There are many different types of yoga, and each type is designed to change and help the body in a variety of ways. When it comes to a yoga routine that focuses on linking breathing techniques and mental concentration, Hatha yoga takes the cake.

When you are doing a Hatha yoga routine, you are not just benefiting your spiritual and emotional health, you are also finding a spiritual harmony that can easily carry you through even the most stressful situations.

But there are many types of yoga out there that will help your physical and mental well being, what makes Hatha yoga so special?

Hatha is a form of yoga that joins two completely opposite things. The ‘Ha’ in Hatha yoga relates to the sun and the ‘Tha’ in Hatha refers to the moon.

Even though these two things are complete opposites when you put them together you will find a mind and body purification that is completely unique from any other form of yoga.

That’s not to say that it is a good or bad thing, but different types of yoga will challenge your body in different ways, and just like with any workout routine you might find that one form of yoga works better for you than another form of yoga.

Try This 12-week Yoga Burn Challenge that is Helping Women Get Lighter, Healthier and Happier

For many people, when they feel a great sense of stress in the muscles, a sense of increased anxiety, or they are just looking to find emotional peace and a sense of well being, they will turn to a Hatha yoga routine.

In fact, some people even refer to Hatha yoga as a vehicle for their soul because it allows them to be able to connect with their inner spirit more deeply and it allows them to feel more connected with the universe as a whole.

So many of us go through life without having a real sense of who we are. We are constantly looking to ‘find ourselves’ and we are searching to connect with ourselves more deeply. The mind-body connection is a powerful thing and it is essential that you keep that connection strong if you want to live a fully enriched life.

How do you know when the mind and body are disconnected?

When you are not connected with yourself, you will feel like you are just going through the motions of the day. It will be hard for you to find any real enjoyment out of the things that you once enjoyed and you will feel like you don’t get any real pleasure out of anything. Your job will feel like a chore, your relationships might seem unsatisfying, and you may even find it hard to take care of yourself. Not surprisingly when your mind and body are disconnected you are more prone to stress, anxiety, and depression.

Hatha yoga works to connect the mind and the body together more deeply. Not only is the yoga practice itself good for your body and your spirit but when you regularly do Hatha yoga you will find that every part of your life is affected in a positive way.

The post Hatha yoga – what makes it so special? appeared first on Face and Body Care.

Adding yoga to your workout regimen can produce amazing benefits in terms of your physical abilities as well as your mental and spiritual balance.

You can expect to experience the following benefits after you’ve been practicing the art for a few months:

1. Increased flexibility. You’ll acquire greater and greater flexibility as you practice. When you first start, much of your yoga classes will be spent stretching. These stretches create limber, flexible muscles and subsequently a more flexible individual.

 2. Greater strength. Apart from doing stretching routines, you’ll also be training your body to create poses that require immense physical strength. While you may not feel much pull when doing the poses, you’ll realize after some time how much stronger you’ve become.

 3. Improved posture. All of the stretching and posing done during yoga classes will eventually lead to excellent posture! Those incorrect postures you were previously comfortable with will suddenly become extremely uncomfortable.

• You’ll stop slouching on the couch when watching TV.
• You’ll stand upright when in line as opposed to leaning on something for support.
• You’ll likely get rid of any back pains you might have had prior to starting yoga.

4. Better breathing capacity. Yoga not only focuses on physical strength and flexibility, but it also focuses on increasing lung capacity. Many of the yoga poses and stretches are accompanied by specific breathing styles, so you’ll notice over time that your lung capacity will allow you to endure physical challenges for longer periods.

• You’ll be able to do more laps in the swimming pool.
• You’ll be able to move from running a 1/2-mile race to running a 1-mile race.
• You’ll be able to keep up with your friends when you go on group hikes.

 5. Less stress. Yoga does a great job of relieving stress. The breathing techniques, meditation, and muscle stretches and poses instantly relax the mind and muscles.

• Both physical and mental stresses are reduced, thus allowing you to more easily avoid the plethora of stress-related diseases and achieve stronger overall health.

Your first step to grabbing these benefits for yourself is as easy as signing up for classes. Starting with a beginners’ level class will enable you to develop an understanding of the art as well as the poses and stretches. If there are no classes in your area, consider DVDs or online instruction.

Overall, as a practitioner of yoga, you’ll feel more at peace. After each session, you’ll feel refreshed, renewed, and ready to take on whatever challenges life throws in your direction. Not only does yoga build a solid physique, but it also builds a resilient mind and prepares you to face just about anything.

The post 5 Remarkable Benefits of Adding Yoga to Your Workout Regimen appeared first on Face and Body Care.

Most of us know the art of yoga as being that workout where you are asked to place your body in the most seemingly-uncomfortable positions imaginable. For those who do not know what yoga is about, it can look like a very silly practice… however, it has tremendous benefits for both the body and the mind. What’s more, these benefits can actually help you to lose weight much faster than before, and here is a look as to why using yoga for weight loss is in your best interest.

The Effects of Yoga on People

Before looking into how it can help you lose weight, it is important to see the kinds of advantages this type of exercising has for those who perform it. First, let’s have a look at the physical aspect of it all. Because yoga often requires you to maintain positions which ask for muscular endurance and flexibility, it actually makes you burn more calories than you probably imagine it does. Apart from giving you firmer and more enduring muscles, it will also make your body feel more at ease as some of the exercises trigger a release of endorphins in the brain.

As you can imagine, the brunt of the yoga’s effects is felt more on the mental level than the physical one. Much of yoga is devoted to remaining still and focusing on your breathing, keeping it deep and slow. The longer you hold a position and focus on your breath, the slower and deeper it is going to get, which in turn has beneficial effects on your circulatory system; it lowers your blood pressure, and thus slows down your heart, which in turn allows you to clear your head, your mind and your conscience. In a nutshell, when done correctly for a certain amount of time, yoga exercises can really put a human being in a Zen state of mind.

How Yoga Helps to Lose Weight

And so how are those effects supposed to help you make some considerable progress with weight loss? Surely those few calories you burn doing the exercises won’t make that much of a difference. Well, whether or not you are going to be successful when losing weight depends on your mental attitude, your approach to the problem. If you aren’t relaxed, if you are anxious and stressed out, you will have a very hard time maintaining control over yourself and over your urges. Your thoughts won’t be as clear as you think they will be, and sooner or later, you will put a halt to your weight loss progress under the pretense that you can’t take it anymore and deserve a break.

By doing yoga for weight loss and putting yourself in a state of mind where you can think clearly and carefully plan your actions ahead, you will have a much, much lesser chance of deviating from your path and cheating on your rules, because you will be able to see the kinds of consequences your actions are going to have. Long story short, doing yoga will improve your mental fortitude and help you fight against your more primal self.

The post Yoga for Weight Loss appeared first on Face and Body Care.

On the other hand, if you’ve been involved in yoga for a while, you probably know your way around some of the positions. Whichever stage in your yoga journey you are, there’s an essential pose – a really crucial one – that you need to learn, that truly focuses you training.

Look at these yoga positions for beginners, intermediate learners and advanced learners and see how these help you.

If you are just starting out in yoga, the tree pose is basic, essential learning. The tree pose is the one legged pose where you stand erect on just one leg, fold the other, and place the foot at the top of your thigh. The tree pose, even if it is the most basic of yoga positions, is difficult to master. The balance and body awareness required to stand steadily on one leg can be enormous and can take a great deal of time to master.

The tree pose is called that for a reason. To help your body gain that sort of balance, you’re supposed to visualize being a tree putting down roots out of the bottom of your foot. Calmly gazing with concentration on a spot right in front of you, and staying calm, strong and relaxed while you do this, should help your body learn to balance itself.

Each time you take up this pose, you’re supposed to hold it for a full minute, put both feet down, rest for a minute, and then repeat on the other side. When you first try to learn this position, you really are allowed to do it with a little bit of support. Standing against a wall would be great.

The downward facing dog is one of the key yoga positions for intermediate learners. If you wish to prepare yourself for more advanced yoga positions, this one should be considered mandatory training. Starting out, you need to get down on all fours with the palms of your hands a foot in front of your head.

The trick now is to raise your hips and knees together so that your body forms a perfect upside-down V shape. The trick is to strengthen your body up in the smoothest way possible. To come off the pose, you need to reverse everything you did.

Anyone entering the advanced stage has a great deal to master. The handstand has to be the granddaddy of all yoga positions. This is where you do a full erect handstand with perfect balance. Anyone nailing this position can consider herself a well on her way to real yoga expert hood. To start out, you need to place yourself in the downward facing dog position close to the wall.

Once you’re ready, you need to put pressure on the palms of the hands, tense up your shoulders, rotate your upper arms and then get ready to take off.

These yoga positions aren’t the most difficult ones; but they’ll certainly get you ready for primetime.

The post The Yoga Positions to Master for every Level of Learner appeared first on Face and Body Care.

Best Poses for Beginners

Your first yoga class will comprise of different yoga postures including opening poses, standing poses and salutations. These poses incorporate twisting, stretching, hip exercises and bending backwards and forwards.

When taking your first class be sure to listen to your body. Even though you do want to push yourself, you don’t want to run the risk of hurting yourself.

Along with the basic poses you will also learn how to breathe correctly. Learning these breathing techniques will occupy much of your time in the beginning. But not to worry, you will soon be accustomed to breathing properly and won’t think twice about it.

While practicing your postures try to remember to be graceful if you can! You might find that you are concentrating so hard that you forget to be poised Think of being a dancer and being light and airy in your movements.

Yoga Poses for Infertility and Back Pain

Yoga poses can actually help you with many health issues. There are yoga postures for infertility which have been shown to help increase a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant. This is done by teaching you how to relax and by decreasing the amount of stress in your life.

These relaxation poses help to relax all your muscles in your body, not just your mind. If you are trying to conceive then it is advised to attempt these relaxation poses after having sex. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but women have reported getting pregnant after using this advice.

Many people start practicing yoga due to back pain and there are many yoga postures to help eliminate this condition. Some of the more common yoga postures are the pelvic tilt, the standing forward bend, and the side angle pose.

Practice Yoga Safely

Learning how to relax and allowing yourself time just for you is very important but you want to be certain not to overdo things. If you have led a pretty sedentary lifestyle don’t go crazy by attempting too much too soon. One thing to remember about yoga is that it can fit into your life in many different ways and at different levels.

It is recommended to start off with about 15 minutes of yoga each day, then as you feel comfortable you an increase this amount of time. Be sure to pay attention to your form, take the time to learn how to perform the basic postures correctly. This way you will derive the maximum benefits from each yoga class.

Yoga is not an activity to be taken lightly, it can really benefit your body, mind and soul. Remember, no matter how you are feeling there is always some type of yoga that will fit into your lifestyle and help you feel much better.

The post Using Yoga Postures to Better Your Lifestyle appeared first on Face and Body Care.