Can You Do Yoga Every Day?
There are a lot of reasons you might be considering starting a yoga practice.
Weight loss, improved breathing, flexibility, and stress relief are just a few of the perks of practicing yoga.
Yoga has many more amazing benefits, which we’ll discuss below, but first we need to answer the question: Can you do yoga every day?
Rather than making you read the entire post to get to the answer, we’ll just tell you straight up – Yes, you can do yoga every day, and you should.
According to NetDoctor if you put aside just 15 minutes each day to practice yoga, you “could transform your mood (and your health) in more ways than you could imagine.”
But, there are some important things you should keep in mind before you plan your daily yoga practice so you can avoid injury!
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A Daily Yoga Practice Can Transform Your Body and Mind
Some people think yoga is only about meditating, stretching, and breathing. But take one class at your local gym, and you’ll quickly realize that yoga is SO much more!
Depending on the instructor and yoga sequence of the day, you may actually find yourself every bit as sore as any intense workout program.
It takes a lot of effort and balance to maneuver your body into the various poses.
There is a lot of physical strength required just to get into some of the poses, not to mention holding them while you take deep, controlled breaths.
Talk about building some serious strength and stamina!
Of course, there is ALSO meditating, stretching, and breathing exercises. It’s actually this part of yoga practice that makes it perfect to do every single day.
Be forewarned, if you are a yoga newbie, just 10 minutes a day when you first start practicing can be utterly exhausting!
However, when you commit to it and practice daily, I promise you’ll start to see amazing results in your body, and in your mind!
Improve Your Flexibility With Yoga’s Daily Stretches
One of the things I love most about yoga (and why we recommend it for people who aren’t used to working out often) is that the slow and fluid motions of yoga poses improve the posture and strengthen core muscles without causing stress on your joints like high impact exercise can.
Core strength and flexibility are so important for overall wellness, especially as you age, and yoga gives you both of those.
An effective yoga sequence has you moving your muscles in every direction, improving your strength, agility and balance.
Can you say win, win, win?!
Give Your Cardiovascular System A Boost And Breathe Easier
Yoga is a great way to get your cardiovascular system in shape without having to spend hours on a treadmill, elliptical, or other boring, extreme or exhausting cardio workout.
Some yoga poses have actually been shown to lower blood pressure and triglycerides.
Inverted poses, such as the Downward-Facing Dog, improve the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain.
(Wait, so does that mean yoga could make you smarter, too? Hmm…)
Another great side effect you may notice is that your resting heart rate lowers with continued practice as your body consumes less oxygen.
Yoga also encourages you to focus and control your breathing rate as you move into the various poses. Then, as your body learns to breathe properly, you’ll use oxygen more efficiently.
This combination of respiratory control and lower heart rate increases your cardiovascular endurance dramatically.
That’s fantastic news, especially for women, since heart disease is the leading cause of death for females in the U.S.
Give Your Digestive System A Healthy Boost
Certified yoga teacher and nutritionist Katie Boyd said it best when she said, “With all of the bending, twisting, stretching and inverting, yoga movements work deep into the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you rest and digest.”
The parasympa-what? In layman’s terms, it’s part of your body’s autonomic nervous system that allows you to digest food automatically. The better this system works, the better you digest!
The movements and breathing during yoga help your body increase the circulation in the digestive tract.
This helps you digest your food better, relieves constipation and bloating, and stimulates your digestive tract and liver to process the food you eat and absorb nutrients properly.
A healthy digestive system is a key component to your overall health!
Improve Your Strength One Pose At A Time
Yoga increases core strength and lowers the amount of cellulite that accumulates around your muscles.
Less cellulite? (*Immediately signs up for annual yoga membership*)
As you practice yoga, all your muscles, including your arms, legs, shoulders, and abs will be stronger and more defined thanks to the many different yoga poses.
And since yoga has different degrees of difficulty, you’ll always have room for improvement as you learn to hold new and more challenging poses.
From beginner, to intermediate, to advanced.
Here’s where that “but…” comes in:
The trick to continuing to improve your overall strength is to not do the same poses every day.
Your body needs to experience different movements to continue stretching and working out.
As Ariana Yoga explains, “anything that you do repeatedly over long periods of time can lead to a repetitive stress injury (RSI)…In order to strive for balance in your body, you need a variety of movements that target all your major muscle groups.”
So make sure to change up your yoga practice from day to day by trying different types of yoga routines.
We recommend cycling through yoga flows geared towards strength, flexibility, and meditation to keep your routine balanced.
Decrease Your Pain Levels Without Added Chemicals
Millions of people suffer from chronic pain, and most of them have no idea that yoga can help tremendously with this!
Pain tolerance is increased through the slow stretching movements of yoga poses.
Yoga is actually recommended by many physicians to treat chronic lower back pain, as well as a way to alleviate back, shoulder, and neck pain.
Get Better Sleep, Boost Your Immunity, And Cut Down Your Stress Levels
So many people battle nightly with lack of sleep, or poor quality sleep, which can lead to a whole host of other problems. Yoga can actually help you sleep better by promoting peaceful moods.
The combination of body, mind, and breathing exercises contributes to a more relaxed state of being overall.
Many people who practice yoga feel a sense of connection with their body that is not attained through any other type of exercise.
Along with a lowered heart rate and blood pressure, this state provides a boost to your immune system.
Yes, you read that right: yoga can help strengthen your immune response.
Meditation in yoga practice also creates a peaceful feeling throughout the body and mind, which helps to elevate mood and lower cortisol (a.k.a. the stress hormone) levels in your body.
Lose Weight While Increasing Your Metabolism
As we get older, our metabolism has a nasty habit of slowing down.
(If anyone ever creates a pill that actually speeds up your metabolism, they’ll be richer than Bill Gates!)
Although practicing yoga is not necessarily a fast way to lose weight alone, it creates a mentality that encourages healthy, mindful eating.
As a result, most people who practice on a regular basis experience weight loss through their yoga exercises.
You’ll build more strong, lean muscles through regular yoga practice as well, and you’ve probably heard of the fact that muscle burns more calories than fat.
Plus, the combination of strength and cardio exercise that yoga provides elevates your resting metabolism long after the exercises are complete.
Hello, fast weight loss!
Because yoga improves metabolism, it’s much easier to maintain a healthy weight, even as you age.
Now, a lot of people have heard about yoga’s weight loss advantages combined with the other health benefits.
If you didn’t know already, I’m sure you can see now why so many people are drawn to yoga as the ultimate low-impact exercise program for weight loss and overall health.
To have the ability to transform your mind and body with a simple daily yoga practice is enticing!
To get you started, there are several poses you can learn that have been proven to aid your body with fat loss.
You can check out 8 of them for free here.
Bottom Line: Yes, You Can Do Yoga Everyday
We started this post out with a simple question – Can you do yoga every day?
We’ll say it again a little louder for the people in the back – YES! You can and should do yoga every day!
Yoga is great for your mind as well as your body.
The combination of meditation and exercise strengthens the connection between your mind and body, improving memory retention, coordination, and balance.
Even better, you can practice yoga at any age without much risk of injury or overexertion!
Just remember to change it up from day to day, and SHOW UP every day to reap the most benefits from your yoga routine!
Ready To Start Your Daily Yoga Practice?
With all of the amazing benefits a regular yoga routine can provide, who wouldn’t want to start a daily practice?
We know the hardest part of any exercise routine is to get started and really commit to it, especially if you’re a newbie.
You might have a few questions, like:
- What’s the best routine to start with?
- How do I know if the moves are too advanced?
- Which poses are best for my body, and my weight loss or health goals?
And probably a few other questions, too!
That’s why we created our Yoga Fat Loss Bible.
It is the ultimate guide to getting started with yoga so you can get flexible, tone your body, and relieve your aches and pains with a gentle yoga practice.
We provide detailed instructions and beginner modifications for your practice + a 6-Week Workout Plan any beginner can start with!
It also comes with a free meditation guide for beginners that will help you let go of your worries and relieve stress and anxiety.
You can check it out by clicking here!
Always remember that the most difficult part of doing any yoga routine is SHOWING UP.
Make sure to show up today and give your best to your new daily yoga practice. You deserve it!
If you enjoyed this article on doing yoga every day or have any questions for us, please leave them in the comment section below!