Yoga is a natural form of medication therapy for all kinds of human ailments that aims to make your body fit and active. It assimilates our body, mind, and soul in the quest of the inner accord. Today, Yoga is becoming important for all aged people due to its various health benefits. In fact, it is equally important for the children; today in schools one specific class is organized for the physical activities where the knowledge of Yoga postures is given by the Yoga experts. According to many Yoga experts, Yoga builds self-esteem in children so they will become more confident about their activities. Some children are shy in nature and unable to express their willingness in front of any others, so Yoga will remove this fear or shyness and make them excel in all of their activities. In this article, we will discuss yoga for kids, its benefits, and different yoga poses specially for children.
Age Requirement for Yoga
Though Yoga can be started at any age for children it is essential to know about the required age to start Yoga. Experts believe that Yoga should be done at an early age so that children will experience a healthy lifestyle. At the age of 8, initially, the knowledge of Yoga basics like Surya Namaskar, mantra, pranayama, or breathing techniques should be given because at this age memorizing various technical asanas and being perfect on them is just impossible for them. At an early age, bones are generally smooth so they can easily follow some specific Yogic techniques. These basics of Yoga enhance your self-controlling power and make you more focused on all kinds of activities.
Today most of the games like computer games, mobiles, and so on make children more lethargic and restrict their physical development. Not only restrict their development but also offer ill-effects to their eyes. The craze of outdoor games is declining that causes many health problems in children like obesity, stress, depression, inferiority complex, and so on. Therefore, Yogic exercises are must deal with these kinds of physical and mental sickness. Yoga is a wonderful form of physical activity.
Best Yoga Poses for Children:
1) Monkey Movement (Hanumanasana)-
Benefits:
- It reduces unwanted fat from the body
- Give relief from stress and insomnia.
- It develops good body postures and provides flexibility in the body.
- It strengthens the muscles.
- Increase blood circulation in the body.
2) Partner Boat Pose-
Benefits:
- It develops sitting balance and body posture
- provides enough stretch to hamstring
- It increases the strength of important parts of the body like muscles, abdominal, spinal, and shoulders.
3) Upward Facing Dog pose (Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana)-
Benefits:
- Give relief from back pain.
- Strengthens the shoulder and smooth the blood circulation in the body
- Develop body postures.
- It activates the gland of the body.
4) Reverse Warrior Pose (Viparita Virabhadrasana)–
Benefits:
- It keeps your front legs strong.
- Strengthen the core of backsides.
- Keep the body in balance and in good postures
5) Frog Pose (Mandukanasana)-
Benefits:
- It develops the digestion system
- Gives relief from unwanted stress
- Strengthens the knees and legs
- It increases lung capacity and keeps your health good overall.
6) Airplane Pose (Dekasana) –
Benefits:
- It strengthens the leg muscles, arms, and shoulders.
- It improves body posture and standing position.
- It generates energy in the body.
- Develops concentration and awareness.
- Very helpful to reduce excess fat from the body.
7) Rabbit Pose (Sasangasana)-
Benefits:
- Increase awareness in the body.
- Give relief to the neck from extra stress.
- Improves the digestion system.
- strengthens arms and shoulders.
- It is one of the best poses to have good sleep at night.
8) Tree Pose (Vriksasana)-
Benefits:
- Good pose for improves stability in the leg.
- One of the best poses for developing self-confidence and self-esteem.
- It keeps your hips and leg bones strong.
- It improves body posture and body balance.
- Tree pose teaches to calm your mind.
Children will feel fun with these stretching and movement exercises. Most of the names of Yoga poses are related to animals so they feel more enthusiastic while doing these poses.
Common Health Benefits of Yoga for Children:
In Yoga, children need to focus on various physical postures, inflow/outflow of breath, and regular recitation of mantras. All these practices improve children’s concentration power and memory. A sense of discipline creates in the children’s minds. Yoga aims to provide a healthy mind in a healthy body. Yoga increases flexibility and strengthens muscles so that children will feel energetic and active throughout a day. Yoga has immense health benefits for children like:
- Higher flexibility
- Enhances body awareness and coordination
- Improve digestion system
- Build high resistance power
- Keep you calm and offer sound sleep
In short, the concept of Yoga is based on the complete cleanse of a body system without any artificial medication therapy. Apart from various health benefits Yoga acts as a catalyst in the thinking process. With the regular practice of Yoga, Children will be less reactive and will be able to make a balance between their thoughts and words. It reduces anxiety and builds self-confidence. Yoga encourages parasympathetic drive and allows the body to slow down so that your body and mind work effectively.
Expert Guidance
Some people believe that Yoga will be dangerous for the children but in reality, it is only a myth. Yoga doesn’t have any ill effect but doing Yoga with the wrong posture can cause adverse effects to your body physically and mentally like pain in muscles, bleeding, rupture delicate bones, and many more. Some of the wrong applications of Yoga poses create gastric problem and back pain as well so it is highly advised that perform Yoga under the expert guidance to get the proper benefits of Yoga. In the practice of pranayama, breath awareness is prominent so how to inhale and exhale is also a matter of expert guidance. The skill of right breathing will be the biggest challenge for aspirants. Yoga can be risky if you push yourself too hard for any posture so be careful. Yoga aims to provide complete relaxation so no need to be harsh enough. Despite getting benefits of Yoga, you will be in danger if you are not performing under expert guidance.
Yoga for children is a good idea in today’s fast-paced life. In this competitive scenario, children have too many face cut-throat competition in their daily life so Yoga will be the best remedy to cope up with this competition effectively. With Yoga, children will become more attentive and focused. Yoga helps to connect their body with mind and nurture an internal locus of control.
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