Why Do Yoga?

Why do yoga? Well, you can go to the gym and pump iron, play sports and discover muscles you didn't know you had, or jump on a treadmill and run until your brain starts negotiating with your legs. One or the other will give out.

But yoga can bring a lot of those things together.

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Depending on how you practice, yoga can include strength, cardio, flexibility, balance, endurance, and all those little stabilizer muscles that tend to get ignored until they suddenly decide to complain. You can hold poses longer to build strength, add resistance bands or weights, or turn up the pace and get your heart working.

And the best part? You don't need much equipment. You don't need a fancy gym, a complicated machine, or a membership card that mysteriously keeps charging you every month. You can do yoga almost anywhere. Technically, you don't even need a mat. If you want to get really rustic, find a patch of grass and have at it.

Now, I'm not saying the gym is bad. Quite the opposite. Gyms are great, and there's something motivating about being around other people who are exercising. But a well-designed yoga routine can complement almost any fitness program by improving strength, flexibility, balance, mobility, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness.

Yoga and Healthy Aging: Growing Evidence for Mind-Body Health

• The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights yoga as an adaptable mind-body practice that can support physical and mental health across the lifespan.
• Research increasingly suggests that yoga can help reduce stress and anxiety while improving strength, flexibility, balance, mobility, and overall functional fitness.
• Emerging evidence also points to potential benefits for brain health, including memory and cognitive function, as well as improvements in mood and fatigue among some populations.
• One randomized trial found that a 12-week yoga program for people with chronic lower back pain was comparable to physical therapy, with benefits continuing for up to a year.
• WHO emphasizes that yoga's accessibility and adaptability make it particularly relevant to healthy aging, allowing people with different ages, abilities, and mobility levels to participate while supporting independence and quality of life.

Kuruvilla, S. (2026, June 26). Yoga for healthy ageing: Global practice and clinical evidence. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/yoga-for-healthy-ageing-global-practice-and-clinical-evidence