Free Wellness Handout — The Benefits of Practicing Yoga

Editor’s Note: Injury prevention and wellness handouts are an effective (and inexpensive) way to educate and motivate employees to use good work practices and take care of their bodies.

Scroll to the bottom of this post for the free Wellness Handout PDF file.

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The Benefits of Practicing Yoga

Yoga isn’t just a trend; it’s been around for over 5,000 years and over 11 million Americans are enjoying its many benefits.

What is yoga?

The practice of yoga is about creating balance in the body by developing both strength and flexibility. This is accomplished by performing a series of postures or “poses” which are designed for specific benefits to each part of your body.

There are many different styles of yoga being practiced today. While almost all of these styles is based on a series of postures, each style has a particular emphasis. Consult with a certified teacher to determine the best style of yoga for your physical fitness and overall health goals.

Practicing yoga has many health benefits for both men and women!

Always Remember – Safety First!

When engaging in any form of physical activity, it’s important to put your safety first. Be sure to wear the proper attire and get warmed up before you start. Remember that yoga isn’t supposed to hurt. If you feel pain, stop.

Benefits of Yoga

Many people view yoga as just a fancy form of stretching. But the benefits of yoga go well beyond that. Along with being a great stress reliever, yoga can improve your flexibility, strength, posture and breathing and lung capacity.

These benefits apply to both men and women:

Yoga improves flexibility. Yoga poses work by safety stretching your muscles and all other soft tissues in your body. No matter what your yoga-level is, you will likely feel the benefits within a short period of time.

Yoga improves strength. Some styles of yoga are more vigorous than others. But no matter what type of yoga you’re doing, you will improve your core strength. This type of functional is very useful for every day life and beneficial as you age.

Yoga improves posture. Increased flexibility and strength helps you improve your posture. With better core strength and the body awareness you create by practicing yoga, you are more likely to recognize when you are slouching or have bad posture and correct it.

Yoga improves breathing and lung capacity. Most forms of yoga emphasize long and deep breathing. This can help expand your lung capacity and improve endurance.

Think prevention! Prevention is always better than treatment! Practicing yoga is a proactive strategy to live longer and stay well.