Whether you are a beginner or at a more advanced stage, on this FAQs article, you will discover the 21 best Yoga questions and answers.
These are questions most frequently asked about Yoga, especially from beginners.
I hope you will find all the answers you are most interested in this topic. So, you can immediately start this wonderful exercise for the body and mind.
#1 Where and how was Yoga born?
Yoga originated in India and is considered a physical and mental practice, with a wide variety of schools and classes worldwide.
Its most famous forms in Western culture are Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga.
The origins of Yoga are found in the Provencal Indian traditions.
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In later years, some Yoga gurus from India transferred their knowledge to the West.
Paramahansa Yogananda is widely known as the “Father of Yoga in the West” because he was the man who brought Yoga to the West in 1920.
In the 1980s, Yoga became popular as a system of alternative medicine and exercise.
In Indian traditions, however, Yoga is much more than physical exercise, because it is considered a meditative and spiritual core of a healthy lifestyle.
#2 Can Yoga help me lose weight?
The short answer is yes, but there is a lot more information about it.
Like any physical activity, Yoga is a form of movement, and movement expends energy, burning calories.
Practicing any Yoga exercises will increase strength, but studies show that most Yoga types do not increase your heart rate.
To lose weight, you need to eat healthily, burn calories by doing exercise that increases your heart rate regularly, and prefer the more intense Yoga styles that can offer more intense training than Hatha Yoga.
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Yoga can play an important role in a weight loss program, but you need to choose the right type. (1)
This type should be dynamic, i.e., contain enough movement like Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Utkatasana, Trikonasana, Virabhadrasana, and Power Yoga.
#3 Can Yoga help back pain?
Santhosh Thomas, D.O., director of the medical department of the Center for Spine Health at the Cleveland Clinic, says that Yoga can help treat chronic pain in the waist and lower back as it increases the flexibility of the spine and strengthens the torso. (2)
“These two problems are common in people with chronic pain,” he says.
Adding that more exercise and strengthening the torso muscles help not only to treat the pain but also to prevent future back pain. (3)
#4 Can Yoga build muscle?
Yoga trains all the body muscles without isolating any, as is usually done with gym machines. It also helps increase muscle strength because when we practice Yoga, we integrate the whole body instead of trying to isolate specific muscles. (4)
In other words, we use other muscle groups to function as stabilizers.
In this way, Yoga can be an excellent form of functional strength training. This means building strength throughout the body, so it can perform daily activities rather than just lifting weights.
#5 Can Yoga give you abs?
Although the purpose of Yoga is not to stimulate your body, it can help you work out certain muscle groups. Besides the traditional abdominal exercises, you can add Asanas (postures) that are easily done at home.
The Bhujangasana, known as the cobra posture, is one of the best Yoga postures for the abdominal muscles.
So, if you want a flat and toned stomach, do not forget to include it in your routine.
The camel posture, known as Ustrasana in Sanskrit, is one of the best Yoga postures for the abdominal muscles.
With this exercise, you will lose weight from the stomach and abdomen, gain balance, and stimulate your abs.
In addition, the Dhanurasana posture, or Bow Posture, will help tighten both the abs and the waist muscles. This posture is great for toning the abs, but also reducing back pain.
#6 Can Yoga make you taller?
In addition to the other beneficial properties of Yoga for the female and male bodies, Yoga can also help with height.
Some exercises use the appropriate stretches, which help to improve posture.
Exercises such as Mountain pose, Cobra pose, Tree pose, and Triangle Pose will help to lengthen your torso.
When your body straightens and stretches, then it will look like you have gained extra height.
#7 Can Yoga reduce belly fat?
High cortisol levels lead to greater abdominal obesity.
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However, there are exercises, such as long-distance running, that change cortisol levels in the body. But if you do not like running or any similar workout, prefer to start Yoga.
It is one of the few forms of exercise that has been shown to lower cortisol levels. (5)
At the same time, it helps burn belly and body fat in general.
#8 Which Yoga is best?
Depending on the area that each of us wants to focus on and the degree of our physical condition, there is suitable Yoga for everyone.
For example:
- Power Yoga is about gaining energy
- Hatha Yoga focuses on physical health and mental well-being
- Ashtanga Yoga is for increasing endurance
- With Bikram Yoga, we achieve weight loss
- Fertility Yoga helps enhance fertility
- Yin Yoga is for relaxation
- Through Iyengar Yoga, we achieve greater flexibility
- Aerial Yoga involves the largest variety of exercises
- Raja Yoga helps in meditation, self-concentration, and willpower
But before you start any kind of it, it is important to decide what you want to achieve, that is, why you exercise. You need to be honest about your personal needs and preferences.
Try some types of Yoga to find the type that suits you.
The best indicator to understand that you have found the type that suits you is to take the same Yoga class again.
#9 Which Yoga mat to choose?
When you are a beginner, there is no need to invest in an expensive Yoga mat.
You do not even know if Yoga is the exercise you want!
When you see that this exercise expresses you, it is worth investing in a good Yoga pillow that is sticky and firm and will make you feel safe.
There are Yoga mats made from natural and renewable materials, without toxic and dangerous ingredients.
These are biodegradable, odorless, light, and soft in texture.
First, ensure that the mattress is large enough for you in length and has a greater thickness to avoid injuries. Also, ensure you feel comfortable on the Yoga mat and performing the exercises.
A new yoga mat may be a little slippery at first. Do not worry though, after a few sessions, the problem usually disappears.
#10 Which Yoga is best for beginners?
Hatha Yoga is the best Yoga for beginners and teaches the natural postures of the body.
Hatha Yoga contains light, gentle, and friendly exercises for beginners, where, in each exercise, we pay attention to our breathing.
It is a good choice regardless of your goals.
Read More: Yoga for Beginners at Home – The Complete Guide
When you strengthen your torso, you can continue with a more complex type, such as Vinyasa or Ashtanga Yoga. Some Yoga styles are also based on Hatha, but they offer us much more than a sweaty workout!
#11 Which Yoga poses to avoid when pregnant?
It is important to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise during pregnancy.
According to experts, a woman in the first trimester can do most exercises before becoming pregnant.
It is important to focus on muscle strengthening in the second trimester, as you gain weight due to developing the fetus. Yoga is especially recommended during this period but beware of postures that can cause the fetus to fall.
In the third trimester, the body is now tighter and more compact due to developing the fetus. What is required now is flexibility.
Yoga and Pilates are considered ideal exercises for this but with particular attention to the exercises.
#12 How Yoga helps mental health?
When we want to emphasize inner peace and proper breathing, Yoga is one of the best medicines for our mind and soul.
First, practicing Yoga improves blood circulation, so more oxygen is transferred to our organs. The brain is one of the most important organs needing oxygen.
In addition, endorphins are secreted every time we exercise.
The combination of Yoga postures, breathing exercises, and meditation helps reduce stress and depressive symptoms.
It improves the way we manage feelings we cannot control and the excessive reactions to stress. This combination of aerobic exercise and meditation helps to alleviate the symptoms of various mental illnesses.
Yoga can relieve and gradually eliminate the symptoms of depression, memory problems, insomnia, overeating, and schizophrenia.
#13 When should you avoid Yoga?
First, ask your doctor, especially if you are pregnant or have any medical problem or injury, even in the past.
Avoid Yoga if any other conditions can be adversely affected by the exercises, such as neck or back problems, high blood pressure, and circulatory problems.
Avoid Yoga exercises that lift your pelvis higher than your heart on menstrual days.
Yoga offers benefits to the body and mental health.
However, it is advisable to ask your doctor, who knows your body better, before exercising.
#14 What Yoga does to your brain and body?
Yoga strengthens the body, self-discipline, sharpness of mind, and mental clarity.
It helps significantly in the balance of the body by increasing our flexibility, muscle endurance, and strength—especially when we combine a variety of specific postures.
Yoga is an excellent workout for calming the mind and increasing flexibility. In addition, it improves posture and enhances endurance throughout our body.
Yoga can help us lose weight and fat, balance our metabolism, and shape a slim and beautiful body. By activating the metabolism, also helps to have energy throughout the day.
Because it is a mind-body exercise, it uses breathing and focuses in a coordinated way to help calm our minds.
Additionally, it releases physical and mental stress.
The result is calm thoughts, which further improve mental health.
#15 When is Yoga Day celebrated?
World Yoga Day is celebrated every year on June 21. (?)
Its celebration was born as an idea following a proposal by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, on September 27, 2014.
Since then, more people have celebrated it worldwide.
This is a day dedicated to promoting peace and harmony based on the love of humanity.
World Yoga Day promotes peace, harmony, and prosperity for all people.
World Yoga Day was introduced recently.
When everything is running frantically, many people are looking for ways to relax.
#16 How Yoga works?
The basic technique of Yoga is to coordinate the movement with the practitioner’s breathing.
This helps him reach self-knowledge faster, which is the precondition for his internal and external change. Yoga is like connecting with our roots and the person we want to become.
This success depends on the repetition, the duration of the exercise, the discipline we will show, and our will to achieve it.
Yoga teachers recommend “it is better to exercise less, but regularly“!
Yoga works both mentally and physically.
Initially, the target is the autonomic nervous system. Breathing exercises stimulate it, and then with other exercises, it relaxes, resulting in a calm state.
At the same time, movement and breathing exercises help balance the body.
The muscles are strengthened and relaxed, releasing all the tension and stress of the day.
#17 How Yoga helps anxiety?
Stress is a situation we cannot avoid.
Nowadays, stress exceeds the limits of logic and affects us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The first signs of its influence are observed in sleep, digestion, headaches, and our relationships.
In general, Yoga and specific Asana postures calm the body and the mind and bring deep relaxation.
Often, we do not express our feelings and drown them to not upset our loved ones and friends.
But these negative emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness accumulate with tightness in the body. This tightening causes pain in the hips, neck, and shoulders.
Meditation is an ideal solution to anxiety.
Yoga is based on exercises that help release the intensity of these emotions and the well-being of the body and mind.
#18 Will Yoga improve flexibility?
Yoga as a type of exercise, can stimulate the muscles and line every group in our body.
Flexibility gradually starts with stretching the muscles and helps you move better. You will thus feel less stiff or tired muscles.
If you are at any level of Yoga, you will soon realize its benefits in flexibility.
Researchers found that participants improved their flexibility by 35% after just 8 weeks of Yoga in one study.
#19 Yoga or Pilates for weight loss?
Power
Yoga postures build endurance in any large muscle group, but strength is not the focus. Yoga is more about how we feel, and Pilates is about how we look.
Unlike Yoga, Pilates uses resistance and weights to build strength. It exercises all muscle groups and leads to a leaner and stronger body.
Flexibility
Yoga is unsurpassed in enhancing flexibility and increasing and improving joint movement. Pilates offers a different approach compared to Yoga.
Instead of stretching to improve flexibility, it focuses on why a muscle is hard. Pilates tries to solve a specific problem.
Strong abs
While Yoga works the abdominal and torso muscles, this is not a priority. Working in this area is much less demanding and arduous in Yoga.
Pilates is ideal for forming belly muscles. It has a unique focus on the muscles of the torso and abdomen. Pilates is one of the best ways to strengthen the torso.
Spiritual well-being
Spiritual well-being is intertwined with Yoga. Exercise gives the body a sense of well-being and balance. Yoga’s breathing techniques enhance inner focus and relaxation.
Pilates is considered a body and mind exercise and requires concentration that can distract you from your everyday concerns. However, wellness is not as big a goal as in Yoga.
Back pain
Yoga improves the flexibility and strength of the spine. However, some postures are inappropriate for pain or general back problems.
Pilates is very good at supporting and empowering the waist. Canada’s research has found it a valuable and excellent exercise for reducing back pain.
#20 What Yoga equipment do I need as a beginner?
To start Yoga at home or in the gym, you only need a body and a Yoga mat.
You can skip the mattress and use the carpet in your room.
However, you must be careful because the floor can be slippery and fall. If you also pressure the carpet, it can burn your hands.
When you are a beginner, investing in an expensive Yoga mat or a specific suit like leggings and pants is unnecessary. Gradually, however, it is worth investing in a good yoga mat that is sticky and firm.
It will make you feel safe and focused only on the exercises.
#21 Are there any online Yoga classes to start at home?
You can find several Yoga classes online or near your home.
However, you can find an organized course I have also tried and enjoyed below:
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Final Thoughts About Yoga Questions and Answers
Yoga is a set of unique exercises that improve physical strength and flexibility.
Yoga also helps in weight and fat loss and the natural treatment of back and back pain.
Its most important benefits, however, concern our peace of mind and clarity. These help deal with the stress and mental disorders we all need in the days we go through.
I wish you good luck with your goals and a beautiful start with Yoga.
Always be well.