sense of balance to your life. It helps in calming anxiety, digestion, easing menopausal or menstrual symptoms and managing stress.

Here are some ways in which yoga can benefit women:

1. Flexibility

Yoga makes one more flexible. Many women who were reluctant to start yoga thinking they are not flexible find their muscles have become more supple and flexible after a regular yoga practice.

2. Better Posture and Appearance

Yoga lays great emphasis on body awareness. It helps you contract your core stabilizing muscles and stand taller you so look more confident and healthy. Good posture not only helps you look better but is key to avoiding problems in the future.

3. Mood Enhancement with Yoga

Using the mood enhancing poses, one can improve the blood circulation and send oxygenated blood to the brain. Stretching helps increase endorphins and the flow of blood and a regular yoga practice through the day can help fight depression and anxiety.

4. In Pregnancy

It is no secret that yoga can benefit pregnant mothers. Prenatal yoga is all the rage and not surprisingly as it helps expectant mothers and the baby in numerous ways:

● Improves the balance of hormones in the body and calms emotions
● It relieves the tension in the lower back, hips, chest, upper back, neck and shoulders
● Calms the nervous system
● Helps prepare the body for labor
● Improves blood circulation

Some recommended poses for pregnant women include: bound angle pose, easy pose, extended triangle pose, head to knee forward bend, lotus pose, warrior II pose etc. If you are interested to buy some yoga gear but don’t the right resources, check out Anaheart.

5. Improved Bone Health

Women are highly susceptible to bone density problems and diseases like osteoporosis once they reach the menopausal age. It is well known that weight-bearing exercises strengthen the bones and prevent osteoporosis. Some of the most common yoga postures require lifting your own weight. Others like the downward facing dog and upward facing dog, strengthen the upper body and arm bones. These areas are particularly vulnerable to osteoporosis and related fractures.

Some studies have also observed that yoga exercises improve bone density in the vertebrae. Since a regular yoga practice lowers the level of stress hormone cortisol, it also helps the absorption of calcium.

6. Sleep and Relaxation

Many women complain of insomnia and the inability to relax. While simulation is good but a lot of it taxes the nervous system. Yoga provides much-needed relief from the maddening pace of modern life. Women in particular take too much stress as they try to juggle multiple roles. Relief comes in the form of restorative asanas like savasana, pranayama, yoga nidra(guided meditation to relax) and pratyahara.

One of the main benefits of these relaxing poses and regular yoga practice is better quality sleep.

7. Fitness

Who doesn’t want to be fitter, more agile and youthful? While yoga is not an aerobic exercise and not intended for weight loss, some of the more active styles of yoga help burn a lot of calories.

At the very least, yoga can help you manage your body weight and overall fitness. Ashtanga, vinyasa and power yoga are some of the more intense schools of yoga.

Yoga also helps improve metabolism and your muscle tone. There are yoga poses that help tone up every part of your anatomy. But the best thing is that yoga works as much on the inside as on the outside.

8. Reproductive Health

Yoga is considered an excellent form of therapy for menstrual discomfort and other hormonal symptoms during the monthly cycles. In addition, many studies have corroborated the benefits of yoga for menopausal symptoms. For instance, yoga can help with symptoms like night sweats, hot flashes, anxiety, cramps and mood fluctuations.

Specific asanas help with disorders such as PCOD or conditions like thyroid imbalance.

Conclusion

Yoga has several health benefits for women because it takes a holistic approach to health. Yoga poses along with breathing exercises and guided meditation address all aspects of well being – the physical, mental, emotional and the spiritual.