THE WORD yoga comes from Sanskrit and it means join or unite. Yoga is the integration of all aspects of an individual's body with mind and soul to achieve a happy and a balanced life. Yoga and its postures are beneficial as they bring a harmonious balance in your system.
The health benefits of yoga can be widely divided into physical benefits and mental benefits. The physical benefits of yoga are gaining flexibility in your back, shoulders, hips and hamstrings. Yoga poses help in increasing the strength of your body, increase muscle tone, and help to prevent many types of pain.
Yogic breathing exercises like 'pranayama' improves the efficiency of lungs. The mental benefits of yoga include mental calmness through meditation, relief from stress and increase in awareness of one's body.
The meta-analysis done by researchers at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Herdecke, Germany, says that yoga may be useful for some but is not safe for all. The studies have demonstrated that yoga is not completely without risks of adverse effects like temporary increase in pain or modest gain in functionality without associated pain reduction. A recent article in The New York Times Magazine explains the harmful effects of yoga among persons who receive improper instruction. The article also states that some yoga teachers have suffered body injuries and brain damage due to the rigorous demands of certain postures and movements, reported website pain-topics.
The best time to do yoga is early in the morning, and the reason behind this is that the morning time is called Brahmamuhurta and the spiritual energy level is high at this time and you have no internal and external disturbances at this time. It is very difficult to practice yoga with a full stomach, and naturally, the stomach is empty in the morning. If you perform yoga during in the morning, you will experience its positive affects throughout the day and you will feel relaxed all the time.
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