Photo by fizkes / Shutterstock.com - One Legged King Pigeon Yoga pose
Yoga has often been praised for its ability to help the practitioner become more flexible, balanced, and mentally centered. Many runners and other fitness enthusiasts enjoy incorporating yoga as part of their stretching before and after workouts thanks to these qualities. However, yoga has not been depended on to burn many calories.
It is possible to burn more calories during yoga and the answer isn’t hot yoga. Instead, there are 5 real ways you can burn more calories as you perform the various yoga poses.
Move Through Poses Faster
One way to burn more calories during a yoga workout is to move through your poses faster than normal. This will turn your yoga session into more of an aerobic workout, which may not make you popular with your teacher. So, if you want to go through a speedy yoga workout, you may want to do it at home. You won’t lose out on all the benefits of doing yoga, but the more peaceful side of practicing yoga may be lost as you move through poses faster.
If you don’t want to speed through your yoga workout but still want the benefit of a higher calorie burn, then don’t take rests between poses. Simply move between one pose to the next with no time allotted for pausing.
Look For “Power” Yoga Classes
There are some yoga studios which are now offering “power” yoga classes. These classes offer yoga classes which move through yoga poses faster and with greater intention. So, if you aren’t sure how to transition between more methodical yoga to a faster form of yoga or you need some motivation, you can attend some of these “power” yoga classes.
Make sure these classes are not combined with any hot yoga aspect. Combining high heat with quicker movements is an easy way to bring on heat exhaustion and injury.
Focus On More Intense Yoga Poses
A clear exertion difference exists between the various yoga poses, which allows you to burn more calories performing some poses more than others. It makes sense when you think about it, as the more relaxing child’s pose has nothing on the exertion required to maintain the eagle pose. Other poses you can focus on for greater calorie burn are:
- Warrior 1,2,3
- Plank
- Arrow
- Headstand
- Eight-angle
- Lord of the Dance
Also, by performing more difficult yoga poses, some research has shown that these more intense poses can actually increase self-esteem and energy.
Add A Level Of Difficulty To Your Poses
Once you have moved beyond being a beginner yogi, it may be time to start adding more difficulty to your yoga poses. Many times yoga teachers will mention variations on the poses as they are performed. Some of these variations may be simple, such as lifting a leg toward the ceiling during downward facing dog. Yet, by adding a layer of complexity to your yoga workout, you can burn more calories than in the standard position.
If you do not attend yoga classes but want to know how to perform variations on the yoga poses you know, look for reputable yoga resources either online or in books. These resources should be able to walk you through how to transition between the basic poses to the more complicated variations.
Lengthen Your Yoga Duration
While your body and mind can benefit from 15-20 minute yoga sessions, it does not burn that many calories. By simply lengthening the duration of your yoga workouts, you can burn more calories and keep your metabolism running at a higher speed.
Yoga will never be the best way to burn calories quickly, but by following the outlined advice, you can start burning more calories than you were previously.
