Laugh Your Way To Wellness With Yoga Trend

”Ho ho, ha ha ha,’ students in a fitness class at the University of Michigan Health System chant repeatedly while clapping their hands and walking around the room. They’re just getting warmed up; in the next half-hour, they will stretch their muscles and work on breathing exercises. They’ll also laugh for most of the 30 minutes, from self-conscious giggles to uninhibited belly laughs. All in the name of fitness. This is a “laughter yoga” course, part of a growing trend in parts of the United States, India and other countries. The students are re-learning something children already know instinctively: that laughter makes you feel better. “Kids laugh about 400 times a day, and adults only about 15,” notes Barb Fisher, a certified laughter yoga leader and the instructor of this class offered by the U-M Health System’s MFit health promotion division. “Studies have shown that 20 seconds of a good, hard belly laugh is worth three minutes on the rowing machine,” Fisher says. “However, that does not mean we want to stop doing all other exercises. It means that incorporating laughter yoga can add to the benefits we see from our regular exercise routine.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505225405.htm