Health yoga also strengthens your musculoskeletal system. Taking care of our musculoskeletal system is very important for our mobility and internal organ protection. The musculoskeletal system is made up of our skeleton, bones and muscles. This system is what molds and holds the shapes of our bodies. Altogether, we have 350 bones as children and when we become adults, we only have 206 bones.
What happens? As we get older, our bones become joined together by our joints. Then our skeletal muscles, which only accounts for a third of the muscles that are found in our body, are controlled by the somatic nervous system. We have 640 muscles, which make up about 50 percent of our body’s weight. As you may have learned in biology, we have voluntary and involuntary muscles in our system, the musculoskeletal muscles are voluntary and the heart, lungs and some other internal organs are involuntary muscles because they move and act without us thinking about it.
Now, when it comes to health yoga, it can benefit our musculoskeletal system. For our muscles, health yoga can benefit the tense muscles and allow them to relax and move more easily, making physical activity simple.
For our skeleton, which is constantly working to preserve our framework, even when we’re standing still, yoga Asanas (poses) can be used to free our joints and relieve pressure on the cartilage. I used to have problems with my knees, and when I started to implement health yoga into my life, I noticed that they became more flexible and stronger. Your knees endure through standing, walking and running, so you can imagine what can happen to them over time. They are very important parts of the body and health yoga can help to bring them back to their youthful state.
Some people have problems with their neck because their upper back strength has gone to shreds. In order to rid yourself of neck pain, it is necessary to strengthen the upper back and gain back its flexibility. With a strong upper back, it will keep the strain off your neck. With yoga poses, you can achieve upper back strength and flexibility and rid your neck from agonizing pain. Good posture will also help to keep your spine straight, which can prevent spinal injuries that can be painful and risky, as spinal injuries can sometimes lead to paralysis.
I can’t stress enough the important for those of you who are aging to participate in health yoga. I had a friend that was suffering from arthritis and I told him about using yoga to help ease the pain. Based on my research, yoga can help about 135 different forms of arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and gout. Yoga positions and postures can help to relieve pain on the joints and make them more flexible, taking away the stiffness and discomfort. I look to my good friend for all the proof I need that this works wonders.
