30 Benefits of Yoga For Women

11. Reduces Back Pain

Yoga helps reduce back pain by opening up tight hamstrings that pull on your back and cause pain. It also helps to lower stress that can cause muscle tension and create back pain. Yoga also helps to reduce inflammation in the tissue caused by stress. Inflammation in the intestines can cause them to swell and push on your back creating pain. As you build the muscles up in your torso you will be able to hold yourself upright and reduce slouching that can cause a lot of back pain. Poses like warrior one, side plank and crow pose will help you be stronger and optimize your energy. Poses like standing forward fold and seated forward fold will help loosen your tight leg muscles that pull on your back.

12. Gives You More Energy

As your spine becomes more flexible from back bends and twists, you will have access to energy pockets stored within your spine. You will feel energized but not jittery. You can have access to energy at anytime during the day when you need it as soon as you are able to do deep back bends. Imagine being able to reduce the amount of caffeine you need to get you through the day and stay focused!

13. Helps You Release Anger

The chakra system was developed in India to explain the energy in the body at nerve bundles. It teaches you how to balance emotions and their effect on the physical body. Many people experience emotional release as they stretch their hips and breathe deeply. Yoga also helps you be more self aware so you can notice your emotions as they arise without attaching to them. Yoga is a great tool for building emotional intelligence.

14. Helps Reduce PMS

Yoga poses like butterfly pose will help relax the muscles that cramp during your time of the month. Because yoga also helps remove toxins and flush your system regularly, your menstrual symptoms such as PMS can be less intense. As your hormones are brought into balance from poses like plow pose and turtle pose, your emotional highs and lows will balance.

15. Strengthens Your Immune System

Yoga allows your lymph fluid to flow through your body and collect viruses and bacteria that cause illness in the body. Combined with a healthy diet, your immune system will begin to function optimally as your body’s first line of defense, killing foreign invaders before they spread through your body.

16. Get’s Rid of Love Handles

The twisting poses in yoga help to build the oblique abdominal muscles on your sides and burn fat away from your sides. As your heart rate increases during strenuous poses and flow, your metabolism will kick into gear and help you burn that stubborn belly fat.

17. Flattens Your Stomach

If you’ve dreamed of having a six pack, yoga can definitely get you there. Besides the aesthetic appeal you will have better posture are you strengthen your core which will boost your confidence and reduce pain caused by slouching. You will feel confident at the beach and proud of your accomplishment. Poses like boat pose and plank pose target your stomach and there are many poses to choose from to target your upper, lower and side abdominals.

18. More Restful Sleep

Yoga burns off excess energy that may keep you up at night and restorative yoga helps calm your nervous system so you can sleep more restfully. Because yoga helps your body respond to stress, it can also help combat the sleeplessness caused by stress. Yoga allows you to get into the most rejuvenating sleep cycle that will improve your ability to focus, reduce muscle soreness and allow your organs to function optimally.

19. Lifts Your Buttocks

It’s no secret that yoga can create a lift in all the right places. Although people usually go to yoga for the health benefits, the added aesthetic appeal is a bonus. Poses like downward facing dog and chair pose help to keep your entire body healthy and strong. It’s true that you don’t have to do a fast paced workout class to sculpt your body. You’ll get to relax as you workout. You will learn ways to stretch your glutes such as pigeon pose and fire log pose which will help reduce the need for hip replacements as we get older.

20. Keeps Stiffness Out of Your Neck and Shoulders

There are plenty of yoga poses that will stretch your neck shoulders and chest. You will build core strength to hold yourself upright and bring your spine into alignment. Often poor posture is the culprit that steals our energy during the day. Yoga will build the muscles that line your spine and increase the range of motion in your neck. Certain poses will relax those muscles allowing tension to melt away with the pain that comes with it. Nowadays so many people carry neck and shoulder tension, they forget what it feels like not to have it. Give yourself the gift of being pain free and practice yoga!