How does yoga work physiologically

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This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Yoga is an ancient Indian way of life, which includes changes in mental attitude, diet, and the practice of specific techniques such as yoga asanas postures , breathing practices pranayamas , and meditation to attain the highest level of consciousness.

Introduction Yoga is a psycho-somatic-spiritual discipline for achieving union and harmony between our mind, body, and soul and the ultimate union of our individual consciousness with the universal consciousness.

Schools of Yoga Yoga is not only popular in India but also in Western countries. Effects of Transcendental Meditation In a study conducted to know the anatomical correlates of long-term meditation, researchers found significantly larger gray matter volumes in meditators in the right orbito-frontal cortex, right thalamus and left inferior temporal gyrus.

Effects of Yoga Nervous system In a study to assess the immediate effect of three yoga breathing techniques on performance of a letter-cancellation task, the authors reported that there were improved scores and fewer errors on letter cancellation task and suggested that yoga practice could bring improvement in the task which requires selective attention, concentration, visual scanning abilities, and a repetitive motor response.

Respiratory system In a randomized controlled trial RCT conducted on 57 adult subjects with mild or moderate bronchial asthma, there was a steady and progressive improvement in pulmonary functions, the change being statistically significant in case of forced expiratory volume in first second FEV1 volume at 8 week, and peak expiratory flow rate at 2, 4, and 8 weeks as compared with the corresponding baseline value and also a significant reduction in exercise induced bronchoconstriction as well as in Asthma Quality of Life AQOL scores in the yoga group compared with control group.

Diabetes In an interventional research involving 98 subjects found fasting blood sugar FBS , serum total cholesterol, low density lipoproteins LDL , very low density lipoproteins VLDL , the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-C, and total triglycerides were significantly lower, and HDL-C significantly higher, on the last day of the course compared with the first day of the 8-days course. Obesity An observational study involving long-term yoga practitioners showed that a consistent, long-term Hatha yoga practice in a nonprobability sample of women over 45 years was linearly associated with declines in BMI even after correcting for nonyogic exercise hours and processed food consumption.

Cancer A new term, restorative yoga This is a gentle, therapeutic style of Yoga that uses props to support the body to deepen the benefits of the poses.

Immunity A study carried out on 60 first-year MBBS students randomly assigned to yoga group and control group 30 each. Conclusion The various avenues of study of yoga practices reviewed in the present article indicated considerable health benefits, including improved cognition, respiration, reduced cardiovascular risk, BMI, blood pressure, and diabetes mellitus.

Footnotes Source of Support: Nil. References 1. Effect of 6 wks yoga training on weight loss following step test, respiratory pressures, handgrip strength and handgrip endurance in young healthy subjects.

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The Association of Physicians of India. Long term follow up studies on effect of yoga in diabetes. Diab Res Clin Pract. McCall T. The Scientific Basis of Yoga Therapy. Chandratreya S.

Delmonte MM. Biochemical indices associated with meditation practice: A literature review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. Yogic exercises in the management of ischaemic heart disease. Indian Heart J. An investigation into the acute and long-term effects of selected yogic postures on fasting and postprandial glycemia and insulinemia in healthy young subjects. Ramaiah SA.

Yoga Therapy for Diabetes: Washington, D. A community service donated by samyama yoga. Physiology of long pranayamic breathing: Neural respiratory elements may provide a mechanism that explains how slow breathing shifts the autonomic nervous system. Med Hypotheses. A wakeful hypo-metabolic physiological state.

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And can that knowledge help you go deeper? You can optimize your efforts if you know whether the tightness in your legs is due to poor skeletal alignment, stiff connective tissues, or nerve reflexes designed to keep you from hurting yourself.

In addition, new scientific research may even have the potential to extend the wisdom of yoga. If we understand more clearly the complex physiology involved in yogic practices, we may be able refine our techniques for opening our bodies.

See also Yoga for Flexibility Challenge. Of course, yoga does far more than keep us limber: It releases tension from our bodies and minds, allowing us to drop more deeply into meditation. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, we got the daily exercise we needed to keep our bodies flexible and healthy; not so much nowadays, as many of us are glued to chairs and in front of screens.

By the time you become an adult, your tissues have lost about 15 percent of their moisture content, becoming less supple and more prone to injury. Your muscle fibers have begun to adhere to each other, developing cellular cross-links that prevent parallel fibers from moving independently.

Slowly our elastic fibers get bound up with collagenous connective tissue and become more and more unyielding. This normal aging of tissues is distressingly similar to the process that turns animal hides into leather. Unless we stretch, we dry up and tan! Stretching slows this process of dehydration by stimulating the production of tissue lubricants. It pulls the interwoven cellular cross-links apart and helps muscles rebuild with healthy parallel cellular structure.

To really grasp how Western physiology can benefit asana practice, we need to go on our own internal odyssey, diving deep into the body to examine how muscles work. Muscles are organs—biological units built from various specialized tissues that are integrated to perform a single function.

The specific function of muscles, of course, is movement that is produced by muscle fibers, bundles of specialized cells that change shape by contracting or relaxing.

Muscle groups operate in concert, alternately contracting and stretching in precise, coordinated sequences to produce the wide range of movements of which our bodies are capable. But although stretching—the lengthening of antagonist muscles—is half the equation in skeletal movement, most exercise physiologists believe that increasing the elasticity of healthy muscle fiber is not an important factor in improving flexibility. According to Michael Alter, author of Science of Flexibility Human Kinetics, , current research demonstrates that individual muscle fibers can be stretched to approximately percent of their resting length before tearing.

This extendibility enables muscles to move through a wide range of motion, sufficient for most stretches —even the most difficult asanas.

There are two major schools of scientific thought on what actually most limits flexibility and what should be done to improve it. Yoga works on both. Connective tissues include a variety of cell groups that specialize in binding our anatomy into a cohesive whole. It is the most abundant tissue in the body, forming an intricate mesh that connects all our body parts and compartmentalizes them into discrete bundles of anatomical structure—bones, muscles, organs, etc.

Almost every yoga asana exercises and improves the cellular quality of this varied and vital tissue, which transmits movement and provides our muscles with lubricants and healing agents. But in the study of flexibility we are concerned with only three types of connective tissue: tendons, ligaments, and muscle fascia. Tendons transmit force by connecting bones to muscle. They are relatively stiff. While tendons have enormous tensile strength, they have very little tolerance to stretching.

Beyond a 4 percent stretch, tendons can tear or lengthen beyond their ability to recoil, leaving us with lax and less responsive muscle-to-bone connections. Ligaments can safely stretch a bit more than tendons—but not much. Ligaments bind bone to bone inside joint capsules. They play a useful role in limiting flexibility, and it is generally recommended that you avoid stretching them. Stretching ligaments can destabilize joints, compromising their efficiency and increasing your likelihood of injury.

Muscle fascia is the third connective tissue that affects flexibility, and by far the most important. Fascia is the stuff that separates individual muscle fibers and bundles them into working units, providing structure and transmitting force.

Yoga and meditation help you cope with the challenges of life both mentally and physically while maintaining your integrity and peace of mind. They increase self-awareness and self-actualization, by enabling you to understand your feelings and focus on a positive outlook, manage your energy and better understand your inner-self.

They also help you become aware of your strengths, weaknesses and limitations. Author: Dr. Tali Shenfield. Psychological and physiological effects of Yoga and Meditation Dr. Tags Child Anxiety. Articles By Category.