Importance of Exercise for all Age Groups.
Everyone is well aware from an early age that exercise is critical for all age groups. People generally do not realize how it is significant. Some of the main factors that make exercise essential as it helps control and manage weight and physical fitness keep the body active, gives long-term benefits for the body, and improves mental health. Exercise is critical for all age groups, it does not matter if you are a teen, adult, or aged. One of the most critical and easiest forms of exercise is stretching.
How does Health Decline with Age?
As physiological changes take place with the passage of time, the decline of biological functions takes place. This decline of biological functions targets the nervous, digestive, urinary, and respiratory systems. Aging occurs due to cellular damage over time. Physiologists have discovered that the performance of various body organs like the heart, brain, kidneys, or lungs deteriorates gradually over the life span.
Does Morning Yoga Stretch Help you Age Better?
Yoga Stretches are a set of physical exercises in which a particular muscle or tendon (or group) is gradually flexed to enhance the muscle’s elasticity.
- Keeps body active.
Fatigue, tiredness, and laziness is a major symptom of aging. Stretching beats fatigue and laziness. Yoga stretches keep the body active and moving, which beats this aging symptom.
- Keeps skin healthy.
Aging causes wrinkles and darker, dull skin. Yoga helps minimize wrinkles. Yoga stretches help enhance blood flow to the heart and reduce oxidative stress. Better blood flow to the heart makes the skin healthier and fresher-looking. A study was conducted on a group of 104 people in India. They were made to practice morning yoga stretches for ten days to examine the benefits of yoga stretches. It was verified that oxidative stress levels of the subjects dropped by 9 percent within ten days.
Benefits of Morning Yoga Stretches.
Stretches are an important component of yoga. Flexibility is a vital part of the five subparts of fitness. Yoga stretches’ main benefit is increased flexibility. The two most favorable benefits of yoga are:
- Improves posture.
Our posture affects our body functions more than we know. Correct posture promotes blood flow, muscle health, and the nervous system. Most people have disturbed postures due to sitting in chairs for eight hours in offices, cars, colleges, schools, workplaces, etc. Bad posture also causes tightness in muscles and pain in the neck and back. Morning stretches improve the body posture as it targets the spine and neck muscles.
- Helps manage stress.
Stress is common among every age group nowadays due to hectic routines. It also tends to increase your heart rate as well as tighten your muscles. Stretches help you loosen up these muscles as well as relax your mind and body. Stretching eases the muscles and calms the mind down. This eradicates fatigue from the body and leaves a person fresh and active.
- Helps stiff muscles.
Routines of a person may include a lot of sitting in chairs in offices, schools, colleges, while driving, etc. A long time in the same physical position causes stiffness in the body. Stiffness is the shortening of muscles in the neck, back, hips and shoulders and is very uncomfortable, and may lead to injuries.
Stretches elongate these muscles back to their original version and alleviate that aching irritation by improving flexibility in the muscles. Therefore, the right amount of morning stretches releases any stiffness and readies you for your day.
- Helps pinpoint bodily imbalances.
Sometimes there is stiffness in the body, but it is difficult to pinpoint the stiffness. Stretches help you locate the stiffness and therefore release this stiffness and imbalance before any injury or mishaps occur.
- Reduced risk of injury.
Dynamic Stretching is a warm-up before your actual workout routine. It helps warm up your muscles, tendons, and joints before an extensive workout and increases your range of physical activity. Jumping right into the workouts may give you sore muscles later on, which can lead to injuries. The stretching helps in performing your favored workouts and reduces the risk of injury and sore muscles.
- Better circulation.
Morning stretching is great because it promotes circulation in the body. Stretches increase blood flow to joints and muscles, which doubles the nutrient transport in the entire body. This keeps all the organs healthy. A person who practices morning yoga stretches may have improved stamina and will be able to carry out complicated exercises as their body is much better prepared for it.
- Helps with chronic pains.
Back pain is very common in people of all age groups nowadays. This may be influenced by sit-at
-home-all-day routines because of quarantine. Morning yoga usually targets the spine and improves spine health. When the spine is active, the person is less likely to have back pain. Hip flexors and muscles connected to the pelvis relieve stress on the lumbar spine, which results in less chronic pain.
- Keeps you active during the day.
Performing yoga stretches at the start of the day keeps you active all day. Nicely performed stretches in sync with deep breathing give you a gush of energy to get a head start on your day. It relieves you from any stiffness from your night’s sleep. Morning stretches are as beneficial as a morning jog.
Morning Yoga Stretches for Beginners.
There are many easy morning yoga stretches for beginners to choose from, as the art of morning yoga stretches is vast. A list of some examples has been listed below.
- Vertical stand.
For this stretch, you are required to stand straight. Now extend your arms right above your shoulders and hold both hands. Stretch as high above as you can. Now focus on your breathing as you stretch.
- Side stretch.
While standing straight, slightly tilt yourself to your left with your arms straight above you. Move your arms and upper body towards your left, leaning the torso gently. Make sure your left arm is over your left ear and your knees are straight. Remember to only lean your upper half, while the lower half of the body should be straight.
- Shoulder stretch.
This stretch targets the spine and keeps it healthy. Stand straight and place the right foot forward. Now stretch the torso as you move in a circular direction. Hold your position for as long as you can. Now reverse the direction. For example, if you were practicing in a clockwise direction, now stretch in the anti-clockwise direction.
- Core stretch
This core stretch targets the spine and keeps it healthy. Stand straight and place the right foot forward. Now stretch the torso as you move in a circular direction. Hold your position for as long as you can. Now reverse the direction. For example, if you were practicing in a clockwise direction, now stretch in the anti-clockwise direction.
- Backstretch.
Sit on your yoga mat with your legs folded in front of you. Keep your upper body straight with your legs entangled. Now gently twist your torso to the right side. Stretch your chest outwards and keep your right arm forward. Hold this position for as long as you can. Focus on your breathing as well.