Posted By: Stella Pike | May 28, 2017
Doing yoga has become really popular, as many celebrities are doing yoga and almost every fitness center has at least one yoga instructor. It is widely known that it is good for both your mind and body, as it improves your overall health and boosts your productivity, among other things.
However, one question constantly comes up – does yoga helps us lose some weight? Many experts discussed this topic and had different attitudes towards losing weight by doing yoga. The result is that it actually helps you keep your weight under control and even lose some weight, however, you cannot expect to lose many pounds in a short period of time by just doing yoga. Moreover, you cannot compare it to traditional workout plans, which are made to burn many calories quickly.
Many yoga instructors say that doing yoga is actually the best way to start exercising regularly. Being a great introduction to fitness, it will prepare your body for other types of exercise. Moreover, it will make you flexible and strong enough to do the other exercises correctly.
A lot of experts recommend taking up yoga initially, to help limber up the body and fix any problems with posture. Many people start doing yoga at home, and they don’t make any results, because they aren’t doing them right. So, take up some classes with a professional instructor to learn the basics, and you will be able to do them on your own at home later on.
Power yoga is an Americanized way of traditional techniques, which can burn a lot of calories, while preserving the point of yoga exercises – peacefulness and focus. So, traditional Kundalini techniques are various static poses combines with breathing techniques. On the other hand, Americanized version pairs meditative breathing with more dynamic and active poses.
Whether you are a novice, or you have been exercising for some time, taking up yoga will definitely boost your overall health, and help you shed some pounds.
Yoga is perfect for people who have injuries, because certain poses will keep the injured parts safe, while strengthening the muscles you wish to target. Moreover, yoga will help you develop a good posture, and get rid of headaches, back and neck pain, as well as muscle soreness. Having a good posture will positively affect your overall health, and make you look better, as you will be much more confident when you enter a room.
Regarding weight loss, all experts advise certain poses that are proven to burn calories. Poses that can help you slim down include:
All of these poses can be practiced in a more advanced and physically challenging manner as you progress, which will definitely burn some calories. Include some yoga poses in your morning routine, in order to prepare your body for the following day and the next class. We are stressed out all the time, so we tend to get physically and mentally fatigued quite often – without physical activity our body becomes weaker and weaker over time. Yoga will help counteract this by preparing your mind and body for all the challenging daily activities.
As you cannot lose a lot of pounds quickly and become a supermodel by just doing yoga, it is recommended that overweight people take up some other exercises such as running, working out in a gym, doing aerobics, etc.
Every experienced fitness instructor will advise you to visit your doctor and nutritionist first, in order to get some basic information about your health. This will help determine which exercises you should do and how often you can do them. While the doctor will advise you on possible injuries and provide you with vital information like the health of your heart, the dietitian will determine the right diet for you. Don’t look for fad diets online – ask a professional to give you a diet plan based on your allergies, metabolism, etc.
However, does this mean you shouldn’t do yoga? Of course not. As we’ve already mentioned, yoga will prepare you for tough exercises. As you probably haven’t been physically active, you cannot just start running. Strengthen your muscles by doing yoga, and then create a detailed exercise plan. You can keep doing yoga as a means of improving mobility and dealing with muscle soreness and stress. The advice that virtually every expert will give you is to continue doing yoga and eating healthy, because when these two are combined, there is no way you will gain the weight back.
In the end, we come to one conclusion – yoga is great for everyone, but it shouldn’t be associated with traditional workout plans, designed purely for losing weight. Yoga can certainly influence weight loss, and help you tighten up your body, but cannot help overweight people become slim in a month without combining it with a good diet and plenty of cardio. Yoga increases mobility and energy levels, which is the first step to losing weight, and many exercises do this to your body too aggressively. If you are a novice, make sure to take up some yoga, before starting a more physically demanding workout program.