Weight loss may not be the principal benefit of yoga, but these poses will help you shed a pound or two quickly.
Have you been cutting calories or even gone vegan to no effect? Yoga can result in healthy weight loss as it combines healthy feeding and exercises. The combination of asanas and meditation helps tremendously to improve mindfulness and your connection with your body.
Where stress is the root cause of weight gain, pranayama (breath control) helps calm the nerves. Combined with standing postures, you’ll be enhancing flexibility, agility, stability, and mental health.
But that’s not all there is to yoga for weight loss. You’re guaranteed to nourish a slimmer and toned-down look.
Best Yoga Asanas For Weight Loss
Warrior pose
Warrior pose builds stamina by strengthening the muscles, legs, buttocks, and back while enhancing heartbeat rate. They heighten focus and posture, and relax the body and mind.
It’s also known as Virabhadrasana, and it’s famous in all yoga classes and has three different variations. Advance to the front of the mat, maintaining a straight posture with your feet together. Start stretching your legs apart. Place the right foot parallel to the floor. The back foot should be 3 to 3.5 feet behind and turned in at a 45-degree angle.
With your next inhale, raise your arms to shoulder height, palms facing the floor. Bend your right knee up to ninety degrees. Keep a steady gaze over the third finger of your right hand at a point in the distance. Maintain the pose for as long as possible (make sure you don’t stress too much). Switch sides and do it again.
Plank pose
Plank pose helps you work out your arms and strengthen your core. Its benefits are immense, yet, one of the most effective poses for weight loss. This pose is the direct opposite of the regular push-ups, often challenging for beginners.
For the upward plank pose, sit with your legs straight and stretched out. Keep your hands behind your hips, fingers facing your feet. Rise, slowly but firmly, keeping straight and pointed feet. Try to pull your head back during elevation. It’s at this point you begin to feel its intensity on your abdominal muscles.
Triangle pose
The triangle pose comes with varieties of health benefits. It stretches your hips, shoulders, and spine and strengthens the legs, arms, knees, and ankles. It improves digestion and stability and reduces back pain by massaging and strengthening the posterior obliques. It’s perfect for stress relief and spinal nerves stimulation.
A yogi favorite for shedding belly fat, keep a straight posture with your hands overhead. Extend your legs sideways. Lay down, hands on your hips, touching your toes (like you’ll love to form a triangle). Keep your upper hand, and your eyes gazed at the ceiling. Sustain it for 5-6 seconds. Wash, rinse, and repeat!
Sun salutation
Suryanamaskara is another favorite yoga pose for losing belly fat. It incorporates a dozen breath poses, and several other yoga poses to tone the entire body.
Maintain a straight posture while standing. Inhale deeply and raise your arms overhead. Exhale as you bend forward. Jump one foot back and return to the plank pose. Hold for roughly five full breaths. Then, place your lower body on the floor by bending your knees.
Extend your legs, hands kept beneath your shoulders. To come out of the posture, inhale halfway and enter the cobra pose. Exhale and move into a downward dog-facing pose. Hold for five breaths. Jump up to your feet on top of the floor and bend while exhaling. Inhale and lift your arms overhead. Exhale and relax. Sun salutation can be effective for weight loss with steady practice.
Cobra pose
This one ranks high among the best power yoga poses for weight loss. Also known as Bhujangasana, the cobra pose can help you shed fat from your upper body and abdominal muscles. Pregnant women can’t partake in this.
Lie on a mat, feet flat on the floor, palms down on either side. Press the floor with both hands, keeping your fingers just below the shoulder muscles. Recline your shoulders in-between mid and light thrusts. Bend backward with your belly button towards your spine, focusing on your abs. Lift your upper torso, keeping your chin up, with your hands, hips, and feet held firmly on the floor. Take regular breathes (say four to five full inhale and exhale). Push yourself higher with each exhales.
Hey Joyfreshers, have you tried yoga for weight loss? What are the benefits? Let’s discuss below.
