From an Ayurvedic perspective, linking some gentle movement with the breath on a regular basis is much more beneficial that doing a lot of extreme exercise without breath awareness on an irregular basis. Yoga means to yoke or unite and specifically unite movement with breath. This is one of the things that separates yoga from other forms of ‘exercise’. Movement with the breath is known as vinyasa Yoga and done with mindfulness and consciousness, it will become a meditation.
There are many benefits from learning how to move with the breath.
It calms the nervous system and in particular it switches on the parasympathetic nervous system. This calms you down, conserves energy and just decreases stress in general by suppressing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.
It relaxes the muscles.
It increases fitness and a greater lung capacity.
Conscious breathing massages the organs, strengthens muscles and helps you to correct your posture.
It feels good! It helps you to develop mindfulness muscles. By focussing on breathing and movement at the same time, you can stop thinking about all the millions of other thoughts that can distract you from being in the moment. It helps you to quiet the mind and become totally present. In fact, this is the original intention for Yoga asana practice, to prepare the practitioner for meditation.
If you are interested in learning more about moving with the breath, I can highly recommend the work of Max Strom. His book, A Life Worth Breathing, is a brilliant read for anyone who wants to learn more about how to deepen the practice of Yoga through conscious breathing to develop a more powerful level of awareness. You can also see him giving TED talks on YouTube with exercises to help you learn to breath more fully.
Thich Nhat Hanh is also one of my favourite mindfulness teachers and he has a beautiful, gentle way of teaching you how to connect with the breath. He can also be found on YouTube.
Change your breathing and you change everything.