Yoga is probably not the first thing you think about when it comes to losing weight. There are numerous high intensity exercise formats that can help with weightloss, however the effectiveness and benefits of yoga can affect weight loss and here is why:
1. Yoga calms and clears your mind – If you are someone who eats due to high levels of stress and tension, yoga can help reduce those levels and get you to relax. The deep breathing and slow stretching movements will help aid in resuming a very clear and calm mind. The balance poses require you to forget about your day and focus on the task at hand. The regular practice of yoga can become a great method in coping with every day problems that arise.
2. Yoga strengthens and streamlines your muscles – During the course of a yoga session, you utilize every muscle in your body making you streamlined and balanced in posture. You are stretching, toning and firming your body as you go through the various poses in a class. Building lean muscle tissue promotes caloric burning even when you are at rest.
3. Yoga helps to normalize sluggish glands – The toning movements in yoga not only work on the muscles but also the internal organs as well. The twisting poses, forward and backward bends, and inversions help stimulate the endocrine system. Postures like the shoulder stand and the fish help regulate the mechanism of the thyroid gland in the neck.
4. Yoga gives you increased flexibility and energy – Increasing blood flow from the body to the brain, which increases oxygen consumption can help you feel more energized at the end of a session. The calming effect and gently working on your muscles allows you to get deeper into poses and stretching, thus increasing your flexibility.
5. Yoga burns calories – In a typical hatha style yoga class, on average you can expect to burn about 240 calories in 1 hour. If you are practicing some other highly physical forms of yoga such as astanga, it is possible to burn more than 400 calories.
At the end of the day, yoga is a great way to burn some calories and gain some mental relaxation. The nice part about yoga is you can do it virtually anywhere and has little to no cost involved. Yoga is meant to be a personal thing and should be done on a consistent basis for maximum benefit.