Yoga Mad

You’re probably well aware of the ability of yoga to lower your stress levels, improve your flexibility and tone your muscles. But it’s not typically associated with helping you lose weight. 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. So, cardiovascular exercise will yield better results if you also practice yoga regularly.

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. Therefore you feel more motivated to care for 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: This particular form of yoga involves moving from one pose to another, all the while paying attention to your breathing. There are lots of different poses that you might recognize the name of, including the Sun Salutation. 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. As well, there are new ways to practice the art of yoga that have more aerobic benefit for your body. If you’re not happy with the progress you’re making with your usual fitness routine, consider adding yoga to the mix.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 2:08 pm and is filed under How to begin Yoga, Main Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.