How2Day: What are the Basics of Yoga Mat Fitness?

Yoga has become a popular fitness tool because of its many health benefits. yoga image by Jiang Bin Ping from Fotolia.com
Yoga mat fitness began in ancient India and has been practiced for more than 5,000 years. In the United States, roughly 11 million people are enjoying its many health benefits, which include stress relief and strength training. Furthermore, it has been shown that yoga mat fitness helps in the prevention and treatment of many diseases and conditions. Most Westernized yoga classes tend to focus on learning physical poses known as "asanas." Usually these classes include a warm up and breathing exercise.

Asanas refer to the physical postures used in yoga mat fitness. This includes strengthening the muscles and increased flexibility. Yoga allows for the practitioner to ease into the exercises by safely stretching your muscles. This releases the lactic acid that builds up with muscle use, which causes pain and stiffness.

Many yoga practitioners will tell you that properly breathing through yoga is actually more important than the actual poses. Yoga mat fitness involves a lot of deep and mindful breathing that emphasizes the deepening and lengthening of the breath. Thus, the breathing techniques found in yoga calm the mind and allows it to focus.

Another important aspect of a yoga is meditation. Mediation is the practice by which the person constantly observes the mind. It requires you to focus on the mind at one point so that you might focus on the self. When your thoughts begin to wander, you take them back to the area of focus.

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