Does power yoga really help in making you shed those extra pounds? The answer is yes! Power yoga includes some cardiovascular exercises that definitely promote weight loss.
Did you know that yoga is considered to be much more effective in making you lose weight when compared to other forms of exercise? In the United States, millions of people practice yoga as a form of a rejuvenating workout regimen in order to maintain a healthy body and have a stress-free life.
If your goal is to lose some weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle, our free 30 Day Yoga Challenge is a good starting point. With different sessions each day, you will discover the best routine to get you closer to your fitness goals. It’s also good to keep track of your progress and see how far you’ve come for additional inspiration.
Yoga for Weight Loss
Power yoga is a vigorous form of yoga and is perfect for those who want to practice asana for fitness and/or weight loss. Why yoga, you ask?
Yoga not only helps you make the necessary lifestyle changes get fit and healthy, it also fosters a better connection between your mind, body, and spirit to help you along your journey. This connection makes you more aware of your intentions/motivations, how you eat, and what you consume on a daily basis. This sense of awareness increases and develops the longer you practice yoga!
In the physical sense, Power yoga helps you strengthen your gluteal muscles and tone the entire body.
Power Yoga Poses
Here are some fantastic Power Yoga poses that promote weight loss, along with a few tips to help you practice them.
Basic Squats
It is always advised to begin any yoga exercise with your basic Surya Namaskar. This helps you warm up and get used to the cardiovascular exercises that you are going to perform.
The Utkatasana or simple squats help you tone your thigh muscles. Just squatting down half way and getting up is what this exercise is all about. It is important to follow and maintain technique of inhaling and exhaling while going down and coming up.
Downward Dog to Half Plank Variation
This Power yoga pose is another demanding pose which requires your core strength. Raising your leg high up to the ceiling and getting it forward makes you tighten your abdominal muscles.
Downward Dog to Small Dog
This again is similar to the one mentioned above. In the Downward Dog position, you do small bends along with your inhaling and exhaling. This exercise again works well on your leg muscles and abdominal area.
Small Dog to Plank
This pose strengthens your core and also makes your shoulder muscles strong at the same time. This is an excellent way to tone your body and lose weight. This exercise is excellent for those aiming at weight loss.
Standing to Leg Raise
Inhaling and lifting both your legs one at a time up towards the ceiling is a great exercise for weight loss and toning the problem areas, especially in the mid-section. This exercise works on your knees, thighs and engages the entire lower body.
Abdominal Churning
This is a fantastic way to burn the fat around the hips and tone up the belly. Do not forget to inhale and exhale during this time — breathing is very important during the clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations. This exercise strengthens and tones the lower body. Once done with the core exercise, rest in Savasana.
The Markat Asana
This asana provides a good twist to the back and stretches the back muscles well. Twist one leg over the other alternatively in this asana to help relieve stress and tension in the back.
Benefits of Power Yoga
Power yoga has gained popularity around the world and gives you a complete body workout which includes flexibility, toning and making different muscles group and the entire body strong.
Let us look at just some of the many benefits of Power Yoga listed below:
- Burns calories
- Increases stamina
- Increases metabolism
- Stress relief
- Increases flexibility
So all you fitness enthusiasts or for those who want to burn those extra calories, try out these power yoga exercises and feel the difference!
