Yoga for Weight Loss - What Is Needed to Lose Weight With Yoga?

There are many reasons to implement a yoga routine into your weekly schedule. Many people focus on the increase of flexibility and balance that is sure to be seen by those who practice yoga regularly. While it is definitely true that avid yoga participants are more flexible and balanced than when they first begin, there are other physical benefits of yoga. There are many different methods for attempting to lose weight, but if you want to appreciate all the other spiritual, mental and physical benefits of yoga, you can choose this as your method of weight loss. The reduction of weight you experience will be based on what type of yoga you choose and the diet you adopt.

There are a couple types of yoga that are specifically geared toward helping participants lose weight. One is called hot yoga. By practicing yoga in a room that is well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit with an instructor who has hot yoga certification, you can see a quick drop in pounds. Of course, this is primarily water weight since you will sweat more performing hot yoga than other forms. Many people love this method because it loosens up your muscles and helps you relax. You cannot count on the temporary, quick loss of pounds offered by hot yoga, however.

For a more intense weight loss program, you can choose power yoga, also known as ashtanga yoga. Athletes and others who want to see a quick and permanent physical change choose this type of yoga for its increased emphasis on cardiovascular activity. This is also a great type of yoga to pursue if you want to obtain training to be a yoga teacher. The sequences of poses you learn will help you be able to practice yoga wherever you are and whenever you want.

Your diet will also be critical for you to lose weight. You may try to eat things you know are healthy, like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free, organic products, but the simple fact is that the earth's soils are not what they used to be. The combination of genetically engineered food and the depleted nutrients in the soil is leading to less and less healthy foods, even if they are organic. That is why your yoga for weight loss should be coupled with as healthy of a diet as you can muster along with the right dietary supplements to help counter the nutrient-lacking foods available today.

Few careers deliver the flexibility and satisfaction of becoming a yoga teacher. Yoga teacher training offers the support and guidance necessary to acquire your official yoga instructor training.

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Best Yoga Warm-Up? Somatic Movement Might Be the Answer

Do you really need a warm-up for a yoga session? Isn't yoga gentle enough on its own? If you need a little kickstart, how about just doing some sun salutes? The answers are, respectively... Maybe not, probably, and yes, often that's enough... But haven't you ever got a couple of postures into your routine and thought that something's just a little sticky? Maybe there's one little bit of your back that feels a tad locked, or the hips are just not as supple as usual. Well, if you have, somatic movement might just be the answer...

Somatic movement is so incredibly subtle that when I was first introduced to it, even though I had been a long-time yoga practitioner, I thought it was just a little bit too gentle. However, when I had actually tried out the exercises, my body felt so energized and alive, totally effortlessly, that I was forced to change my views.

I started to use somatics as a preparation for my daily yoga practice and found that I was experiencing a far deeper and subtler level in the asanas. This was not just from the fact that the body was well warmed up and the joints 'lubricated' before I even started, but because somatics itself relies on such a deep awareness of movement, which, although that is also encouraged in yoga practice, can often get lost as our asanas become so familiar that our attention drifts.

Somatics brings you back to the importance of breathing and awareness of every bodily sensation as you move, and this calms every aspect of the physiology so that by the time you get to your asanas, you are already deep into that experience.

I find that I think of somatics as a sort of finer sandpaper than the asanas, and with this it can also be useful to finish off after the your yoga practice. After all, these routines were all conceived to deepen our understanding of our own physiologies and expand our intuition, so each day you might spontaneously design some slightly different routine to unlock the stresses and strains of modern life, and adding somatics to your arsenal of techniques to choose from can only be a good thing.

So, however experienced you are at yoga, and however you choose to use somatics as part of your daily workout, I urge you to check out these wonderful techniques. Doing so can only deepen your practice! Good luck!

Philip Escott, author of 'Pure Activity: Eat Better - Exercise Better - Feel Better', in partnership with Somatic Movement Educator Brian Ingle N.D, D.O., invites you to visit the following link for FREE videos and newsletter and to find out more about how the combination of Ayurvedic diet and exercise and Somatic Movement Education can supercharge your health and fitness... Instant downloads also available of Pure Activity and the amazing 90-minute Somatic Movement Education practice video.
http://holistic.pureactivity.com/

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