Yoga exercises are considered as the best exercises to increase the body tone and strength against different diseases. Research study on the yoga exercises reveals its beneficial role on physical and mental health of a person. Yoga benefits the body by regulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Scientific literature gives scholarly reviews on the benefits of yoga exercises in different health conditions.

In a review study on the benefit of yoga on human body almost 81 studies were found in the scientific literature. These studies were uncontrolled, controlled and comparison study on almost 80 subjects divided in different groups. The most prevalent studies on the benefits of yoga on human body were the comparison interventions (n=10) with simple exercises. It was evaluated that yoga interventions shows benefits superior to exercises in all studies. In all research studies found in the scientific literature for the comparison of yoga and exercise and the measuring the benefits of yoga, yoga intervention appears more beneficial to exercise. Yoga interventions have more health related outcomes.

Another study evaluates the mental health benefits of yoga in adolescents of secondary school. This was a comparison study of regular physical education with yoga for 11 weeks. In this randomized controlled trial, students give a baseline and end program self report which measures the mental health of the participants. This report assess the mood, anxiety, stress and all mental states of a person before, during and after the trial.  Mood changes were noticed in the yoga group rather than the controlled group. It was revealed through this study that there was no change or even worsening of the mood pattern in controlled group participants. However, reported results are available about the improvement in the anger control and fatigue state of the participants of the yoga group. This controlled trail suggests that yoga can benefit the behavioral changes in secondary school settings and yoga practice is quite feasible to implement in the secondary school setting.

We found many studies in the scientific literature which compare the benefits of yoga and simple exercise practice on an individual. Yoga shows proven results of its benefits over simple exercise in maintaining general health of a person.

Reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21647811

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20105062

Author: Dr. Rubina Mushtaq