Most people believe Yoga is used primarily for keeping you toned with the stretches and positions it provides. However does it actually provide the same fitness benefits that are provided by running, weights, swimming and other gym activities? The question has always provided much debate amongst fitness professionals and health experts. One of the well know benefits are for relaxing and posture…is this good enough for overall health fitness. Yoga teachers such as John Schumacher strongly believes that Yoga gives the complete fitness regime. This means that Yoga alone will be enough to keep your body working and provide that health benefits without having to combine it with other activities.

Yoga teachers have been stating for years that Yoga alone have kept them fit. Teachers such as John Schumacher who have more than three decades of Yoga fitness behind them claim that he does’nt need no cardiovascular activities such as running or power walking or gym activities such as weight training. He claims that Yoga’s formula of poses known as Asanas and breathing exercises such as Pranayam’s alone have kept him fully fit and active. This was proved by scientific experiments he set up to prove that he did’nt need cardiovascular activities alongside yoga. The doctors found him to be at the top of his age group with less than 1% chance of suffering any problems.

Before you can determine if yoga will provide you with a fitness regime, which provide you with the fitness return and benefits that you are looking for, you need to clearly define what ‘fitness’ actually means. Different health experts and individuals will have there own varied definitions on what they claim as ‘fitness’. More commonly we can say fitness can be defined as the ability to live life without illness and health issues. Yoga is seen as a way to help this both mentally and physically. For normal day to day activities you don’t need the fitness of a football player and if Yoga can provide you the ability to carry out daily activities then that’s fitness enough.

Yoga and it’s fitness benefits are now well known in the health community. Its now become a popular fitness class offered by gyms, community centres and schools. The benefits of yoga are vast and the good thing is that you can never be too old for it – regardless of your age this type of fitness exercises can be done by the old and the very young. The actual fitness and health benefits is to with posture and breathing techniques designed to relax and improve strength. There are many types of yoga fitness classes available at different levels – the gentle yoga is known as hatha yoga to Bikram yoga is performed in a 105 degrees farenhieght room.

In the colder countries where we lack vitamin D due to the lack of sunshine yoga can be used to improve our bones, muscles and joints. This is because the exercises involve all the muscles in the body to a attempt to hold and balance the poses. As a result this then strengthens your body from your feet, legs, hands, back and shoulders. People suffering from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis see a noticeable difference in their stiffness and pain. Additionally yoga improves the individuals fitness endurance as the posses carried are challenging and as you progress through the steps become more testing.