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Unlocking Health Benefits of Yoga with Insurance for Wellness Therapies

There’s a reason why yoga is touted as a global phenomena: the benefits of yoga are endless. Yoga can benefit the mind, the body, our ability to navigate emotions, and more. Sadly, while anyone who wants to participate should be able to, that’s not always the case. Barriers exist when other health challenges prevent you from partaking. But here’s the good news: health insurance wellness benefits can help you access the life-changing benefits of yoga by offering coverage for related therapies, such as massage, chiropractic care, and physiotherapy, which can get you back on your feet and ready to move again.

The health benefits of the five different types of yoga

While the term yoga seems all-encompassing, the truth is that within this discipline there are five different types of yoga that are commonly practised: Hatha, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Kundalini, and Ashtanga. Each style offers its own unique range of benefits.

Hatha

Hatha is an umbrella term for yoga styles that focus on physical postures. Normally best for beginners, Hatha yoga is slower-paced and includes many poses. Like other yoga styles, Hatha emphasises breath work alongside physical postures.

Vinyasa

Vinyasa also means “to place in a special way.”, This style of yoga, sometimes called Power yoga, is more athletic. It combines rhythmic breathing with dynamic poses that flow rapidly from one pose to the next.

Iyengar

Iyengar focuses more on technique and finding proper form in each position. Often, participants will use tools such as yoga blocks and straps to ensure they’re in the proper position. In this style, there’s a bigger emphasis on learning proper yoga poses to avoid injury and further understand the practice.

Kundalini

This style meshes spiritual and physical practices. Kundalini is a term used to refer to energy trapped in the lower spine, and this yoga style is meant to help release that energy. There’s a focus on breath work and core. These classes can sometimes include chanting, mantras, and meditation.

Ashtanga

Ashtanga in Sanskrit translates to  “eight limb path.” Those who practise this style are sometimes expected to know the series to follow along. Similarly to Vinyasa, Ashtanga connects the breath and the body to flow through movements.

Mental benefits of yoga

Given that most yoga styles focus on breath work and connecting the mind and body, there are plenty of mental wellness benefits, including the following:

Stress reduction

Practising yoga can help with self-confidence, self-compassion, motivation, and psychological flexibility. This study on yoga’s health benefits shows that people with psychiatric conditions or people suffering from symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression can find relief.

Mental clarity

Yoga also encourages participants to focus on the present and let stressors melt away. As such, people can find improved mental clarity and use yoga’s methods of focus to remain balanced and calm in daily life.

Emotional wellness

Yoga combines breathing techniques, postures, and meditation to harness emotional awareness and regulation. It’s a time for people to understand how they feel and work with those emotions, as yoga encourages a balanced and resilient approach. By connecting the mind and body during practice, the energy of certain emotions can find a release through the flexing or relaxing of muscles and joints.

Physical benefits of yoga

Yoga is, after all, a physical activity. Depending on the type of yoga and your experience level, practising yoga can range from a focused stretch to a full-body workout. This study highlights yoga health benefits. Specifically, the following percentage of participants said yoga has improved their:

  • physical health (88%)
  • mental health (86.2%)
  • stress levels (82.6%)
  • strength (87.1%)
  • flexibility (91.6%)

Flexibility and balance

Yoga includes all kinds of poses from lying and seated poses on the ground, to one-footed poses at full height. Within that range, the body learns to better balance itself. At the same time, yoga puts a healthy strain on tendons and muscles in the body to lengthen and relax. After practising yoga routinely for some time, you’ll find your body is better at reaching, twisting, and bending.

Strength

The same poses that help with flexibility will also promote muscle strength. Many poses require the body to fight against gravity or support body weight in new positions. Muscle strengthening can happen in slow, relaxing yoga classes where participants hold one pose for a long time, or in faster classes where participants flow seamlessly from one pose to the next. 

Cardiovascular health

As with other exercises that raise the heart rate and focus on breathing, yoga participants can benefit from improved cardiovascular health. Breathing techniques and exercise lead to an increased lung capacity and efficient cardiovascular function.

Sleep

Better sleep is one of the many yoga health benefits enjoyed by participants. The combination of meditation, breathing exercises, and physical activity creates a space for healthy sleep habits. Well-practised conscious breathing along with a healthy tiredness fostered by yoga definitely helps to steer the mind towards winding down. 

Health insurance for wellness therapies

Yoga is beneficial for anyone from beginner to expert. The poses and practice can be altered depending on experience level and need. Yoga can even be helpful to those recovering from injury or with chronic pain, however, these people aren’t always in a position to join a yoga class before they have accessed alternative therapies such as physiotherapy, acupuncture, and chiropractic.

Health insurance wellness benefits

To enjoy the benefits of yoga, use health insurance wellness benefits for alternative therapy coverage. First, this ensures your body is physically fit to participate in physical activity.  For example, a massage could help you loosen tight muscles to ease deeper into yoga poses, or a chiropractic treatment could help get that kink out of your neck to help you enjoy your savasana. Second, having health insurance to cover these treatments gives you room in your budget to spend money on yoga classes or a yoga membership.

Pair yoga with insurance for wellness therapies

Get the preventative or healing care you need with coverage through insurance for wellness therapies, and then build on your body’s strength and recovery with yoga health benefits. For example, if you suffer from chronic back pain and chiropractic offers you temporary relief, build off of that with a yoga class to strengthen and stretch the ligaments and muscles in your back to reduce further inflammation.

Enabling strength: insurance for wellness therapies

We encourage our community to be their best possible self by offering coverage to meet emotional, mental, and physical needs. Within our health insurance plans, find the coverage you need to participate in physical activities such as yoga to bring yourself joy, stability, and improved health. Apply now for health insurance coverage that enables you to thrive.