Yoga - A Holistic Way to Stay Healthy

Hatha Yoga, often referred to simply as "yoga," is a branch of yoga that emphasizes physical control and mastery of the body as a means to achieve spiritual perfection. It is a holistic system that integrates physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and sometimes meditation to promote physical and mental well-being.

The Greenwood Senior Center offers a hatha yoga class every week. Release tension, build muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and confidence. Classes are a blend of asana infused with live music, which is performed during guided meditation and Savasana. Occasional restorative yoga poses offer deep relaxation. Sequences designed to fit your needs.

Yoga Class at Greenwood Senior Center

Hatha Yoga integrates physical postures, breathing techniques, and sometimes meditation to promote physical and mental well-being.

Regular practice can improve physical health, reduce stress, and enhance mental well-being. It shows some promise in reducing anxiety and improving executive function.

Physical and Mental Benefits

Hatha Yoga is a psychophysical system that teaches control over the mind and body, good breathing habits, relaxation under pressure, and improved concentration skills. It helps in eliminating toxins and impurities from the body, making it flexible and adaptable to environmental changes.

It includes asanas and pranayama, which have been shown to reduce blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose levels, and body mass. It also improves respiratory functions, functional fitness, and self-perceived quality of life, making it useful for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, respiratory system diseases, type 2 diabetes, and musculoskeletal disorders.

You Can Do Yoga at ANY Age!

Therapeutic Applications

It has been effective in reducing suffering in people with chronic urologic conditions like prostatodynia, chronic orchitis, chronic epididymitis, vulvodynia, and interstitial cystitis.

A single session of Hatha Yoga can improve stress reactivity and recovery, as well as increase self-confidence in healthy individuals.

It also shows promise in improving executive function (EF) in various populations, including healthy adults, children, adolescents, healthy older adults, impulsive prisoners, and medical populations.

Mental Health Benefits

Some evidence suggests that Hatha Yoga might be effective in reducing anxiety. However, while it may reduce depression when compared to psychoeducation, it does not show significant effects on acute, chronic, and/or treatment-resistant mood and anxiety disorders compared to treatment as usual.

Hatha Yoga can be feasibly and acceptably delivered to people with chronic pain receiving opioid agonist therapy for opioid use disorder. Participants reported practicing yoga at home and experienced mood improvements, including reduced anxiety and pain.

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