How Yoga Can (Best) Help You Lose Weight And Be In Shape

 Yoga is a form of exercise and way of living that focuses on integrating body, mind, and soul. It is a practice associated not just with the physical well-being of the body but with the overall health of a human being. The word “Yoga” itself refers to the union of our individual consciousness and the universal consciousness. Anyone that adopts the practice, and makes it a part of everyday routine, can truly feel the difference – mentally, physically, and spiritually.

 Yoga can help you stay healthy and improve your strength, balance and stress levels.

 It increases flexibility, muscle strength and tone. It improves respiration, energy and vitality.

 What is less well-known is that yoga can be a very effective tool for weight loss too.

 Many think that yoga is not fast-paced enough to burn the necessary number of calories for true weight loss.                                                    

 The truth, though, is that yoga demands a great deal of both physical and mental strength, focus, endurance, and flexibility.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

How Yoga Helps You Lose Weight By Harmonizing Your Three Energetic Body Layers

 Yoga has an amazing way of uniting and creating harmony among your mind, your body, and your soul – these are the three layers that our energetic bodies are composed of, and each layer depends on and affects the other two. When one layer is unbalanced the other follow suit.                                                                

 This ability of yoga, to create harmony among the three layers of our energetic bodies, is key to its effectiveness as a weight loss tool, since all the layers significantly affect our ability to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.                                                                              

 It is well-known that our mental state affects what and how much we choose to eat – so that a good mental state leads to healthier food choices. When our mind is in a calm, pure state through a consistent yoga practice not only can we see things and situations in our life more clearly and make better decisions, but our soul is set free and we can connect with our true feelings. Eating or drinking too much is no longer something that can entice us.                                                                                                                                                                       

 When the soul is awakened and you are in touch with your spiritual nature, you start to realize that life has a deeper meaning – destructive habits no longer serve your ultimate goal thus no longer have any appeal. What pleases the soul is a pure body and mind – contentment in the current moment.                                                                                                                                                                                            

 All this, then, has a direct effect on weight loss as we are much less likely to make unhealthy choices in our everyday lives.                     

In the physical level, yoga offers hundreds of asanas (postures) contained within a countless number of flows or sequences. All postures deliver physical benefits additionally to detoxification on some level. Detoxification encourages the purification of both the body and mind and eradicates the stagnant junk in the body that weighs us down.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                    Best Yoga Practices To Lose Weight                 

 Although all types of yoga are effective to deliver purification, calories burning, flexibility improvement and muscle tone, to calm the mind, and provide a feeling of inner peace and contentment, if your goal is to lose weight, certain practices are more effective than others.

 If you want to burn fat and keep it off, you should focus on power yoga and vinyasa flow. 

 These are both fast-paced flows that provide an excellent mixture of cardio and strength-training. The dual combination is a potent mixture leading toward effective fat burning and increased lean muscle mass. You should expect to burn anywhere from 400 to 600 calories per hour, which is equivalent to a typical hour in the gym.                                                                                                                         

Yoga Asanas To Get You Started

 Almost all Asanas aim at strengthening your core, increasing your stamina and your flexibility, upping your metabolic rate, and cleansing your body. Through twisting the body, forward and backward bends, inversions and other poses yoga opens up otherwise rusted muscles and facilitates weight loss. 

 Here are a few basic yoga asanas to help you get started, especially if you are a beginner:

     1. Surya Namaskar: One of the most well-known and widely practiced asanas. Surya namaskar literally translates to sun salutation. What makes this asana great for the entire body is that it consists of different poses encompassed in one – it involves twelve different poses that focus on various parts of the body. Surya namaskar strengthens your skeletal system, including your ligaments, and aids in easing stress and anxiety.

     2. Warrior Pose or Veerabhadrasana: This asana has two versions, the warrior pose 1 or veerabhadrasana I and the warrior pose 2 or veerabhadrasana II where you mainly change the position of your arms, from extended above your head, in version 1, to across the length of your body in the forward-backward direction. The warrior poses work your legs, thighs, back and arms, and help in improving blood circulation.

    3. Triangular pose or Trikonasana: In this asana you stretch one of your sides and extend your hands in the upward-down direction while you turn your head looking upwards. The triangular pose is great to work the sides of your body, your arms and thighs. 

    4. Upward plank or Purvottanasana: In this asana you essentially take a pose that is the opposite of the position you’d get in order to perform a conventional push up. It may seem a bit difficult to perform at the beginning but, with a little effort, you’ll soon get the hang of it – you will see great benefits as the upward plank works extensively on your back, shoulders, arms, spine, wrists, legs, inner thighs and hips. It is also great for the respiratory system and the core strength of your body.

    5. The boat pose or Paripurna Navasana: As the name suggests this asana requires you to get a V-shaped pose, lifting your legs and upper body and extending your hands towards your feet, that resembles a boat. You should aim to hold this position for 10 seconds initially and moving up this time as days pass. You may feel your stomach muscles giving out “distress” signals during this exercise but, trust me, this pose will destroy your stubborn belly fat if you keep at it.

    6. The bridge pose or Setu Bandha Sarvangasana: In this pose you extend your body upwards from the pelvis area getting support from your feet and shoulders, and looking upwards. This asana works wonders on your hips, thighs, stomach and back.

 Some other yoga poses you can try, once you have mastered the ones already enumerated, that will help burn fat, build muscle tone, and give you more flexibility, are the Extended Side Angle Pose or Utthita Parsvakonasana, the Four-Limbed Staff Pose or Chaturanga Dandasana, the Pose Dedicated to the Sage Marichi I or Marichyasana I, the Seated Forward Bend or Paschimottanasana, the Chair Pose or Utkatasana, and the Upward-Facing Dog Pose or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana.                                                                                 

How To Do It

 One more amazing thing about Yoga is that all you need to get started is a yoga mat, while a carpeted space will also do the job.

 You can initially aim to perform the sequence of basic yoga asanas given above at least three times a week. Perform each pose one time and hold it for 3 to 5 deep breaths, unless otherwise noted. As you move forward and as you begin finding this sequence easy to perform, and it no longer presents a challenge, you can increase the repetitions of each asana to 2 or 3 and you can hold each pose for longer – 5 to 8 deep breaths. You can also start incorporating other asanas in the sequence, as already mentioned. 

 If you feel that your fitness level allows, maybe even demands, to skip the beginner phase, and you are serious about losing weight and getting fit, then you can try to implement a 60-minute power yoga and/or vinyasa flow practice five to six days per week.                                  

 This article’s aim is not to analytically describe each asana and how to perform it. There is a plethora of information about each asana available online and easily accessible by anyone. (You can, for example, find detailed information about how to perform each yoga pose / asana on the Yoga Journal site.)

 The aim of this article is to give an idea and some direction as to how yoga can be very effective in assisting you achieve your weight loss goals. 

 If you want access to a step-by-step progressive yoga program, designed exclusively for women, to deliver maximum fat burning results and body shaping effects in the shortest amount of time then you should give the ShapeShifter Yoga program a try.                          

 Remember that any form of physical activity will be rendered unproductive if not coupled with a proper diet. So couple your practice with a natural diet for optimal results – healthy food choices, relying on fresh and organic produce, along with processed junk food minimization, can make all the difference. Also, try not to drink alcohol more than once a month. Even one measly drink can sabotage days of hard work.

 If you want more detailed information about adhering to a healthy diet aimed at achieving and maintaining a healthy weight the smart way, then you should read my article on “The 7 Commandments Of Smart Dieting”.

 So, what are you waiting for? Roll out the mat, connect with your breath, tune in to your spiritual nature that connects every cell of your body to the universe. Liberate the soul and get ready to bask in the wonder of all the positive changes that are coming!