10 Amazing Health Benefits of Embracing Yoga in Your Daily Life

Practising yoga brings a lot of benefits in terms of your physical health and psychological well-being. It also helps in unifying your mind, body and breath, thus helping you lead a much calmer, happier and satisfying life on a daily basis. 

We bring you the 10 great benefits of yoga in your everyday life:

1. All-round fitness – Yoga improves your overall health, enhances mental strength and increases your physical power, thus keeping you fit for long-term. 

2. Weight Loss – By restoring hormonal balance in the body, Yoga helps in normalizing your body weight and also helps you streamline your food intake. 

3. Stress-Relief – Yoga is known to be a great stress reliever as it helps to detox the body and de-stress the mind with various postures and pranayama. 

4. Lower Blood Pressure – Yoga is a great workout for the heart and helps lower high blood pressure. Savasana is known to be a highly effective asana for improving blood pressure.

5. Improves Sleep – In today’s hectic lifestyles, many youngsters suffer from sleep problems and insomnia. Yoga helps in getting peaceful sleep at night so that you are refreshed and energized the next day.

6. Better Immunity – Yoga postures are also helpful in improving our body’s immunity, thus keeping harmful diseases away.

7. Increased Energy – For those who feel drained out in the middle of the day, practicing yoga on a daily basis can improve your energy levels and keep you fresh all day long. 

8. Higher Flexibility, Agility & Strength – Yoga is one exercise that improves your flexibility, overall strength and agility together in just one workout! 

9. Better Memory & Cognitive Function – Yoga practitioners tend to have higher levels of concentration, enhanced memory and a better brain function that helps in school or at your job. 

10. Reduces Pain – Whether it is a headache, backache or arthritis, Yoga has been proven to effective minimise the pain from many ailments. 

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Due to these multiple benefits in our daily life, Yoga is one exercise form that must be practiced by one and all on an everyday basis! 

8 Reasons Why Walking Is Great for Your Health!

Walking is one of those great exercises that have multiple benefits for all age-groups. It’s gentle, free of cost and easily available to everyone around the globe. We bring you the top 8 reasons to include walking in your every day schedule and enjoy a healthier lifestyle. 

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1. A Stronger Heart

You can reduce the risk of a stroke or heart disease by walking regularly. Walks can increase your good cholesterol (HDL) and lower the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) in your body. A 30-minute brisk walk also helps keep your blood pressure in control. 

2. Lower Disease Risk

Research shows that regular walking can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 60 % and reduces chances of colon, breast or womb cancer by 20%. 

3. Battle Obesity

Experts state that brisk walking for 30 minutes at a moderate speed can help you reduce 150 to 200 calories. By incorporating short walks in your routine, you can easily shed the extra weight in no time!

4. Tone your Muscles

By walking regularly, you can tone your legs and bum muscles. If you mix it with hill walking, it will be even more effective. Try paying extra attention to your posture when you walk and you can also tone your abs and waist.

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5. Boosts Immunity 

Walking 30 to 45 minutes daily can increase the immune system cells in your body in the long term, thus improving your body’s ability to fight diseases.

6. Energises You 

If you’re getting drained out, start walking daily and you will feel more alert and alive in your routine activities. Walking boosts circulation and increases oxygen supply in every cell in the body.

7. Increases Vitamin D

With the growing deficiency of Vitamin D in almost every individual, walking is a great solution to get the morning sun and enjoy the outdoors.

8. Keeps You Happy

Walking will boost your mood and help in reducing stress and anxiety, thus ensuring a positive and joyful day, every day!

Include walking in your routine on a daily basis and you’ll be surprised at how significantly your health improves!

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Why Functional Fitness?

Functional fitness is one of the biggest buzz words trending within the fitness industry. For those who are unfamiliar with this term, the concept boils down to two central ideas which hinge around amplifying your body’s adaptability and being able to apply you fitness regime to improve your performance in real life activities. While it is impressive that you are able to perform numerous pull-ups and sit-ups without breaking a sweat and can dead-lift staggering amounts of weight- what can you actually do with your skills when you’re faced with the world outside the gym!

It is easy to fall into complacency inside a repetitive indoor setting where your workout is predictable, safe and slowly travelling towards just plain boring. You know that every time you step into the gym, your routine will be the same. You train hard and clock your regular 1 hour 30, but you still seem to be falling into a rut, unable to push the envelope harder. You can’t go beyond 100 push ups. Your weight remains the same on the scale. Why is this?

It’s not just physical, but mental. When was the last time you came to the gym nervous and excited about learning something new? The more stimulated your mind is before a workout the greater will be your ability to push yourself to higher levels. Boredom is one of the biggest reasons people begin to plateau on their fitness journey and find their levels of endurance stagnating. Transfer-ability of fitness from the gym to the real world isn’t as simple or easy as we would like to think. After all, it should be logical that a person who can lift twice their weight would be able to spring to the top of a tree branch or climb a hill effortlessly, right? However, this is not the case. Pull-ups will strengthen only your back, laterals and biceps. Since you’re only working out these three areas, other areas in your body are being neglected and you won’t be able to translate your proficiency to be a quick runner or pack a strong punch. Events and challenges in the real world do not occur in a single plane of motion. Rather, they are dynamic and ever changing. Picking up your children from school, running out to do groceries and moving around furniture isn’t as easy as a barbell deadlift! You will find yourself encountering awkward angles, uncertain weights, uneven ground and you won’t always be able to maintain the perfect lumbar curve or even straight arms while lifting outside the gym! Can you pick up a bag that weighs sixty kilos without thinking twice or injuring your back? Life constantly presents us with situations that can require technically improper form or, at minimum, slight compromises. Conventional weight training isolates muscle groups, but it doesn't teach the muscle groups you're isolating to work with others The key to functional exercise is integration. It teaches one to use all their muscles rather than isolating them to work independently Functional exercises incorporates multiple joints and a combination of muscles. Instead of only moving just the knees, for example, a functional exercise might involve the knees, thighs, spine, hips and ankles. This type of training, properly applied, can make everyday activities easier, reduce your risk of injury and improve your quality of movement It is for this reason that Functional exercise training may be especially beneficial as part of a comprehensive program for older adults to improve balance, agility and muscle strength, and reduce the risk of falls.

Remember, your bodies are designed for activity and should not sit slumped over a computer all day. Functional training focuses on training movement patterns rather than isolating individual muscles. If you spend most of your working day sat down in the office, sitting on the chest press machine at the gym is probably counterproductive. You require the integrative approach of Functional Fitness to truly get into shape and activate the full potential of your body.
In doing so you will not only strengthen your muscles but correct bad posture and other muscular imbalances that are created by your stressful job and hectic lifestyle. In addition to a fantastic rate of fat burning, you’re increasing your overall endurance levels and boosting metabolic rates, developing a lean, ripped body in the process like gymnasts at the Olympics. These athletes are constantly training fluid movement patterns and lifting their own bodyweight to achieve their form and fitness- they are not stuck doing bicep curls on a daily basis!
Every session of Functional Fitness should aim to improve your flexibility, mobility and core stability. Balance and strength principles will be included in your regime in order to keep your body strong, vibrant and most importantly- adaptable. It is an essential for of training especially for sport specific conditioning as it enhances the relationship between the nervous and musculoskeletal system to provide quick and powerful movement patterns and reflexes in your chosen sport.
Last but not least, every exercise in Functional Fitness involves heavy duty core activation, teaching the core to stabilise the spine against external forces through a variety of movements and positions. This mimics the demand placed on the core and spine in everyday activities that simply doing 100 stomach crunches will not provide you!

Motivate Yourself to Indulge in Fitness

Exercising has countless positive effects on your mind and body. It helps curb anxiety, boost productivity, increase confidence, foster friendships and create an overall healthy lifestyle. However, today’s hectic schedules and demanding lives have made it difficult for us to indulge in fitness. These factors combined with erratic eating habits and growing diseases have made exercising a necessity. It is a conscious choice that individuals must make in order to lead a healthy long life.

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If you are lacking the inspiration to get started on the fitness wagon, here are some tips that will motivate you towards a healthy regime: Ask Someone to Be Your Workout Partner Having a companion for your exercise will add a social element to your routine and give you added motivation to stay fit. Also, you won’t skip your workout when someone is waiting for you.

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Become an Early Bird
It is a known fact that people who exercise early in the morning tend to be more successful. If you are unable to stay motivated to exercise post-work, try waking up early and indulge in some active workouts.

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Give the 5-minute Rule a Shot 
Normally, most people put their alarms on snooze or turn it off completely to avoid getting up to exercise. Instead, wake up early and just think of the first 5 minutes. If you exercise for 5 minutes and feel like stopping, you can do so. However, you will realize that once you start, it isn’t so bad after all.

Buy a New Fitness Gadget It’s always inspiring when you spend some money in any activity. Try buying a new heart-rate monitor, fitness tracker or any new fancy toy that will motivate you to get out of your comfort zone and start exercising.

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Try Something New If you’ve been bored of your previous exercises, try a new routine, or sign up for a team sport or a rock climbing event. Changing your scenery or workout routine will give you a new zeal to stay fit. These simple tips will help you stay fit and healthy in the long-term!

The 15 Minute Stay-at-Home Workout!

A fitness centre may give you the structure and space required to pursue your fitness goals in a controlled environment that is exclusively focused on working out, but fitness truly begins at home. If better health and body image is on top of your new year’s resolution list, then you should know that you it's not the gym that gets you there.

What you do require however, is the unflagging self-motivation to make the most of every opportunity to get active. Motivation and mindset is key, because without the will to change one’s sedentary ways, even the most professional personal trainer won’t be able to influence you. If you have the fundamental drive to embrace a all over healthy lifestyle from inside out, you will not need a crushing workout regimen, an expensive gym membership and all the latest technology. All you need to do is focus on the basics and avoid the pitfalls of losing control of your diet, focus and discipline. 

Your body is the best workout tool you require, even though the gym offers equipment that seriously amplifies your regime. You don’t need a cross trainer or weights to give your body to rush of endorphins and activity it needs to stay healthy and in shape. The great thing about home workouts is that score high on the convenience factor. If your schedule is just too hectic for your to drive to the gym and back, a quick home workout solves your problem and eliminates the excuse for not working out.

We’ve got together and listed three highly effective workouts you can perform at home. So whether you are a seasoned weightlifter or fitness rookie, you can still get results from these moves. They can be done in 30 minutes or much less. Just remember to stay accountable and not switch up this activity with surfing the internet or taking a nap! Make an appointment with yourself—preferably at the same time each day or week to get in the groove and work hard to ensure that you won't even consider skipping your sweat session.

Start your session by tapping into your body with a light warm-up. Don't skip this. You don’t need a blueprint for this part of the work out, just engage in some deep stretching while keeping your breathing deep and relaxed. Try to tune into and engage every muscle in your body, from your toes to your neck. Do whatever it takes to really ground yourself in your body and activate every moving part.

Exercise 1: The Leg Curl 

Lie face-up on the floor, knees bent and both heels firmly planted on the ground; lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders (a). Slide your heels away from you as far as you can without dropping your hips (b). Pause, then return to start. That's one rep. Do 15.

Exercise 2: Seated Oblique Twist

Sit on the floor and hold a towel or rope taut between your hands, arms straight and extended at shoulder height; lean back and raise your feet about a foot off the floor, keeping your core tight and knees bent (a). Pull the right end of the towel or rope toward the floor, rotating your shoulders and torso (b). Pause, then rotate back to centre and repeat on the other side. That's one rep. Do 20.

Exercise 3: Simple Push Ups 

This one is a classic, for working on your upper torso strength. Get into a plank, lower yourself down until your chest is about an inch or two from the ground and then slowly push yourself back up to the starting position. Push through the heels of your hands in order to return to the starting position. Do 20. Repeat if you can.

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