There are many benefits of yoga in the morning. I must admit, I’m not a morning person, let alone an early morning one. If I don’t have a particularly appealing reason for getting up earlier than necessary, I really won’t. So don’t ask me to go for a jog, it’s just too hard for me.
Early Morning Yoga Regulates Your Sleep Rhythm & Balance
Your Hormones. Once you make practicing yoga in the morning a habit, your body
becomes accustomed to getting up at the same time each day. This means you
will awake feeling more energized and alert. While practicing yoga, the
attention to breathing, meditation, and Asana has a positive effect on the
endocrine system, which is responsible for long-term body maintenance. The
endocrine system uses glands and hormones, to help keep you balanced. Certain
yoga poses stimulate the pineal gland which excretes the melatonin hormone that
regulates sleep patterns. As you regulate your circadian sleep cycles, the
feeling of confusion upon awakening from sleep (due to widely changing sleep
times) starts to disappear.
Early
Morning Yoga Helps to Build a Healthy, Consistent Routine-Studies have shown that 90% of those who exercise
regularly, as in more than three times a week, are morning practitioners.
Having an established morning routine, encourages you to stick with it.
Most of us live busy lives, and our time is valuable. It is understandably
tough to fit in a yoga class during your busy day, and by the evening, things
may come up that prevent you from practicing, or you’re just feeling too tired.
Doing your practice first thing in the morning provides outstanding
relief. Just imagine having your yoga practice and your exercise completely
done with before 8 am! The feeling of self-empowerment that comes from being
disciplined in your routine, brings increased mental strength into other areas
of your life as well. Early morning yoga can help to build a healthy,
consistent routine to your yoga practice.
Early morning yoga may boost your metabolism-Practicing yoga early in the morning will warm up your
digestive system and help nutrients move more easily through the body, causing
it to metabolize carbs and fats more quickly. We know how amazing twists can be
for wringing out the digestive system and invigorating our vital organs.
Practicing these Asanas first thing in the morning, can awaken our bellies,
easing any morning aches and pains.
Early Morning Yoga is a Great Caffeine Alternative-The specific type of breathing done during your early
morning yoga practice, stimulates your entire body and mind. All of that
fresh oxygen helps wake up the brain, and it can feel like a jolt of caffeine;
yet unlike coffee or tea, the energy boost you feel from deep pranayama
breathing lasts all day long! Early morning yoga helps you to feel more
energized, yet grounded at the same time, thus helping you to accomplish more
and be more productive during the day. Even on the days when I feel a little
tired or less energy upon waking up, that certainly always changes after my
hour long morning yoga practice. You start to feel alive, with clarity
and purpose, and you go about your day with absolutely no caffeine required!
One of the best benefits of yoga in the morning is you don’t have to take
caffeine.
Morning stretching prevents injury and achiness throughout
the day-Yoga lengthens and
stretches our tight bodies, preparing us for all movement throughout the day.
For those of us that sit at a desk, yoga poses in the morning counter those
hours we spend sedentary. Yoga increases spinal flexibility and encourages
better posture. The poses we hold when we first wake up, will set our muscle
memory into effect for standing taller and walking easier as the day progresses. Other physical benefits of yoga include: increased flexibility. increased muscle
strength and tone. improved respiration, energy and vitality. maintaining a
balanced metabolism. weight reduction. cardio and circulatory health.
