Insider’s Guide to How Yoga Benefits Your Heart, Kidneys, and Gut Health

Yoga benefits your body beyond exercise. A Sanskrit term, “yoga” literally translates as “to unite.” Yoga unifies your mind, body, and spirit in order to achieve optimum health.

Unlike traditional forms of exercise, yoga benefits your body by improving your mental health in addition to strengthening your body. And this core benefit multiplies over time.

When you understand how these yoga benefits work precisely within your body, you can appreciate the wonders of yoga as an ancient practice.
 

Let’s Take a Look at How Yoga Benefits Three Major Organs

In the list below, we’ll unravel how yoga encourages wellness in three major body organs.
 

1. Yoga Boosts Heart Health

The combination of physical exercise, meditation, and pranayama improves the performance of your cardiovascular system. Yoga, as a holistic form of workout, can help prevent the development of any cardiovascular diseases by improving heart rate and lowering blood pressure.
 

Here’s how yoga benefits your heart:

Yoga encourages physical activity, which is an excellent start to preventing heart disease. With its calming effect, yoga can minimize incidences of atrial fibrillation, reducing the risk of stroke due to an abnormal heart rhythm. With as few as two classes a week, you’ll notice significant improvements in no time.
 

Here are some yoga poses that target your heart’s health:

1. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

• This revitalizing backbend opens up the chest and makes the spine more flexible
• It relieves symptoms of asthma and high blood pressure
• It stimulates abdominal organs, thyroid, and the lungs
• It calms the brain and relieves stress and even mild depression

 
2. Reclining Foot Big Toe Pose (Supta Padangusthasana)

• People with high blood pressure can benefit from this pose by increasing blood flow to the torso
• Its therapeutic effects relieve backache and menstrual discomfort

 
In an article published by the Harvard Health Publishing, new research suggests that people who perform various yoga postures become more sensitive to insulin, thereby, controlling their blood sugar. Moreover, blood pressure is significantly lowered through deep breathing while meditation calms the nervous system, easing stress.
 

2. Yoga Improves Kidney Function

A blood-purifying organ, your kidney rids your body from metabolic wastes, day-in and day-out. Unfortunately, due to poor lifestyle and nutrition, our kidneys become damaged.
 

Here’s how yoga benefits your kidney’s health:

With yoga, you’re able to sleep better. When your body is well-rested, your kidneys become more efficient in keeping your internal organs healthy. As a result, the body can flush out toxins on a regular basis. This helps to boost your immune system activity.
 

Here are a few yoga poses to try out for better kidney health:

1. Sphinx Pose (Salamba Bhujangasana)

• This modified cobra pose is designed for people who want to achieve relief for their lower back. It is able to offer such comfort by exerting less pressure on the spine
• According to Chinese medicine, this particular pose is therapeutic by correcting your kidney and urinary bladders’ energy deficiency
• It stimulates organs in the abdomen and expands the chest and shoulders
• By massaging the organs, this therapeutic pose improves blood circulation and help release body stress

 
2. Sitting Half Spinal Twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana)

• Like any yoga twisting poses, this particular posture helps blood-purifying organs rid itself of any stagnant blood
• If practiced regularly, such pose will help flush out kidney stones
• It revitalizes kidneys as well as your liver and improves the body’s immunity levels

 
3. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)
This poses massages organs in the abdominal and pelvic area by stretching the entire back muscles from the neck to the feet

• It stimulates organs such as pancreas, liver, and kidney by enriching blood with higher levels of oxygen
• It also provides relief from menstrual discomfort and improves digestive performance

 
Other notable poses to practice for better kidney health are cobra pose, bridge pose, and boat pose.
 

3. Yoga Promotes Better Intestinal Health

Gastrointestinal health is just as important as our body’s cardiovascular and excretory system. In fact, keeping our gut health in perfect shape can be tricky, given a number of processed foods we eat daily.
 

Here’s how yoga benefits intestinal health:

Indigestion happens on occasions when you overeat. However, if you have a penchant for processed or spicy food, then it could occur often. With a consistent yoga practice, you gain a better awareness of what you eat and how it affects your body.
 
Additionally, stress is one of the well-known causes of constipation and its opposite, diarrhea. Stress causes gut spasms which can be relieved through yoga.
 

Here are two yoga poses to help with your intestinal health:

1. Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

• This back-bending yoga position helps eliminate constipation
• This pose stretches the chest, shoulders, and abdomen

 
2. Wind-Releasing Pose (Pawanmuktasana)

• This yoga pose minimizes your anxiety and helps manage your digestive tract
• It releases gas and constipation by efficiently massaging the intestines and other abdominal organs

 
If it’s your first time attending a yoga class, experiencing excessive farts is actually a sign that your body is responding positively to yoga. To experience all the benefits of abdominal relaxation, try the downward-facing dog or the legs-up-the-wall pose.
 

Yoga Benefits Your Body in Many Ways, These Just Scratch the Surface

It’s pretty easy to see that yoga benefits so many different parts of your body, but we’re really just scratching the surface here. And it’s no secret that yoga benefits all aspects of your mind, too!
 
Unraveling the magic yoga has on your body is essential to appreciating its power to unite the body, mind, and spirit. Yoga fills the voids that keep us from achieving a healthy and lasting life.
 

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