Yoga has been practiced by people the world over for many centuries, and it is still very popular today. Many people use it to strengthen the mind, body and spirit connection. There are actually several forms of yoga, and a seemingly infinite array of poses and postures that can be used. But however you choose to make use of yoga exercise, here are the top five benefits of including yoga in your home fitness routine.
1. Yoga not only strengthens your muscles but also increases their flexibility. Many people today use weight training to help build larger more powerful muscles. However, short and powerful muscles can be prone to injury. And flexibility is often ignored in many workout routines. Yoga can help round out your workout schedule, not only strengthening the muscles of your body but also making them flexible enough to protect you from injury as you exercise.
2. Yoga also helps increase your energy level. There is an emphasis on increasing the oxygen level in your blood while doing yoga exercises, and that in turn leads to a more energetic overall feeling. And because of the increased flexibility that yoga brings, there is a tendency to move more anyway because there is a wider range of free movement available in the body. And staying active also leads to higher energy levels as well.
3. Yoga also stimulates endocrine gland function by utilizing twisting and bending poses that activate the endocrine system and helps normalize sluggish glands.
4. One of the most popular benefits of yoga exercises is that it not only strengthens and improves your physical condition, but also helps relieve stress and tension to improve your mental outlook too. Today’s society is fast-paced and hectic, and this can take its toll on one both physically and mentally. Yoga recognizes this, and many of the slow stretching movements and deep breathing that is part of most yoga exercises help clear your mind of the cares of the day and focus it on positive things instead.
5. Closely related to your mood and mental outlook are other psychological benefits of using yoga. Very often we carry negative messages and feelings inside, and the practice of yoga helps a person better tune into the person that they are inside, increasing self awareness and self esteem.
There are lots of other advantages and benefits of adding yoga exercise into your fitness workouts, including the fact that it is both inexpensive and relatively easy to do. You may find by incorporating yoga into your daily routine, that even more benefits become readily apparent. This is fine because yoga is a deeply personal experience. It is not necessarily the same for each person who practices it. But hopefully the benefits of yoga exercise that we have covered in this article will help convince you that it should be a major part of your daily fitness routine from now on.
Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including fitness. You can find free yoga exercises and free yoga poses by visiting our Home Fitness website.
Showing posts with label Endocrine System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Endocrine System. Show all posts
February 25, 2009
February 24, 2009
How Yoga Works for Weight Loss
Yoga is probably not an obvious choice of activity when it comes to weight loss but despite the speed of the movements it is deceptively effective and here’s why.
1. Yoga strengthens and streamlines your muscles
During yoga practise you work your whole body, stretching and toning your muscles, streamlining and firming them. This gives you a lean firm body shape as opposed to the bulkier, short muscles you might get from weight training. With yoga you build strong lean muscle tissue which burn calories even while you are at rest.
2. Yoga calms you and clears your mind
If you are someone who eats due to stress and tension, then yoga will help you reduce comfort eating. The slow stretching movements and deep breathing in every yoga movement calm and relax you. The balance postures in particular necessitate that you clear your mind of all your every day cares and worries and use all your powers of concentration and focus. With regular yoga practise you will find that you become naturally more relaxed and able to cope with everyday problems.
3. Yoga normalises sluggish glands
The toning movements in yoga work not only on the muscles but also on the internal organs of the body stimulating them and normalising their function. Twisting poses, forward and backward bends and inversions are used to stimulate the endocrine system and postures like the shoulder stand and the fish help regulate the mechanism of the thyroid gland in the neck, all of which help boost your metabolism.
4. Yoga gives you energy and increases flexibility
By calming you and gently working on your muscles and increasing the levels of oxygen in your blood and to your brain, you finish a yoga practise (once you are used to the movements) feeling more energetic than when you began. This means that you tend to put more energy and movement into your day rather than sitting around feeling exhausted. And you build flexibility in your muscles and joints so that you enjoy a full range of movement your whole life. Witness the difference between the movements of a young girl and a stiff 80 year old woman. The young girl is bound to move so much more because muscles and joints are less restricted.
5. Yoga uses calories
This is where people believe that yoga is not helpful when it comes to weight loss and it’s true that aerobic exercise may very well burn more calories. However you will still use about 240 calories in an average 1 hour classic hatha yoga class and burn many more (about 400) with some highly physical forms such as astanga yoga. And you can practise yoga every day without over-exercising your muscles which is not the case for many forms of aerobic exercise
6. Yoga offers psychological benefits
Through yoga practise you tend to retune into your body and increase your self-acceptance and self-esteem. You build positive body confidence and help quiet any negative messages that may arise in your mind. Yoga teaches us to respect our bodies and this helps us when choosing our food and avoiding junk food and alcohol.
7. Yoga is for everyone
Most people can take up yoga even if they have been inactive for a while although you should always get your doctor’s approval before beginning an exercise program if there is any doubt about your health. While jogging and working out at the gym might seem too much to contemplate you can start wherever you are with a yoga class and make steady progress.
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach, slimming club owner and author of “The Diet Exit Plan”, an 8 week coaching program for automatic permanent weight loss. Get her FREE 15 page report “How to lose weight without dieting - 7 secrets the diet industry doesn’t want you to know” at http://www.SimplySlimming.com TODAY!
1. Yoga strengthens and streamlines your muscles
During yoga practise you work your whole body, stretching and toning your muscles, streamlining and firming them. This gives you a lean firm body shape as opposed to the bulkier, short muscles you might get from weight training. With yoga you build strong lean muscle tissue which burn calories even while you are at rest.
2. Yoga calms you and clears your mind
If you are someone who eats due to stress and tension, then yoga will help you reduce comfort eating. The slow stretching movements and deep breathing in every yoga movement calm and relax you. The balance postures in particular necessitate that you clear your mind of all your every day cares and worries and use all your powers of concentration and focus. With regular yoga practise you will find that you become naturally more relaxed and able to cope with everyday problems.
3. Yoga normalises sluggish glands
The toning movements in yoga work not only on the muscles but also on the internal organs of the body stimulating them and normalising their function. Twisting poses, forward and backward bends and inversions are used to stimulate the endocrine system and postures like the shoulder stand and the fish help regulate the mechanism of the thyroid gland in the neck, all of which help boost your metabolism.
4. Yoga gives you energy and increases flexibility
By calming you and gently working on your muscles and increasing the levels of oxygen in your blood and to your brain, you finish a yoga practise (once you are used to the movements) feeling more energetic than when you began. This means that you tend to put more energy and movement into your day rather than sitting around feeling exhausted. And you build flexibility in your muscles and joints so that you enjoy a full range of movement your whole life. Witness the difference between the movements of a young girl and a stiff 80 year old woman. The young girl is bound to move so much more because muscles and joints are less restricted.
5. Yoga uses calories
This is where people believe that yoga is not helpful when it comes to weight loss and it’s true that aerobic exercise may very well burn more calories. However you will still use about 240 calories in an average 1 hour classic hatha yoga class and burn many more (about 400) with some highly physical forms such as astanga yoga. And you can practise yoga every day without over-exercising your muscles which is not the case for many forms of aerobic exercise
6. Yoga offers psychological benefits
Through yoga practise you tend to retune into your body and increase your self-acceptance and self-esteem. You build positive body confidence and help quiet any negative messages that may arise in your mind. Yoga teaches us to respect our bodies and this helps us when choosing our food and avoiding junk food and alcohol.
7. Yoga is for everyone
Most people can take up yoga even if they have been inactive for a while although you should always get your doctor’s approval before beginning an exercise program if there is any doubt about your health. While jogging and working out at the gym might seem too much to contemplate you can start wherever you are with a yoga class and make steady progress.
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach, slimming club owner and author of “The Diet Exit Plan”, an 8 week coaching program for automatic permanent weight loss. Get her FREE 15 page report “How to lose weight without dieting - 7 secrets the diet industry doesn’t want you to know” at http://www.SimplySlimming.com TODAY!
February 23, 2009
The Fountain of Youth & Your Hormones
Everyone has heard of the mythical “Fountain of Youth”, but very few realize that it actually does exist. And even fewer realize that it exists inside every one of us. Yes, it’s there right
within you, just waiting to be activated !!
Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer sailed around the Florida coast in search of the legendary “Fountain of Youth” …..the secret to being young again forever. That was five hundred years ago, more or less. Since then modern day ‘explorers’, in the form of researchers, have been continuing the quest for the secrets to attain eternal youth
These researchers have discovered that at the core of the fountain of youth is the body’s hormonal or neuro endocrine system, the collective name assigned to the glands and organs that manufacture hormones within our bodies.
Aging is a process that happens to all of us. Usually around thirty to thirty-five years of age, we begin to notice the first telltale signs of aging, the strands of gray hair, the deepening of expression lines (the pre-cursor to wrinkles), the slight sagging of facial features, the gradual loss of skin elasticity as collagen formation declines. As the years roll by, this aging process continues inexorably - stiffer joints, dimmer vision, loss of taste buds, gray hair, less libido!
As we see the same thing happening to our friends and family we accept it as natural and inevitable. We start to accept our declining faculties as being nature’s way, and start thinking of
oourselves as old.The change in mental perspective further accelerates the process. And, as we look in the mirror, year after year, we gradually begin to look, feel and act progressively older, our mindset reflecting our mirror image.
Today, technology and medical advances have made it possible to live much longer, leading to an aging of the population - there are many more ’seniors’ in our society than ever before. In fact, average longevity has gone up all over the world since the beginning of the 20th century. In the U.S longevity has increased by as much as 25 years.
However, regrettably, the factor that has not changed is the number of years one has to live with age-related disability. It is still an average of ten years for most of us. Can we minimize, or eliminate completely this period of decrepitude from our lives? There is no question that each one of us, man and woman, would like to live our sixties, seventies and eighties with looks, health and vitality intact. Nor do we like the idea of losing any of our faculties or senses.
The fountain of youth was seen to be the answer, making it a life or death (literally) quest since time immemorial…..Juan Ponce de Leon et al….and it remains as important today. People stop at nothing in their attempts to combat aging, and to drink from the fountain of youth. So much so, that it has become somewhat of a chimera. There are diets designed to combat and reverse aging, cardio-vascular exercises do the same, the brain is kept young by ‘challenging’ it, viagra promises peak sexual performance, HRT promises relief from pre and post menopausal
problems, cosmetic companies produce moisturizers and creams to build collagen,….one can go on and on!!!
In varying degrees, they all work! But think about HOW they work!
Diets and cardio-vascular exercises work by regulating the body’s consumption of energy. Known as metabolism, it is a complex interaction of chemical conversions that take place
continually in order to generate energy and keep the body at optimum level. Control of the entire process lies in the hormonal (neuroendocrine) system.
The challenge element perks up secretions of the hormone adrenaline…the body’s age-old response to any form of stress or threat is production of higher doses. The skin is kept hydrated by secretions of oil and sweat-producing hormones, and the entire process of sexuality and reproduction is hormone-induced, and starts from the hormonal (neuroendocrine) system.
And so, through course of diets, exercises, creams and supplements you manage to keep your body and mind in peak condition. What happens when you get a bout of the ‘flu’? Without the help of the thymus and your immune system your body may just pack it in !!
The hormonal system has a finger in every pie! Does the concept seem rather esoteric? Do you think I am overplaying the role of the endocrine glands?
Consider the facts. Sift through reports on the most current research going on in this field.
Much of the anti-aging experimentation being conducted in various laboratories around the world, is connected with ingestion of hormonal supplements. HGH (human growth hormone)
and DHEA, both popular experimental therapies being used at present, are nothing but hormones. And without a doubt they produce benefits, even though it is probably too early to
determine if they produce any their attendant side effects.
Then again there is much research connected to the use of release factors or ‘releasers’, whereby, instead of ingesting supplements, one would ingest releasers, which would activate the glands into releasing hormones. Such experiments are still at an early stage, and not much is known about the attendant side effects, if any.
In fact, this very principle of hormonal flow seems to have been known to the Himalayan people in ancient times, and forms the basis of the Tibetan yoga rejuvenation and anti aging technique.
They seem to have way ahead of us in their knowledge. They knew, 4000 years ago, how to push the button that would cause the body to produce its own natural releasers, rather than rely on artificial synthetic ones. This, then, is the knowledge made public by the Tibetan rejuvenation yoga technique.
Jay Chatterjee, a Chartered Accountant and ex-Corporate Banker,
lives in Canada.?Roshmi Raychaudhuri is a business-woman living
in India. Their eclectic health newsletter “To Your Health, Letter”,
reflects their passionate interest in natural health therapies and
carries the latest natural health information. While visiting the
Himalayan foothills they came across an ancient anti aging yoga,
a rejuvenation system based on stimulation of the hormonal glands,
and started their website to share this knowledge and provide
practical and incisive anti aging and health information.
Subscribe to their F.ree 6-part Anti aging & Health Course,
“The Road Map to the Fountain of Youth”, at:
http://www.youngagainforever.com/1.html
within you, just waiting to be activated !!
Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer sailed around the Florida coast in search of the legendary “Fountain of Youth” …..the secret to being young again forever. That was five hundred years ago, more or less. Since then modern day ‘explorers’, in the form of researchers, have been continuing the quest for the secrets to attain eternal youth
These researchers have discovered that at the core of the fountain of youth is the body’s hormonal or neuro endocrine system, the collective name assigned to the glands and organs that manufacture hormones within our bodies.
Aging is a process that happens to all of us. Usually around thirty to thirty-five years of age, we begin to notice the first telltale signs of aging, the strands of gray hair, the deepening of expression lines (the pre-cursor to wrinkles), the slight sagging of facial features, the gradual loss of skin elasticity as collagen formation declines. As the years roll by, this aging process continues inexorably - stiffer joints, dimmer vision, loss of taste buds, gray hair, less libido!
As we see the same thing happening to our friends and family we accept it as natural and inevitable. We start to accept our declining faculties as being nature’s way, and start thinking of
oourselves as old.The change in mental perspective further accelerates the process. And, as we look in the mirror, year after year, we gradually begin to look, feel and act progressively older, our mindset reflecting our mirror image.
Today, technology and medical advances have made it possible to live much longer, leading to an aging of the population - there are many more ’seniors’ in our society than ever before. In fact, average longevity has gone up all over the world since the beginning of the 20th century. In the U.S longevity has increased by as much as 25 years.
However, regrettably, the factor that has not changed is the number of years one has to live with age-related disability. It is still an average of ten years for most of us. Can we minimize, or eliminate completely this period of decrepitude from our lives? There is no question that each one of us, man and woman, would like to live our sixties, seventies and eighties with looks, health and vitality intact. Nor do we like the idea of losing any of our faculties or senses.
The fountain of youth was seen to be the answer, making it a life or death (literally) quest since time immemorial…..Juan Ponce de Leon et al….and it remains as important today. People stop at nothing in their attempts to combat aging, and to drink from the fountain of youth. So much so, that it has become somewhat of a chimera. There are diets designed to combat and reverse aging, cardio-vascular exercises do the same, the brain is kept young by ‘challenging’ it, viagra promises peak sexual performance, HRT promises relief from pre and post menopausal
problems, cosmetic companies produce moisturizers and creams to build collagen,….one can go on and on!!!
In varying degrees, they all work! But think about HOW they work!
Diets and cardio-vascular exercises work by regulating the body’s consumption of energy. Known as metabolism, it is a complex interaction of chemical conversions that take place
continually in order to generate energy and keep the body at optimum level. Control of the entire process lies in the hormonal (neuroendocrine) system.
The challenge element perks up secretions of the hormone adrenaline…the body’s age-old response to any form of stress or threat is production of higher doses. The skin is kept hydrated by secretions of oil and sweat-producing hormones, and the entire process of sexuality and reproduction is hormone-induced, and starts from the hormonal (neuroendocrine) system.
And so, through course of diets, exercises, creams and supplements you manage to keep your body and mind in peak condition. What happens when you get a bout of the ‘flu’? Without the help of the thymus and your immune system your body may just pack it in !!
The hormonal system has a finger in every pie! Does the concept seem rather esoteric? Do you think I am overplaying the role of the endocrine glands?
Consider the facts. Sift through reports on the most current research going on in this field.
Much of the anti-aging experimentation being conducted in various laboratories around the world, is connected with ingestion of hormonal supplements. HGH (human growth hormone)
and DHEA, both popular experimental therapies being used at present, are nothing but hormones. And without a doubt they produce benefits, even though it is probably too early to
determine if they produce any their attendant side effects.
Then again there is much research connected to the use of release factors or ‘releasers’, whereby, instead of ingesting supplements, one would ingest releasers, which would activate the glands into releasing hormones. Such experiments are still at an early stage, and not much is known about the attendant side effects, if any.
In fact, this very principle of hormonal flow seems to have been known to the Himalayan people in ancient times, and forms the basis of the Tibetan yoga rejuvenation and anti aging technique.
They seem to have way ahead of us in their knowledge. They knew, 4000 years ago, how to push the button that would cause the body to produce its own natural releasers, rather than rely on artificial synthetic ones. This, then, is the knowledge made public by the Tibetan rejuvenation yoga technique.
Jay Chatterjee, a Chartered Accountant and ex-Corporate Banker,
lives in Canada.?Roshmi Raychaudhuri is a business-woman living
in India. Their eclectic health newsletter “To Your Health, Letter”,
reflects their passionate interest in natural health therapies and
carries the latest natural health information. While visiting the
Himalayan foothills they came across an ancient anti aging yoga,
a rejuvenation system based on stimulation of the hormonal glands,
and started their website to share this knowledge and provide
practical and incisive anti aging and health information.
Subscribe to their F.ree 6-part Anti aging & Health Course,
“The Road Map to the Fountain of Youth”, at:
http://www.youngagainforever.com/1.html
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