How Yoga benefits the Circulatory System And Why This Is Important

The blood is primarily carries through main arteries that are thick tube like structures leading from the heart around the body. The arteries branch into many sub arteries which in turn will divide into thin-walled capillaries. The capillaries interact with the organs directly and due to their thin walls they pass oxygen and nutrients to the organs and tissues that need them the most. The used resources are ejected from the tissue and back into the capillaries to be fed on through specialised veins to return the impure blood back to the heart to start the entire process once more. This is a difficult job as the pressure has decreased this far from the heart so the veins are assisted by valves to regulate the flow. 

The important thing to understand about the way the circulatory system is set up is that it has two main parts, the blood system and the lymphatic system. It is the job of the lymphatic system to remove waste from the circulatory system. The two different systems run almost side by side but while the blood system has a pump - the heart - the lymphatic system does not have a single organ designed to power it's operations. This job falls to the muscles, which pump the lymphatic system by contracting and expanding. This is of course where Yoga comes in. 

Yoga is a discipline unique in it's combination of focus on body, mind and spirit. The body component is taken care of with a series of poses and postures, which are designed to clear blockages in the circulatory system and ensure that everything is flowing as it should at an even regular rate. It also flexes the muscles and strengthens them very efficiently over time with a minimal amount of 'grunt'. This strengthening and constant working of these muscles pumps the lymphatic system and makes out body many times more efficient at the removal of waste matter. As a result people who practice Yoga regularly can expect that they will have a greatly enhanced immune response system and be able to deal with infection and disease better than their non-Yogi counterparts. 

Furthermore the benefits start before this. Yoga sessions will usually being with a series of standing exercises emphasising long slow breathing exercises. These breathing exercises are common to all forms of yoga and force us to concentrate on our breath and it's pathway trough the body each time we take a fresh breath. The exercises are designed especially so that people are not restricted in where and when they can practice them and ideally would use them instead of our slower shallower normal breathing pattern. 

Because the breaths are longer and deeper the oxygen intake is increased. Combined with the enhancing effects that the exercises have on the regularity of circulation in the blood system the oxygen is much more efficiently transported to the muscles of the body. If these muscles, along with our other organs and tissues are not receiving the oxygen and nutrients we need then we starve them and become ill as a result. 

As you can see Yoga is of great assistance to the complex and interlocking system of circulation. It recognises the basis and importance of the system and helps to being it back into balance.