Yoga exercises should be part of everyone’s daily routine. Yoga is an activity performed by us humans that includes both physical and mental activities. It combines various physical exercises, including different postures and breathing techniques, and a mental focus invested during such physical activity.
Practicing yoga exercises everyday helps one lead a balanced life. The main motive of yoga was to unite the human spirit and the divine (yoga means to join). Its origin can be traced back to the ancient history of India. It is becoming more popular every day around the world for its immense benefits.
Yoga exercises primarily consist of a variety of asana practices. Regular exercising is essential to maintain a healthy life. Even the American Heart Association urges people to practice at least 10 minutes of moderate exercise every day or 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week.
Yoga is the best way to relax your mind, and it provides tremendous clarity of thought. Yoga exercises are a series of various poses and stretching of your body, along with specific breathing techniques.
Some of these poses are intense, while others are relaxing. Yoga helps you strike a balance of body and mind; it increases your focus. It helps deal with various physical and emotional problems as well. Besides helping in controlling blood pressure, it also helps release stress and fights depression. It also helps alleviate muscle-pull and joint pains.
Yoga exercises also provide you with many beauty benefits; for instance, they give you a subtle glow and healthy hair. Apart from boosting one’s health and immunity, it is a cost-effective alternative to painful surgeries, costly face-lifts, and hair treatment.
It also helps us lose body fat hence making our body healthy and well-toned. It provides us with more energy to carry on with our daily chores with much ease.
FACE YOGA EXERCISES
Practicing yoga regularly reaps several facial beauty improvements. Face yoga is practiced to fight wrinkles and get a good jawline. It also provides relief from common problems like headaches, snoring, etc. The movement of our head’s neuromuscular system includes movement of our face and neck. Things need to be appropriately coordinated to help us fix various health issues.
Now the first question that can come to your mind is ‘are face yoga exercises at all effective?’ Well, yes, they are. But only when you are consistent with your practice of yoga exercises. At least 30 minutes of face yoga is needed every alternate day to see visible results in two to three months.
Face yoga exercises can also help people suffering from facial paralysis. Orofacial myofunctional therapy is provided to people suffering from facial neuromuscular problems. Face yoga exercises can also help with speech issues. Many kids and adults with any speech problem are recommended to do these face yoga exercises, including muscle movement of their cheek, tongue, and neck to help them overcome their problem.
Yoga cannot wholly replace your anti-aging skincare regime. Still, it can add a boost to your skin’s natural glow and elasticity.
YOGA EXERCISES TO LOSE BELLY FAT
This is a widespread problem faced by most people, be it a man or a woman. Belly fat can accumulate due to various reasons; it can be due to unhealthy eating habits, not working out correctly, or it can also be hereditary. But whatever the cause may be, nobody wants fat around their belly to avoid various health problems. Neither does it look good. Now let us find out how we can deal with our belly fat at home by practicing some simple yoga exercises to lose belly fat.
- Bhujangasana, also known as the Cobra pose. It strengthens the abdominal muscles, which relaxes our back. While performing this yoga exercise, hold the position for around 30 seconds, repeat this ten times daily.
- Kumbhakasana, one of the best exercises to burn your belly fat. This helps you lose your belly fat and allows you to strengthen your arm and leg muscles.
- Uttanpadasana needs you to lie down on your back and keep your hands and legs straight. This particular yoga exercise is very useful in melting belly fat as it also treats various stomach ailments.
BRAIN YOGA EXERCISES
‘Brain yoga’, now this is a very not-so-heard term. By yoga, we only understand physical movements or breathing exercises. But brain yoga is a combination of techniques of breathing exercises and acupressure points for the left and right hemisphere of the brain, for a few minutes every day. Our brain plays the most crucial role in carrying on with our daily chores. Few notable brain yoga exercises are:
- Bhramari pranayama, which improves concentration and memory, releases tensions and negative emotions. It also builds confidence.
- Paschimottanasana helps to relax our minds and keep our spine straight.
- Setu bandhasana is also known as the bridge pose as the human body simulates a bridge while doing this asana. This improves blood circulation to the brain, strengthens the neck, and is beneficial for our overall nervous system.
- Sarvangasana, also known as shoulder stand, improves the cognitive functions of our body. It helps with the blood circulation of the brain and nourishes the hypothalamus glands. It is also beneficial for the thyroid and parathyroid glands of our body.
- Halasanna is practiced to relieve stress and calm our nervous system. As this pose of yoga exercise stretches our back and neck, it reduces stress and fatigue.
By including brain yoga exercises in our everyday yoga exercise routine, we can lead a stress-free life. It helps synchronize our right and left sides of the brain by distributing our energy levels and induces calmness. Brain yoga exercises stimulate our thinking capacity. Hence, it boosts our creativity and decision-making capacity.
EYE YOGA EXERCISES
Eyeexercises are done to relax your eyes and keep your eyes in better condition. At times, they even end up improving your eyesight. It keeps them looking fresh and gets rid of dark circles. You can practice your eye yoga exercises anywhere, whether you are at your home or office.
It would help if you took your fingers except for the thumb, gently put them on your eyes. Now move your fingers in a circular motion, and while you do this, put some gentle pressure on your eyes. Do this 10 to 20 times. This will release any tension around your eye muscles. This may also help you get rid of fine lines around the eyes.
Another exercise that you can try is blinking the eye exercise. This yoga exercise will improve your eyesight and also strengthen your muscles in your forehead and around your eyes. For doing this exercise, you can open your eyes wide and then squeeze your eyelids tightly. Repeat this 10 to 15 times. Then relax your eyes for five minutes by closing them and relaxing. As this yoga exercise improves your eyesight, it may reduce your need for a pair of glasses.
YOGA EXERCISES FOR SCOLIOSIS
Let us first understand what scoliosis is. It is a curvature problem of the spine that generally happens to people just before they hit puberty. Medical science says that it can never cure this condition of the body, but supportive medicinal intervention can help.
When the spine forms a curve abnormal to the regular spinal cord, you can say that it has scoliosis. The one who remains more active either by participating in sports or working out regularly can feel the pain more than someone who doesn’t. It depends on the severity of how asymmetrical the spine is.
Few yoga asanas are there, which can help you deal with scoliosis. But you must consult a medical professional before you start your Yoga exercises for scoliosis.
Various researches show that side plank yoga can help reduce scoliosis curvature. When you practice these exercises, they make your body more flexible and stabilize the core. Stretching our body decreases the stiffness, which in turn strengthens the thoracic spine. Our spine comprises all the connective tissues and muscles that keep the spine in the desired alignment. So moving the spine sideways can decrease the pain.
Regular yoga exercises improve the alignment of the scoliotic curve of the spine. But before that, you need to be sure of the type of scoliosis that you have. Do not do a yoga exercise if they strain your muscles or spinal cord more. Know that limitations will be there. Pushing yourself to be more productive can prove to be harmful.
Few yoga exercises to try for your scoliosis are:
- Ardha Uttanasana
- Setu Bandhasana
- Tadasana
- Shalabhasana
Yoga is excellent for your body, but you must keep in mind that the wrong practice of yoga can make your scoliosis worse.
YOGA EXERCISES FOR CARPAL TUNNEL
First, let us understand what carpal tunnel syndrome is. It is a condition that weakens your hand and wrist; it can cause numbness, pain, and a slight tingling sensation in your hands. This carpal tunnel syndrome was discovered during the mid-1800s. Various scientists and orthopedic surgeons have been researching this for over 40 years now.
Anyone from any age group can get carpal tunnel syndrome; this syndrome’s severity increases with age. People whose jobs include rigorous finger use have a higher chance of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. This occurs when our median nerve passes into the hand, and a severe compression is formed.
But yoga exercises can help you get some relief from the pain of Carpal Tunnel syndrome. Few wrist exercises to practice suffering from this syndrome are:
- Tadasana, thewrist exercise, needs you to rotate your wrist in circular motion repeatedly. Do this for five minutes every day.
- Wrist Pumps can help ease the pain caused by the carpal tunnel problem. Repeat this movement for 2-3 minutes only if it doesn’t cause you more pain.
- Anjali Mudra is where you need to press your palms and fingers firmly in the position of doing a prayer and hold steady for one to two minutes. This particular yoga exercise for carpal tunnel can also help you understand whether you at all have carpal tunnel syndrome or not.
- Phalen’s Test can help you firm up your hands by firming up the hand muscles.
By practicing side bends and twists also, one can recover from carpal tunnel syndrome.
Yoga exercises for carpal tunnel syndrome are many. Still, one needs to keep in mind that they can give you relief only if you practice them regularly for an extended period. Various home remedies like using an ice pack, natural anti-inflammatory ingredients, and practicing acupuncture can help deal with carpal tunnel syndrome.
YOGA EXERCISES FOR HIP PAIN
This is something that someone faces after turning 20. The hip is a vital part of our body. It is the connection between the upper part and the lower part of our body.
Though causes of hip pain are many, it is primarily caused by muscle stiffness and sprain. Arthritis can also lead to pain as it affects the hip joints and weakens or breaks down our hip bones’ cartilage. There are a few symptoms that may indicate scope for medical help.
Your doctor will go through some physical examinations to precisely diagnose what problem you have with your hip, causing hip pain. He may also suggest surgery. But do you know that there are yoga exercises for hip pain that can save you from going under the knife? Let us tell you that it is possible that a few home remedies and yoga exercises for hip pain can come to your aid. Few exercises for hip pain relief are:
- Malasana, which can also be called squat. This particular exercise opens up your hip and makes the hip joints strong. It improves blood circulation. It improves our posture by relaxing our muscles.
- Anjaneyasana, this low launch, works on our hips’ muscles and joints by stretching and toning them.
- Ananda Balasana, also known as the baby cradle, gives an excellent warm-up and increases the hip’s flexibility. It is one of the most straightforward yoga exercises for hip pain. Anyone can perform it by cradling just like a baby cradle.
These are a few notable yoga exercises for getting relief from your hip pain.
To conclude, we can say that yoga has a way to help you with most forms of physical, mental, psychological, and emotional stress. The best possible way to deal with these problems is by consulting a proper yoga practitioner and start on your yoga journey.
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