Yoga Vs. Gym

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Often many people are confused whether to join a Gym or Yoga class. Both the things are beneficial for health and well-being, however there is a fundamental difference between these two forms of exercises. In this article, let’s explore some important facts about Yoga and Gym exercise.

Some Interesting Facts About Yoga

Yoga is an exercise form which came into existence around 5000 years ago.
Other than burning calories, yoga is also helpful for meditation and relaxation.
In total, yoga is available in 100 different forms, including both intense and fast-paced.
Yoga helps in improving your orgasms naturally.
Yoga is considered as the prime successful product of globalization.
The male practitioner of Yoga is called Yogi while the female is called Yogini.
Yoga also helps in reducing weight without adding extra strain on your body and system.
Researches have proved that yoga helps in improving the sex problems.

What would prefer for weight loss or weight management, yoga or gym? When questioned to various people, 60 percent selected going to gym. The reason behind this was instant results it gives you with. No doubt, both yoga and gym have their own benefits, and standards for helping you in reducing those extra calories.

Gym gives you the desired results in merely a short time span, however, it is harmful sometimes. There are people who have reported gaining those reduced calories in speed after leaving the gym. Some of them have developed some health issues due to working for more hours, working with any improper technique, etc. Along with gym, you are also asked to follow a proper diet chart, that helps in reducing weight.

When it comes to yoga, all you need to do is the stretch, meditate, deep breath and relax. With zero side effects, yoga not only proves to be beneficial for reducing weight but also helps in regulating various body functions and toning your body. Yoga is a combination of workouts, stretching and strengthening that not only gives you proper exercise but also helps you in relaxation. Along with yoga, you don’t also have to carry out any kind of harsh diets. A plus point of yoga is that it doesn’t give you any kind of side effects.

Points That Prove Why Yoga Is Better Than Gym

When you go to the gym, you are given with various workouts for different parts of your body. When it comes to yoga, it works on your body completely. All the poses give your whole body stretching that strengthens the muscles, helps in balancing, etc. Isn’t that an efficient way to give your body some workout!
Join a gym and you would be provided with a number of workouts for having some cardio exercises. However, in yoga, when you perform a few sets of Suryanamaskar, it gives a complete cardio workout.
Yoga doesn’t include competition. While working in gyms, one might look at the workouts of others and build up a mental competition that might lead you to over exercising causing you health problems. This situation is eliminated in case of yoga as it is performed alone. If performed in yoga classes, everyone needs to hold the particular position to a limit that is similar for everyone. Hence, yoga proves to be safe and secure.
Thinking to start yoga! All you need to buy is a simple mat and start practicing it at home or in the garden. When it comes to gym workouts, you need to purchase heavy equipment that is costly. Hence, yoga helps you in increasing your savings.
When you join a gym for workouts, you would have a continuous schedule fixed pattern of exercises. This might grab you in boredom after some time. While yoga comes with nearly 100 poses to work on. Hence, it gives you a variety of workouts that keep you interested and attached.
While carrying workouts in gym, you are always at a risk of various injuries. Heavy lifting may lead to harmful injuries that would be harmful to your joints and health. Yoga gives you a chance to unite your body with your mind. There are no lifts and no weights. This allows you to focus on the moves with zero chances of injuries.

Hence, by comparing all these points on yoga vs. gym, it is clear that selecting yoga would give you long term health benefits, which is surely better than moving to the gym for heavy workouts.

Yoga – A Small Introduction

Want to get rid of those extra kilos in a natural way! Or want to maintain a healthy lifestyle with zero stress levels! Yoga is the best workout, which would provide you with various health benefits and relaxation leading to a perfect routine. It increases flexibility in your body and reduces the stress levels that is helpful in your day to day tasks.

Yoga is available in more than 100 different forms that have their own role in toning and maintaining your body and its functions. The forms are bifurcated according to their intensity, as there are some poses that are gentle. On primary basis, yoga can be classified in the following forms:

Hatha – This basic form of yoga includes practicing a series of movements along with breathing. It is the most widely performed yoga series.
Vinyasa – This form of yoga comes with a series of different poses that allow you to smoothly move from one form to the other with ease.
Power – Power yoga is a quick moving yoga. It comes with highest intensity that helps in the development of the muscles.
Ashtanga – This form of yoga is a combination of various poses, which is combined with a particular technique of breathing while performing it.
Bikram – This form of yoga is popularly known as hot yoga. The form contains a total number of 26 poses that are quite challenging as they are to be performed in a room with high temperature.
Iyengar – This form of yoga is performed using various props while exercising, which includes straps, chairs, blocks, balls, etc. The props help the body to move into a proper position.

Hence, practice any kind of form of yoga, you would be equally benefited on the grounds of health.

Health Benefits Of Performing Yoga Regularly

People believe that yoga is carried out when one wishes to tone his/her body. But the fact is that yoga has many more benefits related to the physical and mental health. It works magically on problems like diabetes, heart disorders, high cholesterol, etc.

Here are few hidden secrets related to your health of performing yoga regularly.

1. Improves The Flexibility

With the increase in the age, your body reduces the flexibility level, especially if you spend bulk hours sitting. This results in joint and body pains along with immobility. Yoga gives you an opportunity to move and stretch your body in various ways. This helps you to become more flexible. It also gives great motion to the tight areas of your body like the arms, hamstrings, shoulders, back, hips, etc. Hence, yoga helps in revising the reduction in the flexibility.

2. Gives You Strength

There are various yoga poses in which you have to hold the weight of your body while balancing on your leg or hand like the tree pose, the downward facing dog, etc. Holding all these poses on several breaths helps your body to build strong muscles. Hence, you slowly get a hold over your muscles and help them in gaining strength. Along with making them stronger, it also tones them well. It makes them in getting a proper shape, including the lean muscles too.

3. Immunity Booster

Yoga changes the expression of the genes, which help in boosting the immune system at the level of cellular. These changes happen within a fraction of time, that is when the yogi or the Yogini is still on the mat practicing other poses. It works for the overall health of the individual and boosts the immune system for smooth functioning. Yoga helps in improving your breath, which indirectly relates to smooth circulating and the functioning of the organs.

4. Reduces Migraines

A continuous practice of yoga helps in the reduction of migraine. Migraine is a combination of mental stress and physical misalignment that directly affects your brain. While using computers or mobile phones, with your shoulders upwards to your head, it brings muscle imbalance that results into headaches and migraine. For such problems, the bridge pose of yoga is quite recommended. Continuously performing that pose for nearly 3 months would surely give you a relief from the pain of migraine.

5. Increases Sexual Performance

This might shock you, but yoga has shown better results for both men and women, on various sexual problems like sexual desire, performance, arousal, orgasm, confidence and satisfaction. Performing yoga increases the flow of blood in the genital areas which is quite important for erections and arousal. The flow of blood helps in making the pelvic floor muscles strong. The mental effect of yoga for increasing the performance in bed is that it helps in breathing and controlling the mind. A yoga poses widely recommended for sexual problems is the bound angle pose, popularly known as butterfly pose.

6. Helps With Insomnia

Getting into yoga continuously for eight weeks helps in sleeping problems like insomnia. The problem of sleeping arises when your head is continuously into some thoughts headed with increase stress levels. As your head keeps on spinning, the lack of relaxation leads to disorders like insomnia. Yoga would help you in breathing better and reducing your stress levels. The mental effects of yoga help in keeping your mind calm, and you would start sleeping better. For improving your sleep or getting rid of insomnia, practice Savasana or corpse pose on a regular basis.

7. Prevents From Back And Joint Pain

Performing yoga includes the movements of your joints in a secure way, without any kind of injuries. Such low impact yoga movements help in making the muscles around your joints strong, and reduce the burden on them. People facing problems like arthritis, have obtained the desired results by spending some time on yoga exercises every day. The safe movements of yoga are also good for getting rid of back pains. The working youth these days have to sit at the computers for a long time, which leads to compression in the spinal cord causing tightness. Yoga helps in reducing the compression and gives you a relief from back pain.

8. Reduces Stress

Yoga gifts you some moments of peace that deals with the mental stress you are facing in the daily hectic life. The physical and mental activities involved in yoga help in reducing stress, improves concentration, helps you deal with daily problems with utmost intelligence, etc. The time you spend on the mat performing different poses breaks the bounds of stress and gives you a new way to deal with the problems. Merely a few minutes in the yoga class would help you feel lighter and refreshed.

9. Increases Your Confidence Level

Yoga helps in improving the connection of your body and mind. This awakens your awareness towards your body. While doing yoga, you make small movements that improve your orientation that gives you a better physical body. This also gives a mental improvement as you learn to accept yourself without any kind of judgment. This henceforth, increases your confidence level. You feel comfortable with your mind and body that boosts your self-confidence, leading you to the path of success.

10. Reduces Hangover

Are you fed up with the hangovers after drinking for a long night! Give some minutes of yoga to your body and see the magical results. Yes, this might shock you, but yoga is also helpful in reducing the hangover. Yoga works as a detoxifier for your body, by increasing the metabolism. Poses like plow, fish or shoulder stand works on the thyroid gland that improves metabolism, indirectly helps in getting rid of hangover quickly. The reverse therapy of flowing your blood gives more supply of blood to your brain that helps him in balancing the body. So, next time you find a hangover catching you, go for some yoga poses for quick results.

11. Helps in Heart Diseases

Yoga plays a vital role in reducing the heart diseases. The patients who have faced heart failure are suggested to work on yoga, which increases their capability to exercise and improve their heart health, which improves their overall health. People having cardiovascular issues also perform yoga that reduces the arterial plague benefiting the life. Want to keep your heart healthy! Work on yoga poses regularly and improve your heart health.

12. Beneficial For Asthma Patients

Suffering from mild asthma! Adding a yoga session to your routine would give magical results in solving your problem. Results have shown that merely eight-week session of yoga has given desired results in the symptoms of asthma. For such patients performing Prayanama should be an essential part of their routine to deal with asthma and other breathing problems.

13. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Yes, this is true. Yoga is also beneficial for solving traumatic problems like post-traumatic stress disorder. Also known as PTSD, this situation is widely faced by women, that leads to traumatic stress. Yoga has helped in solving this disorder with an effective pose based on Kripalu yoga, that aids in the reduction of the PTSD symptom.

14. Boosts Your Memory

Yoga has given mysterious benefits on the brain also. Yoga removes all the unwanted elements both physically and mentally that reduces the stress on your brain. It gives your brain peace and calmness that allows your brain to rest and work efficiently, by increasing its ability of recalling and organizing the thoughts well. In short, yoga helps in increasing your memory.

15. Beneficial in Pregnancy

Yoga has proved to be a hit track solution when you are passing through heavy mood swings, anxiety, etc. Yoga aids you in relaxing in mood swings, while makes you strong and keeps you in proper shape. Talking with your doctor about yoga would give you correct poses that would be helpful as your pregnancy develops. Pregnancy brings problems like adjustments for baby in the womb, growing belly, shifting of gravity, etc., which can be easily dealt with through different poses of yoga according to the development of the fetus. Make sure you don’t stretch too much as you did before. Also avoid poses that give pressure on your belly and lower back. Also avoid going for hot yoga, and perform yoga with plenty of space which neglects breathing problems.

Hence, in all ways, spending some minutes daily on yoga would surely give you long-term benefits for your health. Yoga doesn’t have any kind of age bondage, from the children to the elders, all can perform yoga to get desired fitness levels. It can be performed anywhere that is, in the garden or at home, with or without the help of a yoga instructor through yoga classes, inspirational books or yoga DVDs etc.

Thus we have seen Yoga vs. gym. So, promise yourself a healthy life span by placing a habit of performing yoga on a daily basis.

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