Yoga has been found to be an effective way to manage chronic diseases, chronic pain, and stress.When it comes to physical benefits, there are almost too many to count. Yoga helps you to improve flexibility, strengthen core muscles, build endurance, and reduce stress. Yoga has many physical benefits that are entirely unique to this art. When practicing yoga, one can experience an increase in strength, flexibility, balance, mobility, and stamina. Practicing yoga for its health benefits is paramount to improving your mobility and longevity.
The breathing exercises included in yoga are the foundation for the physical benefits. The purpose of this exercise is to help control one’s breath while concentrating on the present moment. This exercise helps to decrease stress levels while releasing adrenaline and other hormones. It has also been reported to decrease high blood pressure and improve your mobility.
Typically, people started to show signs of aging by their early to mid-30’s. Aging is often mentioned as stress that leads to later diseases, but stress can also trigger chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and dementia. It is so important to focus on yoga for health that we’re going to talk about mental and physical health and why fitness-centered yoga will help you even after you’re done with your favorite yoga poses.
In this blog you’ll learn about:
- Why yoga can improve both the quality and longevity of your life
- Does Yoga Improve My Fitness Levels & Lifespan
- Yoga for Health: Why fitness-centered yoga works to improve your health
- Yoga poses that improve your longevity
Yoga For Health: Quality or Longevity?
Practicing yoga for your health and wellness is one of the most critical parts of building a better (and more fulfilling life). Yoga is a powerful anti-aging tool that helps practitioners lower stress, improve blood flow, lower obesity, sleep better, and improve the quality and length of their lives.
How To Bring Mindfulness To The Mat
Mindfulness is about focusing on the moment and being “present” and, as mindfulness is a keypart to being mentally fit, we’re going to start out with it. Let your mind and body be one with the mat. Mindfulness and meditation allow your body to experience calmness and build strength while you begin to build your stamina for more strenuous exercises and poses involved with more intense forms of yoga.
Living Longer or Living Better?
Living longer or living better? Which is more important to you? Aging effects, “mood, physical status and social activity, adverse changes in cognitive behavior, changes in perceived sensation and thinking processes.” These difficulties and drastic changes certainly have an effect on the quality in one’s life and how long you may live. According to many scientific studies, consistent yoga and physical exercise are the answer to both of these questions.
Living longer is about extending your life (while still maintaining an active lifestyle filled with social, physical, and emotional happiness).
8 Reasons Why Yoga Is A Powerful Anti-Aging Tool
- Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown. Increases bone density and health
- Increases blood flow
- Cleanses lymph and immune systems
- Ups your heart rate
- Regulates your adrenal glands
- Lowers blood sugar
- Improves your balance
- Yoga lengthens the size of telomeres of your DNA
Yoga for health and longevity is one of the most powerful ways you can build physical activity and mobility back into your daily life.
Living better means to remain happy and fulfilled. Here are a few activities I myself do each day (you can use these too) to stay young and enjoy your life:
If you’d like to read more of my daily anti-aging and self destruction strategies, check out the Man Flow Yoga blog.
What Do You Consider A Long Life?
According to many scientific studies and medical journalists, “These days, while statistical life expectancy in the U.S. is about 80 years, living well into one’s 80s or 90s is a perfectly realistic expectation for many.” So, what is a long life and how do you define it? This is often a personal question to answer. Yoga can help you find your inner peace and build longevity so that you can extend your life (and improve your lifestyle) for years to come.
Does a long life include spending time walking down the street listening to your grandchildren and family tell you stories or does it include you being able to spend thirty minutes to an hour in deep meditation with yoga poses that help you stretch your muscles and improve your mobility?
How long you live may not be the only number you want to measure… it may just be the depth of your experiences and how well you get to enjoy them.
Does Yoga Improve My Fitness Levels & Lifespan? 4 Reasons That Tell Us Yoga Increases Your Longevity
Yoga is such an important addition to your routine that it will improve your fitness levels and lifespan in ways you may not have realized. Whether you are looking for increased mobility, improved muscle tone, or just a way to get your blood pumping before or after your workday, look no further than a Man Flow Yoga workout!
Yoga benefits your body’s physical fitness in more ways than you can count but I’ve included a few below:
#1) Yoga Improves Your Resting Heart Rate
Your body may be at rest but your heart may continue to beat rapidly (even if you aren’t aware of how fast its beating at the time). Your body’s resting heart rate tells you how calm you are or how busy your body is pumping blood or whether your body is working in overdrive. If your heart isn’t able to reach a normal amount of beats of 60-100 per minute, this could wreak havoc on your ability to recover from a pose or strenuous activity. Consistently practicing yoga has been shown to help your body reach its normal state of equilibrium.
According to Johns Hopkins physicians, a “large number of studies show that yoga benefits many aspects of cardiovascular health,” says Hugh Calkins, M.D., director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service at Johns Hopkins. “There’s been a major shift in the last five years or so in the number of cardiologists and other professionals recognizing that these benefits are real.”
#2) Yoga Increases Your Body’s Endurance
Yoga helps you build endurance and the more times you practice yoga throughout the week, the more you will be able to handle complex poses or build up your endurance. Longevity is a very important benefit of sustained, consistent yoga practice and with that comes physician strength and improved health. Take the time to breathe slowly and really work throughout your stretches and poses to get the maximum physical fitness your yoga routines can offer you.
#3) Yoga Helps You Get The Oxygen You Need
Yoga helps your body’s lungs perform more effectively over time. Since longevity is your goal and physician fitness and healthy organs are an important part of that, you’ll want to do exercises that help you breathe and get more oxygen to your vital organs and heart.
Breathing & Longevity
Yoga breathing techniques help the body stay healthy and avoid back and joint problems. Yoga has its beginnings in India and is a combination of physical postures, breathing, and meditation. There are several types of yoga breathing techniques. You can always find a breathing technique that fits your current needs and helps you live longer and healthier.
One of the most common techniques to build longevity through mindful breathing is to take a deep breath in and exhale for a set amount of time, then take a single breath in and exhale for a set amount of time, then take a single breath in and exhale for a set amount of time. The breathing techniques in yoga can teach you to relax and clear your mind.
#4) Correct Muscle Imbalance
Have you heard “sitting is the new smoking”? Yoga can help you build muscle and correct your muscle imbalances. Can yoga help you build your muscles & correct imbalances? The simple answer is “yes”. Yoga can help you build muscle. But the degree to how effectively yoga can help you build muscle varies dramatically, based on not just the TYPE of yoga you’re practicing, but also the yoga instructor.
The truth is that ANY type of exercise can help you build muscle. You build strength as a result of the muscle-shaking and cramping that you feel when you do something physically demanding. This breaks down muscle fibers, sending a message to the body that basically says, “Hey can we add some muscle to the legs? They weren’t strong enough to make it through that hike yesterday, so we need some more muscle there.”
Some of yoga’s benefits also include:
- Hip strengtheners
- Strengthening of the scapular stabilizing muscles
- Getting you the mobility and flexibility you’re lacking
Why Fitness-Centered Yoga & Poses Help You To Live Longer & Feel Younger
Yoga Keeps You Alive & Active
Yoga is a great way to get in shape and stay in shape. It’s a great way to work out the muscles and to get a good sweat going without going too hard on yourself. And if you’re a mom, a regular yoga practice will make you a better mom, because you’ll have a clear head and a clear conscience. Yoga changes us on a physical, mental and emotional level. Yoga is a powerful way to keep seniors (and anyone for that matter) moving and in their best shape: alive and active.
Yoga helps you to:
- Keep your muscles strong
- Retain your body’s elasticity
- Exceed your body’s normal range of motion
- Build endurance and strength
Are you looking to learn Yoga? Visit Man Flow Yoga’s Youtube channel for more yoga poses for longevity.
Yoga For Longevity: How To Begin Practicing Yoga As You Age
Yoga is a wonderful activity to engage in if you want to reap the physical benefits and increase your longecity. It helps alleviate lower back, knee, or neck pain. This is a physical activity which keeps you strong, limber, and focused on what you’re doing. If you’re not very flexible, no worries – yoga is also a mental exercise.
Best of all, if you’re practicing on a regular basis, you’ll find that you’ll sleep better and have an easier time recovering from jetlag. It can also serve as a spiritual practice, and many people find this offers them a way to connect with themselves and with their inner selves.
Remember to start slow and follow my routines (it’s okay to gradually build up intensity on the mat). Make it a social exercise (invite a few friends over and practice routines together). Remember, It’s never too late to start a new activity, even if you’re 50 or older. Begin by consulting with a doctor before beginning a new practice. If you decide to start a new practice, this is a great one to try. It will help you stay in shape and improve your endurance. Practicing yoga for just one hour a week could reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, which are two of the leading causes of death. Yoga will help you live a longer, healthier life!
4 Yoga Poses To Increase Your Longevity
Below are seven of my favorite poses that will help you improve your physical fitness and increase your longevity:
1. Deep Squat
The squat is an important pose because it’s a full-body exercise. With your toes straight forward (mostly), chest up, and back flat, sit down and lean back. It may take time to get into the full pose but proper form is necessary, so keep your heels down!
2. Lizard Pose
This pose is basically a deep low lunge. This will target your hip flexors and directly counters the muscle tightness we get from sitting most of the day. Your knees and back will also appreciate this useful posture.
3. Side Angle
This pose starts in a Warrior Two pose with your front knee over your toes with your back hip pushing forward towards your front hip, groin open. The full pose addresses your shoulders, helps improve posture, and challenges your core.
4. Pigeon Pose
Why it’s good for you: Pigeon stretches your glutes for faster muscle recovery, releases the lower back, and improves hip mobility. This stretch is one of the most important you can do for your back and hips.
References
Rathore M, Abraham J. Implication of Asana, Pranayama and Meditation on Telomere Stability. Int J Yoga. 2018;11(3):186-193. doi:10.4103/ijoy.IJOY_51_17
