Yoga is widely known and performed by many people today, mostly by health enthusiasts. The goal of Yoga is to aid a practitioner in achieving a balanced sense of being of the mind, body and spirit. Many have resorted to yoga to recover from or to prevent sickness. These days, many people also choose Yoga as a means to lose weight.
What Yoga can really help you with in terms of losing weight is to help speed up your metabolism. It is common knowledge that metabolism plays a very important role in increasing the burning of calories. Regular practice of Yoga will help in weight loss and also prevent weight gain.
Just like any other weight loss method, we have to understand that Yoga takes time before the desired results are achieved. There is a need for discipline in performing Yoga on a regular basis and making it a part of your daily routine to totally experience its benefits.
Yoga involves different breathing techniques and twisting positions or physical poses that stimulate the function of the internal organs. These poses create heat in the body and because of this, metabolism becomes stimulated as well. As your metabolism increases, it helps your body burn more calories. Burning more calories will eventually reduce your weight assuming that you maintain a normal caloric intake. A good rule of thumb is that practicing 10 minutes of Yoga will burn approximately 50 calories. An hour of Yoga will burn about 250 calories.
All of the various yoga poses, which include forward and backward bending and twisting positions, help to normalize the activities of your body’s internal organs. These positions enhance the endocrine system which is responsible for the body’s chemical processes that converts food into energy for the body to use.
Regular practice of yoga also improves the body’s blood circulation and helps normalize your blood pressure. A healthy circulatory system will help keep the body energetic and produces many mental and physical benefits including reduction of stress hormones. Proper blood circulation also helps oxygenate all parts of your body as the blood carries oxygen to all the tissues and organs of the body.
This oxygenation of the body cells using yoga breathing techniques also helps in weight loss. Yogis believe that a person’s energy is transported through our breath. Practiced control of our breath, a major component of yoga, can lead it into different areas of our body and every tension will become converted into energy. Exhaling allows us to release anything that is no longer needed by our body.
Another benefit to yoga is the toning of muscle tissue. The different positions of yoga which use isometric exercise, allow every part of your body to work leading to development of firm, lean and elongated muscles. As you gain leaner muscle tissue you will also enhance the burning of calories even when you are resting.
Yoga is, indeed, an effective way to help you lose weight and create a strong metabolism but, you have to be realistic on your expectations. While it may take time before you can actually see the desired improvements, combining yoga exercises with a healthy diet that is low in calories and carbohydrates will eventually burn those extra pounds of fat.
Rachel Tuller is a busy mother, sales executive, an accomplished speaker, freelance writer, health enthusiast, and a lifelong student of personal development. You can enjoy other articles about yoga at NiceYoga.com [http://www.niceyoga.com]
