The Power of Yoga to Help You Lose Weight
You’re probably well aware of the ability of yoga to lower your stress levels, improve your flexibility and tone your muscles. However, it’s not so well known for its contributions to weight loss. Most people don’t think of yoga first when they want to burn calories. So it can be surprising to discover that it can actually be an effective way to boost your weight loss efforts.
Traditional yoga isn’t a strenuous workout. While it conditions and tones your muscles, you’re not likely to work up a sweat during a yoga session. However, the fact that your muscles are being given a workout means your body is utilizing calories more effectively. Therefore, you’ll get more benefit from your aerobic workouts if you include yoga in your fitness routine.
At the core of yoga is the discipline of both your body and mind. This should lead to stronger motivation to stick with your fitness routine and to eat healthfully. A core tenet of yoga is to develop the relationship between your mind and body. This increases your desire to look after your body. This is very helpful for people who want to lose weight but have trouble getting motivated.
Conventional forms of yoga have been supplemented with some new techniques that can help you lose weight more easily. These have the advantages of both yoga and aerobic exercise in one package. And to make it easy, there’s a huge variety of yoga DVDs that you can buy that will give you an effective workout.
Following are a few of the most well known forms of yoga.
Vinyasa Yoga: This particular form of yoga involves moving from one pose to another, all the while paying attention to your breathing. The Sun Salutation is a typical position, but there are many others. This style of yoga is typically performed in an overheated room so that you sweat profusely.
Ashtanga Yoga: A very detailed type of yoga, it encompasses a number of series made up of individual poses. They increase in complexity as you progress, so you must perform them in order, improving your skill as you go.
Power Yoga: This modern adaptation of yoga mixes active, high-speed actions with yogic breathing.
These yoga techniques offer more of the heart-healthy benefits of aerobic exercise than the usual kinds of yoga. You won’t experience the full benefits of an aerobic workout. But you will still experience the benefits of cardiovascular health and muscle toning, along with improved flexibility. This will no doubt help your weight loss efforts. As well, these yoga routines are ideal if you’re too time pressed to handle more than one kind of workout.
On the surface, aerobics and yoga have few similarities. Regardless, adding some yoga training to your regular workout can enhance its effects. And the newer styles of this ancient practice can be a great replacement for your usual aerobics. If you’re dissatisfied with the results you’re seeing from your normal exercise program, why not give yoga a try.
Tags: exercise, fitness, Weight Control, Weight Loss, Yoga
