Yoga Is Very Effective For Weight Loss

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.

Yoga is not though of as a particularly active form of exercise. While it works out your muscles, it is rare to become terribly sweaty during yoga (unless you are doing Bikram yoga, but then the room will be heated). The muscle toning effects of yoga do let you burn off calories efficiently, however. This means that a regimen of aerobic exercise in tandem with yoga will produce better results than if you were not doing yoga alongside of aerobic exercise.

An important component of yoga is discipline of mind and body, which will help you stay committed to your exercise program and healthy eating habits. Yoga reinforces the link between your body and your mind, increasing your desire to look after your body. This is very helpful for people who want to lose weight but have trouble getting motivated.

New Yoga Varieties

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 styles will give you many of the benefits of a cardiovascular workout such as increasing heart rate and working up a sweat, much more so than traditional styles of yoga. There is less of a conventional workout than say, an aerobics class, but they give you the best of both worlds. These are great styles for those who are a little too short on time to take two different exercise classes.

It may seem at first glance that aerobics and yoga share little common ground. However, yoga can enhance the benefits seen from aerobics and other cardio workouts and these alternate styles of yoga can combine the benefits of the two. If you are less than enthralled with the results you've gotten from other workouts, adding yoga to your regimen or switching from your current fitness routine to yoga may work well for you.

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.