When you begin a yoga practice, you might find yourself wondering how long it will take to see the results you want. I hear you! Because yoga is different in many ways from other forms of exercise, I have found the results to be somewhat subtle. Let’s talk about the various ways that yoga can affect you, and about how long it will take to start noticing some changes.
Results from yoga start to take effect from the first practice, however, observable results begin to manifest from six to twelve weeks. The duration, frequency and type of yoga practiced affect the specific benefits and how quickly they become noticeable. Sore muscles appear within hours, indicating physical changes are occurring within the body.
Consistent daily yoga practice of between 20 and 45 minutes per day causes physical changes in the body. These changes also affect cognitive function, emotions, and physical abilities.
The consensus of researchers is that it takes on average six to twelve weeks to realize the observable benefits of yoga practice. This may vary depending on the specific results you wish to see, the regularity of your yoga practice and the duration of each session.
The more you practice yoga, within reason, the greater the results.
Here is a potential timeframe within which you might begin seeing results:
| TIMEFRAME | BENEFITS |
| 1 to 6 weeks | •Decrease in amygdala activity •Immediate relaxation of the body and mind •Reduction of pain for arthritis, tendonitis, and other conditions causing chronic pain |
| 1 to 9 weeks yoga 5 days per week | •Increased brain mass in hippocampus within 9 weeks |
| 10 weeks | •Enhanced flexibility •Strengthening of core •Better athletic performance •Improved range of motion •Optimized balance |
| 12 weeks | •Improved verbal memory performance •Enhanced functional brain connectivity •Decrease in choline •Enhanced cognitive processes •Improved hand-eye coordination •Improved motor skills |
| 6 months | •Increase in the density of the right hippocampus •Improvements in the regulation of blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, improving diabetes •Enhanced cardiovascular health with lower blood pressure and resting heart rate |
How Can Yoga Help with Psychological and Physical Challenges?
Yoga has been known for, and studied for, its effects on specific aspects of our psychological and physical lives.
Let’s briefly cover how yoga can help with:
- Anxiety and Depression
- Sleep
- Weight Loss
- Strength and Muscle Tone
- Back Pain
Can Yoga Help with Anxiety and Depression, and How Long Will It Take?
Yoga can helps reduce anxiety and depression. Every person is different, but results may start immediately.
Yoga stimulates the production of endorphins, which lift the mood and reduce negative feelings. Yoga also reduces the levels of hormones associated with stress responses, which can provide fast relief from anxiety, also reducing depression symptoms. Depression reduction may take up to 12 weeks.
Yoga helps to decrease the symptoms of depression, but it can take longer to see the results. Studies show that it can take between 6 to 12 weeks, however, some yoga students notice improvements in mood with decreased symptoms associated with depression within days of regular practice.
Yoga is revered as a fast-working aid for reducing symptoms of anxiety. Physical exercise, breathing techniques, and concentration exercises detract the mind from worries and fears. Physical exercises stimulate the production of “feel-good” hormones in the brain. They also reduce activity in the amygdala, which can help to alleviate feelings of stress or fear, calming the mind and bringing relief from anxiety.
While yoga can be an effective tool for managing anxiety and depression, please work with a licensed therapist or other mental health professional if you need extra support.
Can Yoga Help with Sleep and How Long Will It Take?
Yoga is a powerful resource for improving sleep. It is a type of meditative movement that reduces mental and emotional stress and brings relief from anxious thoughts that can interfere with a restful night’s sleep. Studies show that yoga helps reduce sleep disturbance in people with insomnia. It is also helpful for people with other sleep disorders related to autism spectrum disorder 4, ASD5, and disturbances in sleep from a general anxiety disorder.
Yoga can help improve sleep patterns, promoting deeper and more restful sleep. The meditative movement focused on breathing and physical exercise work together to relieve stress, stimulate the production of hormones that promote a calm mind and inhibit the production of hormones involved in stress responses. The result is enhanced relaxation with deeper sleep cycles, longer in duration.
Results from yoga vary from one person to another. You may notice immediate improvements, but it might take a few weeks to a few months.
How Yoga Helps You Sleep
•Breathing Awareness and Regulation of Breathing
These are elements of yoga that require deep breathing as a relaxation technique. It helps to promote relaxation and can induce relaxation and sleep.
•Mindfulness
Yoga helps you to remain aware of thoughts and feelings while learning how to remain judgment-free. Releasing judgment allows you to remove yourself from the need to react emotionally. This helps reduce stress and feelings of anxiety while promoting deeper stages of relaxation and a calm mind.
•Consistent Exercise
Practice yoga regularly to reap the full benefits of frequent movement. It helps to improve overall sleep patterns for deeper and more productive sleep patterns that rejuvenate the body and mind.
•Better Weight Management
Yoga is an exercise that helps to burn more calories, aiding with weight reduction if that is a goal. It helps to tone and strengthen the muscles, promoting lean muscle mass. The result is more energy during the day, and a greater sense of satisfaction for better sleep at night. Maintaining a healthy body weight also helps reduce symptoms of sleep apnea.
Can Yoga Help with Weight Loss and How Long Will It Take?
Yoga is not a magic cure to help you lose weight quickly, but it can enhance weight loss when it is combined with a healthy diet that includes taking in fewer calories than you burn each day. Yoga exercises will help you to burn calories. The meditative aspects of yoga help you to exercise better control over your emotions to help lessen or eliminate emotional eating. When you make the best possible nutritional choices, moderate your portions, and increase physical activity, you lose weight more quickly.
Yoga can help you lose weight. Choose more intensely physical yoga workouts such as Vinyasa, or Power yoga to burn the most calories. The amount of time it takes to see results varies from one person to another. Yoga can help you improve focus, concentration, and willpower to make wiser dietary choices, and increase physical activity to increase the number of calories you burn, resulting in weight loss.
How To Use Yoga to Lose Weight
•Practice yoga daily, opting for more physical styles for a cardio style workout
Hot yoga, Vinyasa yoga, and Power yoga are more intensely physical and may help you burn calories at a faster rate
•Use Breathing Exercises to Enhance Cognitive Functions
The breathing and meditation elements of yoga help you to gain better control over your emotional responses. Improved focus helps you to see food and eat differently. You acknowledge thoughts about food but do not assign judgment to them. You are better able to choose foods that are healthier for your body. This new behavior, in turn, provides you with nutrition without extra calories. Your improved focus will help you to eat in smaller portions to consume fewer calories than you burn in a day to promote faster yet healthier weight loss.
•Lasting Results
Yoga is an ongoing process of building new skills and making progress to improve your mind, body, and spirit. Slow and steady weight loss that is lasting is possible through yoga practice. Once you reach your ideal body weight yoga can help you maintain the focus to maintain a healthy weight.
Can Yoga Help with Strength and Muscle Tone, and How Long Will It Take?
Yoga practice provides multiple physical benefits. The asanas and transitions combined with breathing and holding patterns help to stretch muscles and other soft tissues while building them and enhancing their strength.
Yoga can help you tone and strengthen your muscles. You feel the results immediately. Soreness indicates muscles are being worked and it signals the process of building mass. The amount of time it takes varies, depending on the type of yoga practice, the duration, frequency, and intensity of the workouts. Results may appear within 2 to 6 weeks.
Yoga practice not only relaxes muscles but also helps to energize them to improve your aerobic capacity and enhance lung function. Yoga can even change the shape of your body. Repeated physical movements tone specific muscle groups and can shape and build muscles that are sleeker and more toned which can also enhance your self-image, resulting in greater self-confidence.
Can Yoga Help with Back Pain and How Long Will It Take?
Studies show that yoga exercise under a qualified instructor, combined with Aureyudic medicinal practices is effective in reducing low back pain caused by various conditions. Each person will respond differently, and different types of yoga postures may be required in a customized plan for pain reduction.
Yoga can help reduce back pain within three to four months. Stretching exercises under a trained instructor can build core strength to provide greater support, reducing some back pain. The amount of time it takes depends on the individual. Back pain from muscle tension may be relieved sooner through the use of yoga for muscle relaxation.
How Yoga Helps Back Pain
•Relieves Muscle Tension
When muscle tension is the cause of back pain, yoga exercises may bring more rapid relief by relaxing tense muscles and relieving pressure exerted on key nerves in the back.
•Strengthens Inner Core
Yoga may be customized to target key muscle groups to strengthen your body’s inner core. Stronger muscles can provide greater support for the skeletal system and help to relieve pain from arthritis or bone degeneration.
Sources
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“Benefits and Adverse Effects Associated with Yoga Practice: A Cross-Sectional Survey from India.” ScienceDirect, 1 Mar. 2021, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229920319117.
“Impact of 10-Weeks of Yoga Practice on Flexibility and Balance of College Athletes.” PubMed Central (PMC), 20`6, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728955.
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