Exercising is more than just working out to lose weight or build muscles so that your body is looks good, it is about feeling great and being a healthy person.  Although running and other kinds of cardiovascular work outs can help maintain a healthy body, yoga is a better form of exercise because it combines physical and mental health to get a complete body and mind work out.  An exercise that combines the body and mind has many more benefits and is overall a more healthy form of exercise.  Practicing yoga has the same cardiovascular and lung benefits as traditional forms of exercise.  Most people run to get the increased flow through the cardiovascular system which benefits the heart and to build their lung capacities.  Yoga has the same benefits but so subtly that the person practicing does not even realize that their cardiovascular systems are working hard.  The University of Maryland Medical Center published an article that states, “Pranayama [the breathwork in yoga] increases blood circulation and reduces oxygen consumption, which brings more oxygen to the brain, and improves the efficiency of oxygen use in the body” (Yoga).  Since yoga has these benefits of oxygenating the body without the hard physical exhaustion of running, there is no reason just to work out by running.  The other benefits coupled with the cardiovascular benefits makes yoga a more complete and total work out.  The breathing techniques used in yoga can increase lung capacity “as lung tissue becomes more elastic and the surrounding muscles more flexible” (Yoga).  Lung capacity and getting enough air into the lungs are an important part of being healthy because it makes you feel more alert and focused throughout the day.  Yoga is a more effective form of exercise because it has the same physical benefits as running along with mental health benefits.  Yoga works to improve your mental health by relieving stress and anxiety while increasing the feeling of balance and self-confidence.  Though for some people, running also has these benefits, running is not designed to work that way by something innate in the exercise.  Yoga is specifically designed to have these mental health benefits through the poses and meditations.  As someone who spent years running and always saw it as a burden that I had to do to be healthy, practicing yoga has become something I look forward to everyday and leave feeling uplifted and energized instead of exhausted after I am done.  It has improved my mental health in everyday life by making me feel more relaxed and able to balance the oppositional forces of good and bad in my life.  Though scientists cannot come to a consensus on how yoga produces these benefits, studies have proved that it really works.  Some scientists “believe yoga promotes the release of endorphins (natural painkillers and mood elevators) from the brain” (Yoga).  By naturally releasing more chemicals in the brain that make you feel better, yoga provides a benefit that running cannot.  The mental health benefits coupled with the physical health benefits make yoga a more complete and effective workout than running alone.  In addition to the mind-body connection that is built, yoga is an ageless exercise that benefits your health and can help you feel younger.  It does not matter if you are sixteen or sixty, yoga will only improve your health.  Years of running can take a toll on the body so that an older person has more trouble running and it can actually even be damaging to the body.  Yoga helps a person feel better regardless of his or her age.  The way yoga works is by reclaiming a flexibility and movement we all had as babies, but as we grew older our muscles tightened and are injured so we cannot move and exercise as easily.  Yoga even speeds up the healing process of injuries and can be modified so that if there is an injury, you can still reap the benefits.  Running not only is usually the cause of an injury, but even the slightest injury can leave you unable to exercise.  The best form of exercise can be practiced from the time you are a child until your death, which is something yoga gives you that running does not.