Improve your blood circulation with Yoga

You improve blood circulation has many advantages. For example, are you often cold? This may be due to poor blood circulation.

However, poor blood flow carries more risks. The body needs a lot of nutrients and oxygen to keep functioning.

The danger of poor blood flow is that not all important nutrients and oxygen can be brought to the right place through the circulatory system.

This can cause all kinds of annoying complaints, such as heavy legs, an irregular heartbeat or shortness of breath. It is therefore very important to keep moving so that the blood circulation continues to flow.

Yoga can help you with this. You can read more about this in this blog, including:

• How Yoga Can Help Improve Blood Circulation
• What is poor circulation
• Symptoms of poor blood flow
• Which yoga postures you can apply for better blood circulation

And much more! Are you reading along?

How Can Yoga Help Improve Blood Circulation?

Yoga helps improve blood circulation through special yoga exercises. These exercises help you to keep your blood flowing optimally and thus maintain the oxygen level throughout your body.

What is Poor Blood Circulation?

Poor blood flow means that the blood flow to certain parts of the body is not optimal. In the vernacular, this is referred to as poor blood circulation.

Poor blood flow can be caused by a blockage or narrowing of a blood vessel.

As a result, too little oxygen-rich blood is sent to important body parts, you can suffer from all kinds of annoying complaints.

Symptoms of poor blood flow

The following symptoms occur with poor blood flow:

• Cramp
• Blue fingers or hands
• Blue feet or toes
• Little energy
• Swollen ankles
• High bloodpressure
• Tired, aching and heavy legs
• Pale face

These symptoms arise because too little oxygen-rich blood is sent to tissues and body cells. As a result, important body processes cannot do the work they should.

As a result of poor blood flow, waste products and toxins continue to accumulate in the body, which cause annoying complaints. Discover more about detox yoga here to counter this.

How can you ensure better blood circulation?

Move! By moving you take in more oxygen and the blood circulation is started faster. In addition, maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle is very important.

For example, stop smoking and moderate your alcohol consumption. This reduces the chance of getting a narrowing of the blood vessels.

Nutrition also plays an important role in positively stimulating blood circulation. Ginger tea, garlic, avocado and cayenne pepper contain all kinds of important substances that help to stimulate blood circulation.

You can also improve blood flow by looking for cold (ice baths), alternating with heat (sauna). By looking for changing temperatures, you train and increase your resistance.

This is one of the reasons why the Wim Hof ​​technique is so valuable.

By exposing your body to extreme cold for a short time and then warming it up again, your blood clears blockages in your circulatory system.

Click on the image below for an overview with dates for more information about the Wim Hof ​​method and the next Wim Hof ​​retreat!

For example, yoga contributes to improving blood circulation

The yoga exercises you perform and movements you make stimulate blood circulation. By doing the postures, more oxygen can be absorbed into the body.

Oxygen can therefore be transported more quickly to important tissues and body cells.

In addition, waste and toxins are removed, so that the chance of getting complaints is considerably less.

By doing breathing exercises you learn to ‘guard’ your energy in a conscious way and you can therefore send oxygen to different parts of the body in a more effective way.

Yoga works stress-reducing. A relaxed body is better able to keep important body processes going, including blood circulation.

In addition, yoga increases hemoglobin levels in red blood cells, which can prevent heart attacks, blood clots and strokes.

5 yoga poses to improve blood circulation

Cat-Cow Pose

The cat-cow pose loosens the spine, which improves blood circulation in the back and spine. You perform the posture in the following steps:

1. Get on your hands and knees and place your hands under your shoulders.
2. The knees are under the hips.
3. On an inhalation make a hollow back (cat), look forward.
4. On the exhale you make a convex back (cow) and pull the navel towards your spine.
5. Repeat these dynamic movements for several rounds of breathing.

Downward dog

In the downward dog pose, the blood flows to the entire upper body. To perform Downward Dog Pose:

1. Get on your hands and knees, fingers spread across the mat.
2. Curl your toes into the mat and lift your bottom back, keeping your legs bent.
3. Bring your chest towards the mat and straighten your arms.
4. Push the heels toward the mat and keep stretching away.
5. Breathe and stay in this position for about two minutes.

Shoulder stand

While lying on your back with your legs pointing upwards, you are using gravity in this pose. This allows blood to flow from the legs to the heart and brain.

You perform the shoulder stand in the following steps:

1. Start by lying on your back.
2. Bend your knees toward your chest and extend your legs straight toward the ceiling.
3. Support yourself on your elbows and forearms.
4. Place the hands on the lower back and lift your upper body.
5. Lift the legs out of the pelvis as far as possible.
6. Stretch the legs as straight as possible, bringing the sternum as close to the chin as possible.
7. Stay in this position for several breaths.
8. When you come back from the pose, first bend the knees towards the chest and slowly roll down to a lying position.

Low lunge

This exercise stretches your hips. This allows blood to flow better to the legs and feet. It also increases flexibility in the hip area.

You perform the posture as follows:

1. Step your left foot far back and place your knee on the floor.
2. Your right knee is bent 90 degrees and straight above the ankle.
3. Push the pelvis forward and seek stretch in the hip area.
4. You can place your hands on your right knee.
5. Hold the pose for a few breaths and then switch sides.

Standing forward bend

The standing forward bend has a stress-reducing effect and gives a relaxed feeling. Hanging allows blood to flow to organs and glands in the chest area.

You perform this pose as follows:

1. Stand firmly on the mat with both feet.
2. The feet are below the hips.
3. On an inhale, stretch your hands up.
4. Exhale, bend down and come to hang with your stomach on your thighs.
5. Keeps contact between the abdomen and thighs.
6. You can let your hands hang or you can grab your elbows.
7. Stay here for a few breaths before rolling back up vertebra by vertebra.

Hopefully with these exercises you have tools to get started and give your blood circulation a positive boost!