Originally Posted by Aditi

Yogasana/postures increase flexibility and such. For those of us who grew up sitting in chairs, hip flexibility can be a problem. If you are practising a type of meditation that requires sitting for very long periods of time, you run the risk of losing the meditative state due to the body becoming uncomfortable. Practising movement, postures, etc. outside of sitting time should help to prevent that from happening.

In Sanskrit, the word yoga, of course, means connection or union. Union or connection of the individual soul with God, divine Self, Brahman, whatever you want to call it. So, the word can be translated as 'meditation', because the usual prescribed way to do this is to still the body, direct the senses inward and quiet the mind by focusing on a symbol of divinity that speaks to you.

I am not sure why we, in the west, say just yoga when we mean the exercises. If I had to guess, I would say, maybe it means establishing a connection with the body. Does anyone here know?