blog Archives - Montalto Physical Therapy: Physical Therapy in East Norwich

How Yoga Enhances Physical Fitness

Joseph Montalto on April 16, 2025

Physical fitness encompasses endurance, muscular strength, and flexibility. To stay fit and healthy, it’s important to exercise regularly. The CDC recommends that adults engage in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise weekly and include strength training twice weekly. According to Hopkins Medicine, yoga can improve strength, balance, and flexibility. But can yoga be a form of exercise that can improve fitness?

Yoga, an ancient practice integrating movement and mindfulness, can reduce stress and build strength and flexibility. It includes various styles, including Iyengar, Hatha, Ashtanga, Yin, and Bikram (hot yoga), each offering unique benefits. For instance, Yin yoga has improved my spine and hip flexibility and enhanced my sleep. But is there a specific yoga style that excels in improving physical fitness?

Yoga Improves Strength In People Over 60

Physical fitness is vital for health, fall prevention, and daily activities for those aged 60 and older. A review of 12 studies on yoga’s effects in this age group found that yoga improved upper body strength, balance, mobility, and lower body flexibility in individuals aged 80 and above. Those in their sixties and seventies who practiced yoga 1-3 times a week for 9-12 weeks showed significant improvements in these areas.

The review indicated no significant gains in cardio-respiratory endurance or upper body flexibility with this duration of yoga practice. It did not identify a superior yoga style but confirmed that practicing yoga 1-3 times a week for 9-12 weeks can enhance physical fitness in older adults.

High-Intensity Yoga Improves Aerobic Fitness

yoga instructor assisting participant in session

Research has shown that four weeks of high-intensity cardio yoga can improve participants’ aerobic fitness compared to traditional Hatha yoga.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes with equal rest periods, increases muscle strength and endurance.

High-intensity interval training can last 30 seconds to three minutes, followed by rest periods of the same time for up to 20 to 30 minutes. It increases muscle strength and endurance. For many people with busy schedules, high-intensity interval training is very appealing because it offers a variety of health benefits in a short period.

Participants in this study improved their aerobic fitness during a twelve-session, four-week program. This program used four yoga poses performed at 1.5 seconds (high-intensity cardio yoga) and 3 seconds (traditional Hatha yoga) each for two ten-minute sessions, with a 10-minute treadmill walking recovery period at the midpoint of each 30-minute session.

So far, we have learned that yoga improves lower body flexibility, upper body strength, balance, and mobility in people over sixty. It may also be used as high-intensity interval training to improve aerobic fitness.

Can One Yoga Class a Week Enhance Physical Fitness?

Yoga has many physical benefits. This study investigated whether attending just one 90-minute hatha yoga class weekly for ten weeks would improve physical fitness. The participants were young women (18-22) who demonstrated improved balance, flexibility, and core muscle strength over the ten weeks.

This study also investigated the effects of the ten-week yoga program on body mass index, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and body fat percentage. The researchers concluded that more intense and/or longer sessions would be needed to determine if yoga could improve these aspects of physical health.

Bridging the Gap Between Weekly Exercise and A Healthy Lifestyle

We’ve previously addressed the significance of CDC guidelines recommending 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise and the potential of yoga to help achieve this objective. But what about the effectiveness of yoga in improving other lifestyle health factors?

According to Hopkins Medicine, “practicing yoga may help lower blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood glucose levels, as well as heart rate, making it a helpful lifestyle intervention.

Yoga reduces stress and improves muscular flexibility and strength. According to this study, “Hatha Yoga is one of the varieties of yoga regarded as a practice that can help avoid cardiovascular disease.”

This review examined several studies that used varied yoga styles and session times of different lengths. It found that yoga may help minimize cardiovascular disease risk factors, including body weight, heart rate, body mass index, blood pressure, inflammation, oxidative stress, and blood glucose levels.

The Final Word

Yoga is an ancient practice that enhances physical fitness by improving strength, flexibility, and balance. Research shows that yoga benefits older adults (60+), enhancing upper body strength, lower body flexibility, and mobility. While traditional forms like Hatha yoga improve these areas, high-intensity yoga can boost aerobic fitness through short, intense sessions.

Even one 90-minute weekly Hatha yoga session for younger participants can enhance core strength, balance, and flexibility. Yoga also reduces stress and improves overall well-being, possibly lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels.

To learn more about yoga’s health benefits, Check out these resources at Yoga International and Yin Yoga.

How To Use Stretching To Optimize Your Sleep, Flexibility & Reduce Your Daily Stress

Joseph Montalto on April 15, 2025

Are you interested in reducing your stress? Are your muscles tense all the time? A simple nighttime stretching routine may be all you need!

In my early forties, I was under a lot of stress. Despite my efforts to eat healthy and exercise regularly, I still had difficulty sleeping. So, I started a nighttime stretching routine and experienced better sleep in less than two weeks.

The Three Types of Stretching That Improve Your Flexibility

Muscle tightness occurs when there is increased tension in our bodies. The nervous system and the health of the muscles and connective tissues control this tension.

The three main types of stretching that improve muscle flexibility are:

Static
Dynamic
Pre-contraction stretching

Static stretching involves holding a specific position with the muscle on tension. If you perform a static stretch, you will maintain the position for 15-30 seconds until you feel a mild stretch sensation in the muscle.

“Active dynamic stretching generally involves moving a limb through its full range of motion to the end ranges and repeating several times”.

“Pre-contraction stretching involves a contraction of the muscle being

stretched or its antagonist [opposing] muscle before stretching”. For example, if you want to stretch your hamstrings, you can tense or contract them for 5 seconds and then stretch them.

Or you can contract your quadriceps (the antagonist) for 5 seconds before stretching the hamstrings.

How Stretching Your Body Can Improve Your Sleep

Static stretching has a calming effect on the body. Stretching engages the connective tissues that connect the muscles, nerves, blood vessels, bones, and organs of the body.

“Low-intensity stretching before bed has been shown to reduce stress and improve the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep”.

A great way to enhance the benefits of stretching before bed is to bring your attention to your breath. You can attend to the rhythm of each inhalation and exhalation, which makes a complete breath cycle (i.e., a total of about 6-8 seconds on average). Doing so will enhance your ability to quiet your mind, tracking your stretching hold times according to your breath instead of counting seconds.

How Static Stretching Calms the Nervous System and Reduces Your Stress

Gentle static stretching is soothing to the nervous system. It stimulates the “rest and digest” or parasympathetic branch of the autonomic or involuntary nervous system.

A study in the American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found that static stretching increased parasympathetic dominance compared to pre-stretching autonomic nervous system measurements.

When the “rest and digest” branch stimulates a calming benefit in your body, it counterbalances the sympathetic or “fight-flight” branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The “fight-flight” branch of the ANS is the branch that becomes overstimulated when we are stressed.

Activities and lifestyle habits, like stretching and a healthy diet, will enhance parasympathetic activity and are necessary to counterbalance or reduce the effects of sympathetic nervous system overload.

Stretching can also calm your body by improving blood flow or circulation, stimulating the release of endorphins (natural pain relievers) and serotonin (a neurotransmitter that improves mood), and reducing levels of the body’s primary stress hormone, cortisol.

Final Word

A daily stretching program improves our health and well-being in the following three ways:

Stretching improves the flexibility of our muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissues.

Low-intensity stretching improves the REM stage of sleep.

Gentle static stretching calms the body by stimulating the parasympathetic, or “rest and digest,” part of the nervous system.

Do you want to learn more about the health benefits of stretching? Connect with an experienced physical therapist, yoga instructor, or personal trainer in your area and get started today!

If you live in the Long Island, NY, area and want to learn more about stretching, you can connect with us here: 👉 https://montaltopt.com/specialties/stretching/

My intention is to educate, engage, and inspire you on your health journey. Thanks for reading!

We moved just up the road to East Norwich. Tower Square at 1035 Oyster Bay Road, East Norwich, NY 11732.