For centuries those who enjoyed the physical and mental benefits of yoga and hot yoga lived mostly in Asia. Over the past 175 years, however, these disciplines have spread their marvelous gifts completely around the globe.
It may help to distinguish first between "yoga" and "hot yoga." The latter is a specific kind of yoga in which postures are practiced in a room heated to between 95 and 100 degrees. Hot yoga promotes profuse perspiration, which naturally rids the body of impurities. Hot yoga also raises the core body temperature, so it's not recommended for pregnant women. However, one of the specific benefits of hot yoga is vastly increased flexibility, since the body warmth relaxes the muscles and allows them to stretch more.
A currently popular form of hot yoga was invented by yoga master Bikram Choudhury. He has devised a series of 26 yoga poses, including two pranayama or breathing exercises, performed during a 90-minute class. He started the Yoga College of India in Beverly Hills, CA, in 1946. Choudhury has zealously guarded his form of yoga against those who call the form of yoga "Bikram Yoga, " but are not certified by his college.
In recent years, the many physical benefits of yoga have been well documented. These include flexibility, strength, muscle tone, pain reduction or prevention, and improved breathing. The mental benefits of yoga include stress reduction, inner calm, and body awareness.
For instance, consider how Hot yoga improves flexibility. Yoga poses stretch a body in new ways that bring better range of motion to joints and muscles. This especially improves the flexibility in hips, shoulders, back and the crucial hamstring tendons along the back of the legs.
Many poses require the practitioner to hold the body in new ways that improve muscle strength. Some of these include the Tree Pose, in which the body is balanced on one leg, and the Downward Facing Dog, in which the arms support the body. Several poses require moving slowly into and out of the position, a method that builds muscle strength.
Strengthening the muscles also leads to better muscle tone. Yoga poses help to shape long, lean muscles, and practitioners often can be identified by their long, lean bodies.
People who spend a lot of time working on computers or driving vehicles can suffer from back pain. Practicing yoga often relieves this kind of discomfort, which results from spinal compression and muscle tightness from remaining too long in one position. The different postures involved also improve body alignment, another key factor in relieving and preventing other kinds of muscle and joint pain.
Yoga's emphasis on breathing is one of its most distinctive characteristics. In general most people don't give much thought to how they breathe. Often people take mostly shallow breaths, which deprives the body of life-giving oxygen and fails to exercise the lungs and diaphragm. Breathing exercises known as pranayama teach practitioners how to focus on their inhalation and exhalation, and how to use the lungs more efficiently.
All of these exercises that benefit the body also serve to clear and focus the mind. By concentrating on yoga's physical poses, practitioners relieve their physical stress, which in turn releases the stress-related body chemicals that can cloud the mind as well. The body awareness that results from regular yoga practice serves to strengthen the mind, producing a calm demeanor that helps practitioners endure life's ups and downs better.
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