Friday, August 13, 2010

Boost Weight Loss Endeavors Using Yoga

By Beth Shaw

Well known for its power to bring down the body's stress level, promote flexibility and build and tone lean muscle, yoga is not known for its equally powerful effects for weight loss. You may not have heard yoga described in this context, yet it could be a great way to burn calories.

Yoga is not though of like a specifically energetic form of exercise. While it works out your muscles, it can be rare to become awfully exhausted during yoga (unless you are doing Bikram yoga, however the room will be heated). The muscle toning results of yoga does let you reduce calories successfully, however. This means that a regimen of aerobic exercise in conjunction with yoga will create better benefits than if you were not performing yoga alongside of aerobic exercise.

Yoga also teaches discipline that will help you significantly in staying with your workout program or new diet. Yoga strengthens the bond between mind and body, which makes you more determined to look after your body. Those who wish to slim down usually suffer from the issue of getting motivated in the to begin with, so yoga can be quite beneficial here.

New Incarnations of Yoga

Those who wish to slim down exclusively by means of yoga may find what they're looking for in non traditional yoga classes. There are a variety of yoga styles that can give you the traditional benefits of yoga and a cardiovascular workout at the same time. These include:

Vinyasa yoga - This type of yoga is based on movement from one pose to another while exercising yoga breathing methods. Sun Salutations are often used, but other positions usually are included as well. That is sometimes carried out in a hot area to improve sweating.

Ashtanga yoga - This is a complex style, incorporating six separate series of various positions. These increase in intricacy, so you should start at the beginning and learn as you go.

Power yoga - This "westernized" type of yoga features more activity and quick movements alongside of yoga breathing.

These yoga techniques offer more of the heart-healthy benefits of aerobic workout versus the typical kinds of yoga. Although they won't really provide you with the workout of a cardio class, you still get the dual benefits of aerobic fitness and the muscle toning and versatility of yoga, which will no doubt help your weight loss efforts. And they're great for people who are so busy for more than one workout routine.

Other than being kinds of exercise, yoga and aerobics seem to have little in common. But traditional yoga can enhance the results of more extreme workouts, and these recently popular styles of yoga can present you with the best of both worlds. If other workout routines have left you disappointed, adding or switching to yoga might be the answer you're searching for.

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