For wellness, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more holistic practice than yoga. Your physical and mental health can improve from breaking your board.
Physical benefits
The limb-stretching, muscle-building, weight-lifting nature of yoga has many physical benefits.
For starters, yoga can improve your metabolism. An adult learning found that people who exercised had a more efficient metabolism and less weight than yogis.
It’s also clear that yoga’s combination of cardio and strength burns calories. A 160 pound person can burn around 180 calories per hourin and out of poses. A 2021 education found that both hatha yoga and vinyasa yoga resulted in weight loss, with an average of 3.4 kilograms (7.5 pounds) lost over 6 months.
Additional strength and flexibility are two other well-known benefits of the practice. Studies show that even sedentary people can build these elements of fitness by practicing yoga. One to read showed that after 8 weeks of practicing at least twice a week (180 minutes), people with no previous yoga experience improved muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Spiritual benefits
On the surface, yoga may just look like stretching—but the practice goes far beyond the physical. Yoga engages the mind in all sorts of ways that can be beneficial for weight loss.
By training your brain to be calm and focused, yoga sessions promotes mindfulness. Mindfulness can have far-reaching effects in many areas of life, such as promoting healthy eating and greater body awareness.
As a form of self-care, yoga can also promote a healthy body image. In a study 2018young people who practiced this reported higher levels of body satisfaction. Improved self-esteem and motivation also emerged connected to practice.
Then, too, the stress-relieving effects of yoga can follow you off the board and into the kitchen. Some research found that people who practiced yoga ate less.
Want to get started with yoga but don’t know how? We got you.
It all starts with setting realistic goals and expectations. If you’ve never practiced before, you won’t find yourself hitting difficult poses like scorpion or crow overnight—and that’s okay. Set smaller, step-by-step goals, such as attending a 30-minute class twice a week or mastering a few basic poses. Little by little you will work towards a good practice.
Choosing a class (or video) for beginners is also wise. Check your gym or yoga studio’s schedule for introductory sessions, and don’t be afraid to let the instructor know before class that you might need some modifications. Most are happy to offer customizations to make the class a better experience for beginners.
Meanwhile, if you’ve been practicing yoga for weight loss, don’t forget to combine it with other healthy lifestyle practices for the best results. Although stretching and holding poses will burn calories, yoga may not be the only way to get you to your weight loss goal. A balanced diet, cardio exercise and adequate sleep are other keys to achieving a healthy weight.
Stereotypes of little kids doing yoga at the gym in impossible contortions can make you feel to some extent they threatened about private lessons. If you’re worried that a gym will make you self-conscious, start with home workouts. (YouTube is a treasure trove of tutorials and tutorials clearly aimed at overweight people.) There’s no one to impress just in your living room.
Or, if you’re ready for private yoga, let your instructor know your needs. There are changes always it is possible.
No matter where you exercise, give yourself credit for showing your health. And, at the beginning of your session, don’t forget to set an intention that you find uplifting or encouraging, such as “I take care of my body” or “I am worthy of love and respect.”
