Yoga for strength, stamina: 3 tips to improve cardiovascular, respiratory system | Health - Hindustan Times
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Yoga for strength and stamina: 3 exercises to improve your cardiovascular, respiratory systems

ByZarafshan Shiraz, Delhi
Feb 05, 2023 08:11 PM IST

Do you frequently feel out of breath while working out, performing daily duties, or engaging in any aerobic or anaerobic activity? Here are 3 Yoga exercises that increase your stamina, increase your endurance, help you persevere longer during workout and more

Yoga is full of health advantages and it also works well to increase stamina on a physical, physiological and mental level where these advantages range from keeping a healthy posture and improving metabolism to reducing fatigue, resting heart rate and stress levels. Yoga can increase aerobic and anaerobic endurance, which helps improve the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Yoga for strength and stamina: 3 exercises to improve your cardiovascular, respiratory systems (Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels)
Yoga for strength and stamina: 3 exercises to improve your cardiovascular, respiratory systems (Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels)

Do you frequently feel out of breath while working out, performing daily duties, or engaging in any aerobic or anaerobic activity? In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Himalayan Siddhaa Akshar, Founder of Akshar Yoga Institutions, Himalaya Yoga Ashrama and World Yoga Organisation, suggested 3 Yoga poses that increase your stamina, increase your endurance, help you persevere longer during exercise and more:

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1. Naukasana – Boat Pose

Naukasana/Navasana or boat pose(Twitter/yogatailor)
Naukasana/Navasana or boat pose(Twitter/yogatailor)

Method: Spread your legs out straight in front of you as you sit down on the ground. Lean back slightly while keeping your knees bent and your hands lying next to your hips. Now take a deep breath and raise both legs, extending your hands in front of you. Lengthen your spine by keeping your toes at eye level. After five to ten seconds, release the position.

Benefits: Yoga's Naukasana, or boat posture, can help you overcome various bodily problems in addition to relieving stress. The hip joints and legs are made stronger and more flexible, the abdominal organs are stimulated, digestion is improved, and the body's stability is increased. It also helps to strengthen the core and hip flexors. Naukasana improves the abdominal muscles and helps to control blood flow at sugar levels. It also strengthens the muscles in the arms, thighs, and shoulders as well as the health of all the abdominal organs, including the liver, pancreas, and kidneys.

2. Balasana – Child’s Pose

Balasana or Child's Pose or Child's Resting Pose of Yoga(Instagram/mindfulbyminna)
Balasana or Child's Pose or Child's Resting Pose of Yoga(Instagram/mindfulbyminna)

Method: Keep your knees either close together or spaced apart while you sit on your heels on the floor or a yoga mat. Exhale slowly and, while keeping your arms beside your body with the palms facing up, bend forward until your forehead touches the floor, rests on a block, or is supported by two stacked fists.

Alternatively, you can maintain a flat palm on the yoga mat by extending your arms in front of you. Now, with your knees together, softly press your chest on the thighs, or with your knees apart, gently press your chest between the thighs.

Find a comfortable position for the forehead and relax the shoulders, jaw, and eyes. The energy point between the eyebrows on the forehead encourages a "rest and digest" reaction by activating the vagus nerve. Hold the position for as long as you wish, drawing your navel into your spine while taking a breath in and softening your arms and body while taking a breath out. With a slow inhalation and the appearance of uncurling the spine, slowly return to the sitting position on the heels.

Benefits: By reducing tension in the chest, back, and shoulders, this yoga posture for beginners not only reduces stress and anxiety but also helps if you experience periods of exhaustion or dizziness throughout the day or throughout your workout. It is a mild stretch for the back, hips, thighs, and ankles and can help ease back discomfort.

3. Ustrasana – Camel Pose

Ustrasana aka camel pose: Sit on your knees then arch your back and hold your feet with your hands. Hold this position for a while, breath out and come back to the original posture.(Unsplash)
Ustrasana aka camel pose: Sit on your knees then arch your back and hold your feet with your hands. Hold this position for a while, breath out and come back to the original posture.(Unsplash)

Method: Keep your knees and feet together as you knelt down on the yoga mat. Pushing forward with your hips will cause you to lean backward. Without straining, bend your head and spine as far back as you can. Place your hands on your feet, unwind your body, especially your back muscles, and maintain the position for a few seconds before letting go.

Benefits: Ustrasana not only improves breathing by opening up the chest but also promotes digestion and elimination by extending the abdominal region, in addition to stretching and strengthening the shoulders, back, hips, and deep hip flexors. It relaxes the vertebrae, eases lower back pain, enhances posture, and burns thigh fat.

Precautions: Pregnant women, those with diarrhoea, and people who have recently injured their knees are not advised to perform this exercise.

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