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American obesity has become a major problem facing a large majority of American society today. Many people have turned to yoga positions for beginners to lose weight and get into shape. Yoga can help you maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle when used as a part of your daily workout routine. Yoga is a great way to improve your health all around by allowing growth and change in your body functions.

Yoga is an ancient practice that comes from India. It was not only a form of physical fitness, but was considered even more so a way to reach enlightenment. There are many different forms practiced, but the one that has become most popular in western society for physical exercise is Hatha Yoga.

All you need to start practicing Yoga is yourself and a good attitude. Find a nice quiet location where you don’t have to worry about interruptions and make sure you have comfortable workout clothes. Once you get going you might realize that a fitness mat might be a peice of equipment that will give you added support and comfort to your workout.

There are some great options on the market for a cotton yoga mat that will provide you with plenty of comfort. You will find the extra padding beneficial to protect your elbows, knees, and hips. If you are doing your workouts on carpet you will also find that the mat will eliminate carpet abrasions.

When you are looking for a good mat you will probably notice that there are many available specifically for yoga. If a typical mat doesn’t satisfy your needs, then something to consider which is a bit more money but a lot more comfort is an airex yoga mat.

One of the greatest benefits of yoga is that everyone can enjoy practicing it no matter what their age. When it comes to all the different benefits, the one thought of the most is increased flexibility that helps to strengthen muscles and joints.

As a holistic therapy, yoga has both physical and mental healing elements that will benefit the entire body. By focusing on proper breathing through meditation, you are providing the body with increased oxygen and mental clarity.

Just to name a few of the physiological benefits from doing the asanas are:

- better flexibility and joint range of motion
- improves flow of lymphatic system
- relief in joint and back pain
- improved immunity
- decreased blood sugar levels
- decreased triglycerides
- better digestion

A few of the psychological benefits from doing the pranayama and meditation are:

- increased somatic and kinesthetic awareness
- improved learning efficiency
- decreased aggression
- decreased hostility
- decreased anxiety
- improved sense of well-being
- improved social skills

Yoga is just a small piece of the bigger puzzle to the path of uniting your mind, body, and spirit. The use of specific breathing techniques and body poses are used to achieve this union. Hatha yoga poses are not only beneficial for health reasons, but they can be very spiritual as well as physical.

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Source: Get Fit

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Metabolism is the two-way process of synthesizing complex living tissue from simple non-living foods and then the breakdown of these living tissues into simpler substances. The building-up process is called constructive metabolism or anabolism. The breaking down of living tissues to fuel and waste products is known as destructive metabolism or catabolism. In the healthy adult who has attained his maximal growth, anabolism and catabolism proceed at equal rates, although of course in opposite directions. Thus weight remains steady.

Metabolism During Resting State

In the resting state, metabolism proceeds slowly at a basal or minimal rate (”basal metabolic rate” or BMR) since there are no demands on the body other than to remain viable.

Metabolism During Exercise

During exercise energy requirements increase. It is obvious that metabolism must accelerate in order to provide the extra fuel or calories necessary to sustain the added work load.

Sources of Energy in the Body

The principle sources of readily available calories in large quantities are glucose and fatty acids. End products of their metabolism are carbon dioxide and water, both of which readily escape via the lungs.

Protein is Not Usually Burned During Exercise

Except in exercise sustained for several hours, almost no protein is burned. This is fortunate. The end products of protein breakdown cannot find egress via the lungs but must be excreted by the kidneys. Since the kidneys shut down during exercise, a harmful accumulation of acid would result if protein were a significant fuel.

The Function Of Sweat

Sweating is useful chiefly as a means of losing heat. Because the human organism is only partly efficient, the metabolism of glucose and fatty acids yields work plus heat.

If the body were completely efficient, work and no heat would result. Thus exercise produces an increase in body temperature. After one to two hours of sustained activity, rectal temperatures of 101-103 degrees Fahrenheit are to be expected.

Sweat is an important defense against disastrous rises in temperature which may result in heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Believe it or not, the fit subject sweats better! In a recent experiment untrained subjects were exercised in a hot environment daily. At the outset they perspired moderately and lost copious amounts of salt. In a few days their sweat glands became acclimatized. They perspired more to get rid of more heat and cut back on salt losses to avoid the hazards of salt depletion.

Training the Mind

Training of the mind is as inevitable as training of the body in the fit individual. The sports-person disciplines oneself to ignore fatigue and to give forth with his best effort. Long surmised by coaches and trainers, this fact now has received scientific corroboration.

Laboratory Studies on the Mind and Strength

Trained and untrained subjects were examined in the laboratory. Each subject was asked to lift as much weight as they possibly could. Obviously the trained individuals could lift more. But that is not the point. Next, each subject was then given more weight than they said they were able to lift. At the very moment when the subject was about to hoist the weight a gun blast went off beside their head.

Jolted Into Action by the Element of Shock and Surprise

By being thus distracted and startled the untrained individuals were able to lift more than previously. However, this was not so with the trained subjects-they already had “psyched” themselves up maximally. The gun shot added nothing to their performance because they already had disciplined their minds for maximum effort.

Effects of Shrieking (!)

This point was also confirmed by asking the subjects to shriek at the top of their lungs as they weight-lifted. Again, the untrained individuals lifted more. Shrieking made no difference to the fit subjects.