What You Should Know About Yoga
How does yoga practice work?
With its roots in Indian philosophy, yoga is a sophisticated and age-old practice. Although it started out as a spiritual practice, it has gained popularity as a means of enhancing both mental and physical health.
Yoga as it is practiced in the United States usually focuses on physical postures (asanas), breathing methods (pranayama), and meditation (dyana), while classical yoga also incorporates other components.
Yoga comes in a wide variety of forms, from easy poses to more strenuous ones. Variations in the forms of yoga employed in research investigations could impact the findings. This makes assessing studies on yoga’s health benefits difficult.
Some refer to yoga and two Chinese forms of exercise termed tai chi and qigong as “meditative movement” activities. There are physical and contemplative components to all three techniques.
What are the health benefits of yoga?
Research suggests that yoga may:
- Help improve general wellness by relieving stress, supporting good health habits, and improving mental/emotional health, sleep, and balance.
- Relieve neck pain, migraine or tension-type headaches, and pain associated with knee osteoarthritis. It may also have a small benefit for low-back pain.
- Help people with overweight or obesity lose weight.
- Help people quit smoking.
- Help people manage anxiety symptoms or depression.
- Relieve menopause symptoms.
- Be a helpful addition to treatment programs for substance use disorders.
- Help people with chronic diseases manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.
What does research show about yoga for wellness?
Studies have suggested possible benefits of yoga for several aspects of wellness, including stress management, mental/emotional health, promoting healthy eating/activity habits, sleep, and balance.
