If you've lost a lot of weight, you can deservedly feel good about your accomplishment. Taking and keeping off the pounds is a challenge; however, loose skin around your tummy is a common side effect of rapid weight loss, leaving unsightly "flaps and folds" around your middle. Yoga and running, both exercises that may have helped you lose the weight initially, will be of limited help in eliminating that extra skin.
Loose Tummy Skin
Skin is naturally elastic. It can stretch to adjust for different sizes of your body, such as an expanding torso when you inhale. If you become too large, though, your skin loses its elasticity like the elastic band in a pair of too-old underwear. Stretch marks are one symptom of that loss. When you lose the weight, that lost elasticity means your skin won't contract as quickly or efficiently. It remains loose on your now-smaller frame.
Improving Skin Elasticity
Unfortunately, Dr. Jason Spector of Weill Medical College at Cornell University reports that age and genetics are the two most important factors in your skin's elasticity. This means any exercise you choose will have at most a marginal impact; however, skin elasticity can be improved with exercises that gently stretch the skin. This is a common approach to cellulite and facial wrinkles.
Running
When you run, you burn a lot of calories, but you don't vigorously engage the muscles in your tummy. Running is a great way to lose weight to begin with, but it doesn't contribute directly to skin elasticity. The best you can say for running in this regard is the extra activity may contribute to generally healthier skin, which can mean some recovery of elasticity.
Yoga
Yoga practice consists of putting your body through a series of postures that improve your balance, endurance, flexibility and strength. Some of these postures will directly stretch the skin in your abdomen, which may improve the elasticity. As the elasticity improves, your skin can contract to reduce or eliminate the loose skin.
Bottom Line
Neither running nor yoga are top choices for eliminating loose skin around your tummy. They just don't directly engage with the most important factors for skin elasticity; however, if you're choosing between the two, yoga is a better choice than running for this purpose.
References
- I Fit and Healthy: How to Tighten Loose Skin After Weight Loss
- "Yoga For a New Age"; Bob Smith; 1987
- "The Art of Expressing the Human Body"; Bruce Lee; 1998
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