How To Strengthen And Tone Your Muscles With Yoga

Yoga is one of the best disciplines for strengthening and
toning your muscles. There are many postures or positions that
will help you do this. Each position works on a certain set of
muscles and teaches you how to control them. Some will
strengthen, some relax your muscles while others will release
tension and promote flexibility.

 

The physical positions of yoga are known as asana. They are
divided into simple basic ones and more advanced. Before you
start it is always good to do warm up exercises before starting
on your regime and then finish with calming or cooling
exercises. Warm up exercises include; eye rolls, moving your
eyes without moving your head, neck rolls and shoulder lifting.

 

Here are a few common positions that will strengthen and tone
your muscles.

 

1. The cat position helps you to warm up.

 

2. A standing position like the Mountain will help you to
strengthen your spine and leg muscles. It will also help you to
prepare for other positions.

 

3. There are many sitting poses. Some will strengthen your
muscles others relax them. The hero pose and warrior position
are 2 common positions.

 

4. Muscle stretching is good for your muscle strength and
toning. The Seated Forward Bend is a common one that stretches
your back, shoulders, and hamstrings.

 

5. The most famous sitting posture is the Lotus position. This
will help you to relax your muscles.

 

6. A common muscle strengthening exercises is called the
Backward Dog.

 

7. Another position that strengthens the spine is the Half
Spinal Twist.

 

Other physical postures can help improve large motor skills,
when you balance for some positions and co-ordination. Many of
the exercises will also help you heal from injuries. Whenever
you do Yoga it is very important to have careful supervision
from a qualified yoga teacher.

 

Yoga can also relieve stress, its philosophy of calmness and
balancing the body's energy can help you to relieve everyday
tension. Physical exercise can often help to relieve tension.
Many of the postures are designed to release energy and will
automatically lessen tension and stress. When you are less
stressed your overall health will improve.

 

There are also breathing exercises, called Pranayamas that can
energize and warm the body. Examples are Kapalabhati Pranayama
and Ujjayi Pranayama. Other exercises include cooling and
calming Pranayamas. An example of this would be Sit Cari
Pranayama. Different conditions of the body will need either
cooling or warming of the body in order to heal and improve
your health. These exercises will help to do this.

 

It is important to see the big picture when practicing yoga.
When you practice the different poses for your different body
areas you are in fact improving your entire body health. Your
daily routine should be made up of different exercises for
different areas of the body to improve your entire overall well
being.

 

A fun new way to practice yoga and improve your physical
conditioning is ball yoga. This is doing the basic yoga
positions with the aid of a ball. You can either sit or lie on
a rubber exercise, or Swiss ball, when you do yoga positions.
This can help beginners and can also serve to make exercises
more challenging for advanced users.

 

There are different sizes for different people. Adults 5'7'' in
height or taller should use a 65cm ball. Smaller people should
consider a 55cm. Fill less air in the beginning and put more in
when you are ready for the challenge.

 

As you can see there are many ways to improve your physical
condition through the asana or postures of yoga. An important
thing to remember is to always learn from an experienced
teacher, who can advise you as to what is the best regime for
you. Yoga is a skilled discipline and needs some guidance
especially if you are new to this fascinating art.

 

About The Author: Zach Thompson is a Glyconutrients
Representative. His clients range from actresses to pro
athletes. You can get a free Glyconutrients consultation by
visiting http://www.myglycoshop.net . Clinical studies have
shown that glyconutrients can help balance your immune system.