Benefits of Yoga

[lov2bfit]

Hi everyone. I hear a lot of you talk about Yoga on here and I was just curious, having never done it, what kind of benefits you get from it? Does it help tone your body and help burn fat or is it mainly just for gaining flexability? I would be interested in trying it sometime, but I like workouts that I feel like I'm really working my body hard and gaining muscle tone. Is Yoga not for me? What about Pilates?

Thanks,

Katie

 

[ldy_solana]

katie,

well you get great toning and flexibility benefits from yoga but orginally it was meant as a mind,body,soul connection. the only way to know if yoga(or pilates) is for you is to try a few rounds. there are so many types of yoga but pretty much all fall on the awarness of breath and quieting of the mind to pretty much move into a meditative realm b/c you are blocking everything on the outside out. some ppl do it soley for body benefits and that is fine. others do it for both and its a great de-stressor. maybe some of these links can help

http://yoga.about.com/od/yogafa1/ j

http://yoga.about.com/od/typesofyoga/

http://www.yogajournal.com

kassia



When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be
disappointed to discover they are not it -- Bernard Bailey

 

[hippahips]

Kassia has said a lot of what I wanted to say and provided great links, too. Just want to add that there are a lot of yoga workouts out there that's tailored to what you need. I use P90X yoga a lot because it works my muscles using my body weight (lots of push-ups during the moving asanas) and the isometric holds in many poses work my legs without impact or pressure on my joints. I normally don't feel like I'm working AS HARD as I do when using a Cathe workout, but I once used my HR monitor to see how much fuel I was using up. In the hour and a half workout, I burned 360 calories, 60% of it from fat. Not bad. I burn just about the same number doing chest and tricep work with heavy weights.

Pinky

 

[martijean1]

I LOVE yoga!! Not on a daily basis, mind you...But yes, I find that it stretches muscles and keeps me from bulking up...I usually do it on Sunday with my daughter (though it ends up being more of a "form" class with her!)...I have one from the White Lotus Foundation that's 68 minutes...I've been so relaxed before that I've fallen asleep on the living room floor! It's great for flexability, strength, mind and soul...

MJ