The Mayo Clinic, recognized as one of the world’s leading healthcare institutions, advocates for incorporating yoga into fitness routines, especially for individuals managing stress or facing physical challenges. Yoga, with its combination of movement, controlled breathing, and meditation, offers benefits that go beyond traditional forms of exercise like weight training and walking.
In a recent Q&A session, a breast cancer survivor and busy mother asked about the potential benefits of yoga. She explained that her regular routine included strength training and walking but wondered if yoga could add something new.
Cynthia Nelson Weiss, a senior communications manager at the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville, Florida campus, responded with enthusiasm. “Yoga is a wonderful form of exercise that provides benefits walking and strength training do not,” said Weiss. “In Eastern cultures, yoga is viewed as ‘a moving meditation,’ not merely exercise. In the West, many associate yoga with power yoga or vinyasa yoga, both of which are recognized as forms of physical exercise.”
Weiss emphasized that regardless of the style, yoga blends physical and mental disciplines that can promote relaxation and reduce the stress and anxiety of daily life. This is particularly valuable for busy moms and those managing serious conditions like cancer.
Dr. Edward Laskowski, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Mayo Clinic, added that different types of yoga offer varying benefits. Some forms are calming, helping reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and decrease heart rates. Other more vigorous styles, like power yoga, demand sustained muscle contractions and offer more intense physical conditioning.
According to Michele Hoffman, a certified yoga therapist at Mayo Clinic Health System, yoga can be particularly helpful for people dealing with chronic health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, or chronic pain. “Yoga therapy helps individuals recover from injuries and surgeries, manage chronic conditions, and improve overall health and vitality,” said Hoffman. She highlighted that yoga is accessible to everyone, regardless of age or physical condition.
One patient, Gordy Wanshura, discovered yoga during cardiac rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic. After undergoing surgery to open five blocked arteries, Wanshura took up yoga as part of his recovery. “I ignored my body for 30 years,” Wanshura shared. “Now I’m paying attention. Yoga helped me discover muscles I never knew I had.”
Yoga, unlike conventional exercise routines, is considered a form of “moving meditation” in Eastern cultures. This holistic approach integrates the physical body with the mind, offering unique benefits that are often missing from gym-based workouts. These include improved nervous system function, greater joint mobility, and enhanced balance.
A key feature of yoga is its focus on controlled breathing. Yoga activates the vagus nerve, which plays a major role in regulating the body’s stress response. By focusing on extending exhalations and mindful breathing, yoga can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and lowering stress levels. As a result, practitioners often experience reduced heart rates, better digestion, improved sleep, and a stronger immune system.
Yoga also addresses common issues like neck and back pain, often caused by sedentary lifestyles. Through various poses, yoga engages the spine in movements like flexion, extension, rotation, and side-bending, helping combat stiffness, improve posture, and reduce the risk of injury.
Balance, a crucial element of fitness, is enhanced through yoga’s emphasis on proprioception, vision, and the vestibular system. The focus on holding poses and mindful movement improves both static and dynamic balance, which is especially important for reducing the risk of falls.
Incorporating yoga into a fitness routine offers benefits that go beyond physical health, supporting both mental well-being and long-term vitality.
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