Precautions for Yoga for Health Preservation
Yoga is a widely promoted mass fitness activity and an excellent health-preserving practice. Through postures such as standing, sitting, kneeling, lying down, and inverted positions, combined with breathing exercises, it bends, stretches, and twists various body parts, providing self-massage and traction to the spine, muscles, and internal organs, while regulating the nervous and endocrine systems, achieving benefits including health maintenance, fat reduction, body shaping, beauty enhancement, and disease treatment.
Yoga has no age, physical strength, or venue restrictions, but the following precautions should be observed:
1. Practice on an empty stomach; wait about three hours after eating before practicing. If you're not accustomed to fasting, consume light, easily digestible food (e.g., milk, yogurt, honey, fruit) one hour prior to practice. Reduced appetite and increased flatulence or bowel movements after practice are normal phenomena.
2. Minimize external constraints. Wear loose, elastic clothing; remove watches, glasses, jewelry, etc.; practice barefoot if possible; keep feet warm when practicing in cold weather.
3. Practice daily. It can be done in one session or split into segments. Each pose can be repeated 3–5 times, with relaxation between repetitions.
4. Avoid practicing after serious illness or surgery. During menstruation, perform appropriate exercises based on your physical condition; avoid inversions and high-intensity or difficult poses. Pregnant women and postpartum individuals must practice under professional guidance.
5. Do not allow others to assist in completing poses, nor talk during practice.
6. Avoid yoga within 30 minutes before or after bathing. After yoga, the body becomes unusually sensitive; sudden temperature changes are unsuitable and may harm the body, and also deplete stored energy. Thus, avoid practicing before bathing. Additionally, after bathing, blood circulation increases, adding strain to the heart—especially dangerous for those with heart disease, hypertension, hypotension, or hyperthyroidism.
When practicing yoga, remember: yoga is not a competitive sport. Choose poses suitable to your own body condition, combine with proper breathing, and slowly extend within your limits. It is best practiced under professional supervision. Moreover, only a few extremely difficult poses suit individuals with naturally soft ligaments or those who have practiced yoga since childhood. Adults starting yoga later in life should avoid these poses.