Imagine a calm Saturday morning, slightly cool wind blowing and it makes a sizzling sound in your ear every time it crosses by. Its the best time of the week for getting advantage of benefits of yoga for men.
Yes, you read it right, yoga isn’t only for females. Although it is almost exclusively considered a feminine exercise, the reality is contrary to this. As a matter of fact, when we talk about exercises for men, yoga never comes to mind. For men, exercise is only considered to be a strenuous activity leading to breathlessness and profuse sweating. The seemingly feminine yoga exercise brings fruit to all and enhances their lifestyle. Here, we are to throw light on some important aspects of yoga. We will begin by familiarizing you with exactly what yoga is followed by the explanation of the benefits of practicing yoga for men.
Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self
What is Yoga?
Yoga is much more than just an exercise. It is an activity that synchronizes the mind, body, soul, and universe. It actually creates harmony between man and nature. This mainly involves a sequence of postures accompanied by mindfulness as well as a breathing exercise.
Origin of yoga
It is thought to have its origin rooted in the Indus valley civilization, 3000 BCE. Moreover, the word yoga is derived from Sanskrit and it means ‘to join’ or ‘connect’. Since the beginning, it is thought as an activity to connect spirit to the higher powers i.e. divine.
What are the different types of yoga?
Yoga involves both matter and energy. It connects the mind, body, emotions, and energy. However, it is broadly classified into 4 classes depending on the area of focus:
1. karma yoga
This Yoga technique involves whole body. It consists of doing selfless tasks and attaining the closeness of divine powers through this.
2. Bhakti yoga
This class uses emotions, mainly love, the yoga of love. It is said to be based on indulging in love for one’s God through prayers, chanting, etc.
3. Gyana yoga
This focuses on the mind and intellect. It is also known as the yoga of knowledge of one’s own self. Gyana yoga involves a series of intellectual thoughts leading to self-realization.
4. Kriya yoga
In this type of yoga, blood is purified by mindful control of inhalation and exhalation. It consequently helps the body in detoxification.
Yoga for Everyone: How to Begin!
If your mind raises questions like when and how to start, do not get bothered. There are no hard and fast rules regarding this. All you need to figure out is to determine whether you want to join a class or to do it at home. To join a class, you can simply browse the nearest yoga centers. On the other hand, YouTube videos will also help you do it at home. Make sure that you opt for the beginners’ videos at first.
Choosing the Best Yoga Mat
If you opt to do it at home, the next step you need to accomplish is to choose an appropriate yoga mat for you. I would like to help you in this regard by mentioning the following:
- Choose appropriate thickness so that you can perform Yoga comfortably. Too thick a mat will not let you make a proper connection with the ground. On the other hand, too thin a mat will hurt your knees.
- The material should be soft and you must not be allergic to it. Moreover, it should be environment-friendly.
- Select the color that catches your eyes and at the same time feels good to your brain.
- It should be portable and easily foldable.
- The texture determines the friction. The friction in return decides how easy it is to slip and slide for you. Too slippery or too rough will make you feel uncomfortable.
- Stickiness is about the suction that the mat offers. Too much of it will make it difficult for you to change poses and will interfere with the flow of movements.
- Last but not the least, it should be economical.
Clean Your mat for maintaining successful Yoga
It really is not wise to practice this healthy activity on a dirty, stinky, and contaminated mat. The sweat, dirt, dead skin cells all make the mat dirty, and then bacteria add fuel to fire by breaking this down. This releases foul-smelling gases and encourages bacterial reproduction.
The Disadvantage of a dirty yoga mat
A contaminated mat could not only be a source of foul odor but also can cause skin infections like viral warts, athlete’s foot, and itching. So, it is good to clean and disinfect it after every session.
How to Clean Yoga Mat: Steps and Procedure
- Cleaning is as simple as washing hands. Just have some plain water and soap. Make a soap solution and apply it to the mat with a soft sponge. Afterward, rinse it thoroughly with water. Let the water drip and then leave it for drying in the air.
- The best homemade disinfectant is a mixture of vinegar and water. Take one cup of vinegar and 4 cups of water in a spray bottle. You may add essential oil for fragrance. Shake the bottle well. Spray the solution on your mat in a good quantity. Take a clean sponge or towel and rub the mat with it. Then hang and dry the mat.
- Both cleaners and disinfectants are available in the market in case you don’t like homemade products.
Benefits of Yoga For Men: Supporting Your Healthy Lifestyle
These could broadly be classified into the following categories. Here, we would like to add that even your small kids may join you in your yoga exercise to develop some healthy habits for themselves.
Physical Benefits of yoga
By exercising, we promptly imagine deriving bodily benefits. Yoga also has a lot of physical benefits:
- Flexibility: It makes your body easily stretchable, thus making it suitable for every kind of job. If your work is physically demanding, there is nothing more beneficial to you than yoga.
- Improved Blood Supply: The flow of movements and stretching facilitates the blood circulation. Blood reaches every organ with great ease and effectiveness. It, therefore, provides nourishment to every cell of the body.
- Healthy heart: Better circulation aids the heart and blood vessels. The cardiovascular system rests duly and functions more efficiently.
- Improved digestion: One of the major pros of yoga is when the gastrointestinal tract gets its due share of blood supply, it digests the food well, and the body gets enough nutrients. Furthermore, the stool passes with ease making you feel fresh.
- Boosted immunity: It encourages the body to make good chemicals to fight against foreign infective agents.
- Enhanced stamina: With a good beating heart sending maximum nutrients to all of the body, every organ works efficiently.
- Reducing weight: Burning calories helps in losing fat and maintaining an ideal weight.
Emotional Benefits
Through Yoga, having a sound mind in a sound body and maintaining a good connection with the world around, one becomes emotionally intelligent and strong.
Psychological Effects
Indeed, yoga is considered really well for curing depression and anxiety as it helps in getting a mindful and well-improved focus.
Spiritual Advantages
It is said to connect man with God and, hence, making a person spiritually strong.
Sexual Benefits
Improved blood supply to the sex organs helps to attain and maintain an erection. This leads to better intercourse resulting in sexual satisfaction. Moreover, balanced sex hormones and an anxiety-free mind make this experience more pleasurable.
The Final Wording:
As a consequence, the benefits of yoga are universal, but those for men are particularly special. All men should, therefore, try their best to avail the benefits of all types of yoga.
