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Lose Weight With Yoga

by: KimArcher
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Yoga is revered for its power to relieve stress, increase flexibility, and build muscle tone. It is not, however, well known for promoting weight loss. So you might be surprised to learn that it can actually help you burn calories.

Traditional yoga is not an extremely active pursuit. It works your muscles, but you rarely break a sweat just by holding a pose (unless it's really hot in the room). But the muscle-building effects of yoga do allow you to burn calories more efficiently. So if you participate in a good aerobic workout, you will see greater results than you would if you weren't doing yoga.

Yoga also teaches discipline, which will assist you greatly in sticking with your exercise program or new diet. Yoga strengthens the connection between mind and body, which makes you more motivated to take care of your body. Those who want to lose weight often suffer from the difficulty of getting motivated in the first place, so yoga can be very beneficial here.

Different Schools of Yoga

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, which provide the advantages of both yoga and aerobic exercise in one package. These types of yoga include:

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 - Ashtanga is a complex style of yoga that includes six different series of poses. Each series is more complex than the previous one, so it's important to start at the beginning and work your way up.

Power yoga - This is an Americanized version of yoga. It combines faster, more active movements with traditional yoga breathing techniques.

These yoga techniques offer more of the heart-healthy benefits of aerobic exercise than the usual kinds of yoga. While they won't quite give you the workout of a cardio class, you still get the dual advantages of aerobic fitness and the muscle toning and flexibility of yoga, which will no doubt help your weight loss efforts. And they're great for people who are too busy for more than one workout routine.

Other than being forms of exercise, yoga and aerobics seem to have little in common. But traditional yoga can enhance the effects of more intense workouts, and these newly popular styles of yoga can give you the best of both worlds. If other workout routines have left you disappointed, adding or switching to yoga might be the answer you're looking for.

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About the Author

Kim Archer enjoys the health benefits and relaxation of yoga. A great source of information on this restorative practice can be found at Yoga Essentials.  

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