If you’re considering Yin Yoga you may be wondering what benefits it can offer you. Yin Yoga is a fairly new form of yoga that is can be very beneficial in multiple aspects.
The benefits of Yin Yoga are great for lots of areas of the body, from muscles to joints to the blood flow to your organs, to your actual mood.
Read below to learn more about Yin Yoga and what it can do for you.
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What Does Yin Yoga Do For Your Body?
Yin Yoga is one of the many forms of yoga available out there. It requires a lot of focus on individual muscles for stretching purposes. It allows you to slow down and relax, enhance your breathwork and begin clearing your mind. It improves circulation and flexibility which helps release tension in your muscles.
What kind of stretching is yin yoga?
It is a passive style of stretching where poses are held for a long period of time. It focuses on the connective tissues, mainly the hips and pelvis, and is generally done in a seated position. It can assist in lessening things like arthritis pain.
Does Yin Yoga stretch ligaments?
The focus of Yin Yoga is to stress the ligaments instead of stretch them. The ligaments in the body are more “plastic” instead of “elastic” like muscles. So for a true stretch, the focus should be on the muscles themselves. The ligaments tend to get looser and more flexible.
5 Things Yin Yoga Does For the Body
There are multiple things that a great Yin Yoga sequence can do for the body. I’ve listed five of those below but they are not, by all means, the only possible benefits. You can speak to your doctor or local yin yoga instructor to find out even more benefits.
Improves Flexibility
Yoga can improve your flexibility by stretching your muscles, increasing your range of motion, and helping to build muscle fibers. These muscle fibers help increase muscle tone. By helping you to create a healthy fascia.
By routinely stretching, our tendons will slide more smoothly allowing muscular contractions which provide more power and strength. This can allow for fewer injuries involving pulled muscles from everyday tasks.
Improves Sleep
Since yoga is a restorative exercise it slows down the body. When you slow the body, the mind follows. When your mind is calm, sleep becomes easier. It also improves sleep by stretching and relaxing your muscles helping to release physical tension causing you to sleep more deeply with fewer disturbances. When you get a deeper sleep it allows your mind to shut off for a while and your body to be more efficient in healing itself from the day.
Promotes Relaxation
Physical exertion helps to relieve tension and alleviate pain by releasing muscle knots. It can also help to relieve pent-up emotions. Slowing your breathing down puts you into a state of relaxation.
This allows your body to take a break from outside stressors and focus on what it needs to do inside, such as digestion and repair of cells. And when you are more relaxed physically then your mood is better as well.
Promotes Relaxation
Physical exertion helps to relieve tension and alleviate pain by releasing muscle knots. It can also help to relieve pent-up emotions. Slowing your breathing down puts you into a state of relaxation.
This allows your body to take a break from outside stressors and focus on what it needs to do inside, such as digestion and repair of cells. And when you are more relaxed physically then your mood is better as well.
Enhances Focus
Some postures in yoga, such as headstands, involve inversion which is known to improve blood circulation by allowing more blood flow to the top of your body. That means your brain receives more oxygen which increases alertness and memory, increasing focus and therefore making you more efficient in your daily tasks.
Improves Circulation
There are several ways yoga improves circulation based on the pose or move used. These moves are usually used in succession:
- Relaxation poses relax the muscles allowing the blood to flow freely.
- Twisting poses then bring fresh oxygenated blood to your organs.
- Inversion poses reverse the blood flow and allows what gravity has pulled to the lower half of your body to flow to the upper half of your body.
All of these poses focus mostly on blood flow. This blood flow is important as it carries antibodies to areas needing them, it brings oxygen-rich blood to every part of your body allowing muscles to remain healthy and strong.
Results
Many people wonder if they will not only feel the results of yoga but see them too. If a yoga regimen is done in its entirety you should see results in about 6-12 weeks. This can vary from person to person and the intensity in which you do yoga. Some will see some weight loss at or around the 12-week mark and most people will feel the strength and muscle tone closer to the 6-week mark. The relaxation and mood boost for most will be seen and felt immediately.
Yoga can help you to get to and maintain a healthy weight by lowering cortisol levels through consistent yoga practice. Yoga improves the natural process with which your organs function. When your body is running smoothly it will eliminate toxins not only from your skin level but from the digestive tract as well and strengthens your heart (a major muscle in the body), lungs, and kidneys.
Final Thoughts
Yin Yoga is a great choice for relaxing your body, increasing your overall health, and calming your mind. It is a very popular choice for those looking for a way to increase their health without a high-impact regimen that can end up doing harm to your muscles and joints.
You can find Yoga classes almost anywhere these days, from community centers to gyms, to the YMCA. Check out the best Yoga Teacher Trainings in Bali. No matter which style you choose or where you choose to practice it, yoga can be a wonderful addition to your health and wellness routine. It can give you the clarity and balance you may be missing from your nonstop lifestyle.
