The Yoga rules

By Ian James Bennett

Doing yoga regularly will make you feel better about your body as it will tone muscles, reduce stress, makes you stronger and more flexible and will improve your physical and mental well being. Yoga exercises have been around for years but does it help you to lose weight?

Yoga will make you stronger but it will not raise your heart rate enough for it to reduce weight dramatically. There are many different yoga types with some more beneficial to weight loss than others. Iyengar yoga is where you hold a particular pose for several minutes helping flexibility but it will not help to much in the process of losing weight. In order to lose weight you need to raise your heart rate and burn calories while eating healthy. A lot of people include yoga in their workouts as it does help to improve your overall health. In order to lose weight using yoga you will need to do a vigorous 90 minute workout at least 3 -4 times a week.

The type of yoga that will help you to shed some pounds is called vinyasa-style yoga. This is based on a series of poses called sun salutations. Vinyasa uses a few yoga styles which will make you sweat and get your heart pumping. For the purpose of weight loss you could try these yoga types:

Ashtanga

This is good for weight loss as it is a very vigorous yoga type. Most people who practice ashtanga are very dedicated and people who want to take ths up are recommended to sign up for a series of lessons. Once you have learned all the positions it can be practiced at home but it will have to be done regularly for you to see the benefits from it.

Power Yoga

This is probably the most popular type of yoga for weight loss as it involves a vigorous cardiovascular workout.

Hot Yoga

What this does is uses vinyasa yoga in a hot room. This will make you sweat helping to lose weight and make you more healthy.

If you are new to yoga it is best to start off with a beginners class and work your way up to the harder stuff. If you cannot go to yoga classes there are plenty of good yoga videos about where you can copy the poses shown from your own home.

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