Most health professionals preach diet and exercise as the best way to improve your quality of life. Another aspect of your life that is affected by good health is your longevity. If you already participate in yoga to improve your health, you’re well on your way to a longer life span. If you haven’t started yoga yet, the good news is that it’s not too late! You can use yoga to increase your life expectancy.

Balance

As people age, or as their health declines, their reflexes often grow slower. As muscle tone decreases, the ability to recover from a stumble will contribute to falls. For the elderly or ill, a fall can be the prelude to a slow decline, as decreased mobility often causes pulmonary failure and eventually, heart failure, as well. Increased instances of blood clots from inactivity contribute to strokes.

Good balance and strong reflexes can keep you out of the hospital, and one of the best ways to improve these qualities is through yoga. While weight training may build muscle tone and help burn calories, most of the exercises that you do with equipment are stationary. You don’t have to maintain your balance as much as you have to execute a repetitive motion in a controlled situation. With yoga, however, your body is centered in many different situations, and your sense of balance is reinforced. Your small motor skills are also honed with each tiny contraction of various muscles that help you to maintain your balance.

With good balance and the ability to remain on your feet in unsteady circumstances, such as stepping off of a curb or walking on uneven ground, you are far more likely to avoid a fall. You’ll stay out of the hospital and avoid the consequences of inactivity. Not only will you extend your life expectancy, you’ll enjoy your life more, too!

Muscle Tone

Even though yoga doesn’t usually involve weights, especially at the beginner and intermediate levels, you certainly develop muscle tone. The weight of your own body, combined with the pull of gravity, causes both large and small muscle groups to work, stretching and contracting as you focus on each group. This increases your muscle tone. Benefits of better muscle tone last all day, and include burning calories, quicker reflexes, and increased energy.

Improved Circulation

Those who only watch someone do a yoga workout greatly underestimate the values of the exercise. You’ll find that your respiration and circulation are challenged with yoga, and your overall health improves significantly. The circulation through stimulated muscles carries toxins away from muscles and organs, and more oxygen is provided as fuel for your bodily systems. All of this contributes to better overall health, and increased life expectancy.

When you figure in all of the benefits of yoga, you find that not only do you feel better, you feel better about yourself, and are more likely to take care of yourself. And that, after all, can be the key to long life.

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Laura Green loves to write about all things health. She has been working at a health boot camp for over a year now and it is a big passion of hers. She writes from experience and has dealt with detoxing to yoga.