Yoga practice sculpts your body by toning, elongating and strengthening muscles, according to the "Yoga Journal." Whether or not yoga results in weight loss depends on your overall strategy. Yoga is designed to promote relaxation and encourage a connection between your mind and body. You're more likely to experience weight loss when you practice yoga in the context of a balanced fitness and eating program. Include aerobic workouts such as walking, bicycling or swimming in your routine, and plan a balanced diet that limits calories to a healthy level. Stay centered with yoga as part of a holistic plan that improves your strength and endurance, increases your cardiovascular capacity and provides proper nutrition.
Step 1
Focus on yoga as a way to relax and stabilize your mind and body. Yoga can help you reach your weight goal if you put it in proper perspective. The "Yoga Journal" suggests that the sequenced postures of yoga can give you a sense of control, which is important since weight issues can cause you to feel out of control. Yoga helps you restore the balance and focus that enables you to evaluate your eating and exercise regimen with renewed clarity.
Step 2
Employ yoga as a complement to cardiovascular exercise. Yoga loosens tight muscles and improves the range of motion in your joints, according to the "Yoga Journal." As a result, practicing yoga can help you avoid injury during other aerobic activities. Yoga sequences can also correct weight-related posture issues and lengthen larger muscles in your arms and legs.
Step 3
Schedule at least two yoga workouts a week. Although yoga is typically not an aerobic exercise, the poses and movements improve flexibility and lead to strength and muscle tone. The American Council on Exercise found that a 50 minute hatha yoga workout burns around 144 calories. Yoga does contribute marginally to your overall calorie deficit, but it has a much greater impact on muscle, bone and joint health. Yoga helps counteract the repetitive pounding that your body gets from more intense exercise.
Step 4
Add a form of Vinyasa yoga to your fitness routine. The "Yoga Journal" describes Vinyasa yoga as a vigorous sequence of flowing postures that incorporate rhythmic breathing. Two common types of Vinyasa yoga are Ashtanga and power yoga. Both involve a succession of intense poses that qualify these yoga forms as light aerobic workouts. Fifty minutes burns around 237 calories, according to the American Council on Exercise. The "Yoga Journal" proposes that Vinyasa-style yoga can supplement other forms of cardio exercise to help you lose weight, but cautions that intense yoga workouts may not be appropriate for beginners.
Tips and Warnings
- The American Council on Exercise reports that yoga has a positive effect on stress-related health issues, such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance, pain, heart disease, anxiety and depression.
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