An Introduction to Asana

Asan is a body position, which is typically associated with the yoga poses whose main functions are to restore and maintain a person’s well-being, improve the body’s flexibility and vitality, and promote the ability to remain in seated meditation for extended periods.

In a yoga workout, asana refers to two things: First, the place where a practitioner sits and second, the posture in which s/he sits. It is originally believed that the asana yoga pose should be seated in a position that is firm and relaxed at the same time.

Benefits of Asana

Doing a yoga workout or a simple asana offers a wide range of benefits that contribute to the overall well-being of an individual. Hence it affects the physical, mental and emotional aspect. Increased relaxation is one of the most famous of the many benefits in doing asana. Having that relaxed mood constantly having your mind at peace is priceless, and can easily be attained by doing the asana yoga poses. People practice asana for a lot of reasons. One is to help them get relief in this stressful, work-frenzied world, others say that the more they practice asana, then the better they learn to focus and meditate successfully. Meditation might be difficult for beginners to do, but not impossible. Just let go of your worries one period at a time.

Most of the asana yoga poses are used in a specific type of yoga called “Bikram”, which in turn makes use of twenty six famous yoga poses that we’d discuss later as we move on. Yoga poses help individuals to increase the flexibility in their spine so that they can have a better range of motion in every direction and thus, become more flexible with practice. Asana also help to increase circulation since toxins are released from the muscles and knots that once inhibited circulation are now released.

Unlike high impact sports that give the cardiovascular system a good workout such as jogging, asana yoga poses provide a great cardiovascular workout without causing stress to the various joints and muscles of the body. In addition, it is a wonderful strength workout since every pose requires the individual to hold up his or her own body weight for prolonged periods of time, producing lean body tone and muscle.