Try Losing Weight With Yoga

May 8th, 2009

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. That’s why many people are surprised to find that it’s a great way to help you lose weight.

Conventional yoga isn’t a vigorous type of exercise. Even though your muscles are being toned, most people don’t experience an increased heart rate during yoga. 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.

An important component of yoga is discipline of mind and body, which will help you stay committed to your exercise program and healthy eating habits. 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 great if you want to lose some weight but have difficulty motivating yourself.

If you plan on using yoga by itself to help you drop some pounds, there are some new variations on the traditional practice of yoga. These have the advantages of both yoga and aerobic exercise in one package. It’s worth your while to investigate the wide assortment of yoga DVDs that are available for this purpose.

Following are a few of the most well known forms of yoga.

Vinyasa Yoga: Vinyasa yoga is centered on shifting from one asana, or pose, to another while concentrating on your breathing. The Sun Salutation is a typical position, but there are many others. Vinyasa yoga is often practiced in a heated room to encourage sweating.

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. They won’t quite give you the workout of a cardio class. However, you still get the dual advantages of aerobic fitness along with the muscle toning and flexibility of yoga. 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.

Yoga and aerobics don’t appear to have much in common. Nevertheless, yoga training can boost the benefits of cardiovascular exercise. As well, there are new ways to practice the art of yoga that have more aerobic benefit for your body. If you’re dissatisfied with the results you’re seeing from your normal exercise program, why not give yoga a try.

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