Yoga is known to help improve body flexibility, muscle tone, posture, and one’s mental state, if practised for sufficient period of time. People have asked if yoga can help with weight loss and it seems that some types of yoga can.
To lose weight you must eat healthily and avoid fattening carbohydrates and saturated fats. You must also do sufficient regular exercise to burn calories. It is the ability to use more calories than you take in as food that enables you to lose weight. Exercise helps to burn off excess calories, and to be effective exercise needs to raise the heart-rate and get the blood pumping. This called cardiovascular exercise because it’s good for the heart and the circulation.
Cardiovascular exercise includes such activities as running, jogging, cycling, swimming, skiing, dancing, football, and racquet games like tennis and squash. Any activity that requires a fair bit of movement for a period of at least twenty minutes can help burn calories and lose weight.
Yoga is generally thought of as a fairly gentle pursuit, using slow, graceful movements to improve flexibility and help give peace of mind. There is however a more vigorous style of yoga amongst the several differing types, that is called Ashtanga from the school of Vinyasa. This type of yoga employs up to 75 different poses, one flowing into the next, and can take over an hour and a half to complete. You may not have time for that, but even half an hour every day, or every other day, can make a difference to your general health, your state of mind, and help you lose weight.
Even more intensive is what is called Power yoga, which is a westernised version with added vigour and less set routines. This style has been promoted in America and is popular with celebrities as part of their keeping fit routine. Power yoga classes can vary considerably from teacher to teacher with some being very similar to a hard gym work-out. Combine vigorous yoga with some other forms of aerobic exercise on a regular basis and you cannot help but lose weight unless you are over- eating.
Yoga is a whole-body approach to getting fitter and slimmer which is better than say, just trying to lose an inch off your waist. Yoga also helps build self confidence and peace of mind so can combat the depression that sometimes sets in when you have put on weight. The confident and purposeful mindset achieved through yoga can be almost as important as the physical aspect.
The Vinyasa style of movement and breath linked poses, can burn calories, especially if combined with other forms of exercise, and is a good way to not only lose weight but keep your body supple too.
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