The type of exercise depends on the desired goal. If a
person wants to build muscular strength, then resistance training is
appropriate. Endurance training (walking, running, cycling, swimming) is
required if a person wants to improve her cardiovascular health and endurance.
Alternative therapies, such as yoga, have also demonstrated
positive improvement in health. Yoga involves various standing, seated, and
supine postures and breathing and relaxation techniques designed to enhance
functioning of the various physiological system by supporting a natural
posture. Young and old men and women have performed yoga for centuries in
Eastern countries. Yoga has been purported to focus concentration and relax the
body.
Yoga practice has been shown to improve muscular strength,
endurance, flexibility, and aerobic capacity. In men, evidence suggests that
yoga practice reduces sympathetic activity, improves aerobic capacity, reduces
perceived exertion after maximal exercise, and reduces heart rate and
left-ventricular end-diastolic volume at rest. Similar benefits would be
expected for women; however, there is a paucity of research dealing with women,
Additionally, Yoga practice may retard the progression and increase the
regression of atherosclerosis in patients with coronary artery disease.
Empirical scientific evidence has demonstrated the positive
benefits of exercise, such as improved strength, reduced anxiety, improved
blood lipid profile, and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. The modality
required to obtain these benefits can vary from a structured exercise program (resistance
training and walking/running) and alternative therapy (yoga) to daily physical
activity (moving the lawn and climbing stairs).
A certified yoga instructor should be consulted for more
information on the styles of each.
Regular exercise has a significant impact in the human body.
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Yoga