A major benefit of yoga is physical.

Yoga improves your flexibility. – The stretching that you engage in during every practice helps lengthen and stretch muscles, which helps reduce risk of injuries.

It helps to improve your balance. – The majority of yoga practices include some type of balancing in poses. A significant number of people, especially as they began to get older, start to have problems with balance, which can lead to major injuries due to falls. By having a greater sense of balance, you are able to move more easily and safely.

Yoga can help reduce pain. - Tense muscles often contribute to pain. Relaxing muscles helps to minimize muscle tension and pain that is associated with it. Also, breathing deeply into muscles helps lessen pain by altering your perception of it.

It tones your muscles. – Yoga works all muscles in your body. It helps strengthen and tone them and also builds endurance and stamina.

It helps to increase your level of energy. . – Carrying tension in your body takes an enormous toll on your energy reserves. By learning how to relax through your yoga practice, you benefit by enjoying higher levels of energy so you can more thoroughly enjoy your daily activities.

Yoga helps promote a sense of relaxation. – Most people breathe high in their chests. This not only does not allow them to get sufficient oxygen, it also triggers stress response, which contributes to feelings of anxiety. Breathing deeply as practiced in yoga, helps relax your muscles and also brings much needed oxygen to your cells. The deep sense of relaxation also leads to better quality sleep.

A study was conducted at University of California at Davis. Ten college 'coach potatoes' adopted a yoga routine for eight weeks. Each week, they attended from two to four classes during which they spent 10 minutes on breath control, 15 minutes of warm up exercises, 50 minutes doing yoga asanas, and then 10 minutes of relaxation/mediation. At end of eight-week period, researchers measured students' fitness and discovered that their muscular strength had increased by up to 31%, their muscular endurance improved by 57%, their flexibility increased by 188%, and their cardio respiratory fitness improved by 7%. These results are pretty amazing when you consider that study was only conducted for eight weeks.

How can something that seems so benign have such a major impact on muscle fitness?

Muscle Strength – Unlike traditional weight building exercises, in yoga your body provides resistance. While you are not likely going to produce bulked up muscles of some weight lifters, you will certainly increase your muscle strength.