Yoga is a new age workout that has literally swept the globe and has become increasingly popular over the past ten years within the United Kingdom.
What makes it so spectacular is that at first many people saw it as a fad or a passing phase that would not last more than a few months.
Not only has yoga become one of the most important workouts for many high profile celebrities, but it has also helped many people lose weight and get fit by engaging in this fantastic exercise that works out both the mind and the body.
The interesting thing about yoga is that it has come from a tradition that has been around for thousands of years but has only become popular in the mainstream Western culture very recently.
It mainly caught on because of the attention that many people now put on physical appearance and general fitness that people now regularly engage in such as going to the gym.
There are many spiritual benefits that people can benefit from that yoga gives, however many people who practise yoga in the West do not really receive these benefits as they are not looking for them.
They mainly want to see weight loss, flexibility and muscle toning benefits much more than they want to see spiritual benefits.
Also with the popularity of mainstream yoga, many professional athletes are now engaging in yoga to help them with various aspects of their sport that they want to improve moreover yoga allows these athletes to work out new muscle groups and increase their flexibility that will surely help them in their own profession.
Yoga is a very unique work out especially compared to many cardio work outs that people are used to seeing in Western gyms and sports centres.
Yoga is much different to these work outs and focuses mainly on fixed positions and slow movements that allow the body to work out using the gravity as resistance.
From an outside observer's perspective who has never done a yoga session, they would probably not see it as much of a work out however any new comer to a yoga session has always said just how demanding yoga work outs can be.
It stretches and works muscles that never get used in a day to day work out and is an excellent way to improve core stability.
For those people who really want to get into a yoga workout but have picked up a sports injury along the way and have aches and pains in the muscles there are a few solutions.
Firstly a yoga work out can really help the body heal and is a great way of strengthening muscle groups without straining them.
For the first few sessions a person can use glucosamine to help reduce the aches in the muscles so that they can engage fully in all aspects of the yoga workout.
Then as the body strengthens and the muscles improve they will be able to slowly come off the glucosamine.