Before starting to take yoga classes, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the things a regular practice can do for you. You’ll hear lots of claims from lots of people: from those who just feel better physically, mentally and/or emotionally when they do yoga, to those who say they’ve been cured of specific problems from back pain to cancer. But what can you expect?
At its most basic level, hatha yoga is a physical practice that concentrates on maintaining and deepening the breath while flexing, extending and rotating the musculoskeletal system through a series of mindful exercises. These exercises are recognized as a safe and effective means of:

1) Increasing flexibility and ease of motion
Although a student may feel that a particular asana or yoga pose works on just one or two joints and/or muscle groups, the practice involves the entire body and its benefits are eventually felt throughout.
2) Improving cardiac and respiratory function
Yoga creates an awareness of breath and breathing and allows the student to deepen the breath and gradually increase lung capacity without straining. A regular practice can increase circulation, reduce the resting heart rate and improve aerobic capacity (VO2 Max).
3) Reducing stress and physical tension
Yoga is a recognized means of invoking the so-called relaxation response, “ a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress… and the opposite of the fight or flight response.” A regular practice calms the nervous system and creates an awareness of the build-up of tension and an ability to consciously release it.
4) Promoting health
There are a lot of scientific studies whose results show that practicing yoga can lead to improvements in key indicators of health including body weight, coordination, reaction time, memory, blood pressure and levels of chemicals in the body such as blood sugar, cortisol, adrenaline and serotonin.
5) Detoxifying
By gently stretching and twisting the musculoskeletal system yoga massages all the internal organs thus increasing the circulation of blood and lymph and helping to flush toxins from the body.
Yoga students report that practicing regularly has helped them in a lot of other ways too including:
• More restful sleep
• Improved balance
• Increased self-esteem
• A sharper mind
• A reduced need for prescription and over-the-counter drugs
• Generally improved quality of life
• A new spiritual awareness