Reduce Fat Through Yoga

A regular yoga practice can help you lose weight and reduce overall body fat. Many asanas, or poses, can help strengthen muscles, which will in turn help burn excess fat. In addition, practicing more active and intense flowing yoga styles such as Ashtanga, Jivamukti, or vinyasa can contribute to fat burning and increased endurance. However, you need to combine yoga with a sensible diet and other cardiovascular exercise to effectively reduce body fat, in addition to other health benefits such as lower blood pressure and stress relief.

Steps

Practicing Yoga for Fat Reduction

1. Use a different routine each time. “Sequencing,” or putting together poses, or asanas, that make up a solid yoga practice, is one of the most difficult parts of practicing yoga. Set a different sequence of poses for yourself every session. This will keep your muscles from adapting and help you get the most fat-reduction benefits.
   • If you like, start your practice with a short meditation or chanting exercise to calm your mind and center your thoughts.
   • Follow your warm up of sun salutations with a pose or two from each of the four types of asanas. They four types of asanas are: standing poses, inversions, backbends, and forward bends. You can then end with corpse pose, which is called savasana in Sanskrit.
   • Consider having a mixture of easy and difficult sessions, as well as short and long practice times.
   • Consider varying how long you hold each pose. You may want to flow through asanas one day while holding them for 30 seconds to a minute on other days. This can help challenge your muscles.
2. Warm up with sun salutation.. If you’re practicing vigorous yoga to reduce fat, it is important to warm up your body. Doing a few rounds of sun salutations, which are called Surya Namaskar in Sanskrit, can effectively prepare your muscles and mind to practice yoga while helping your body reduce fat.
   • There are three different variations of sun salutations. Do 2-3 rounds sun salutation. to warm up. This can engage and condition your muscles, may help ensure a safe and more pliable practice, and could minimize your overall body fat.
   • Add a sun salutation between different poses to incorporate more flow and challenge into your mind and body.
3. Incorporate different poses. You do not have to be able to do every yoga asana, or pose, in existence to have an effective daily practice or to build muscle and lose fat. Incorporating and mastering different poses can help you put together a daily practice which won’t get boring or routine and may help you lose fat.
   • Make sure to start with easier asanas and move on to more difficult poses as you master basic ones.
   • Do asanas from each type of pose in the following order: standing poses, inversions, backbends, and forward bends.
   • Add a twisting pose to neutralize and stretch your spine between backbends and forward bends if you like.
   • Add standing poses that engage leg, butt, and back muscles such as tree pose or the Warrior Series. As you progress, you can incorporate more challenging standing poses such as Extended Triangle Pose and Revolved Triangle Pose.
   • Add inversions that engage your arm, back, and abdominal muscles including handstand. You can practice handstand on a wall until you have enough strength to hold yourself up. Gradually add forearm balance and headstand as your practice improves.
   • Add back, arm, and leg strengthening backbends including locust pose, cobra pose, bridge pose. Work up to bow pose and full wheel or upward bow.
   • Add a twist if you need a balance between backbends and forward bends. Twists can get quite deep, Bharadvaja’s twist before moving on to more difficult asanas such as half lord of the fishes pose.
   • Add leg, butt, and back strengthening forward bends such as seated forward bend, heat of the knee pose, or star pose and hold them each for 8-10 balanced breaths.
   • Finish active practice with closing postures such as supported shoulder-stand, fish pose, and legs up the wall pose. These poses engage the muscles of you arms, back, abdominals, and legs, but also calm your mind
   • End your practice in corpse pose and enjoy the benefits of your yoga session.
4. Add a flowing sequence between poses. You can add a flowing sequence between poses for added fat reducing benefit, which is often called “taking a vinyasa.” This will add three specific flowing poses in between other asanas, which can help keep the tempo of your practice elevated.
   • This is a much more difficult series than simply lowering into asanas, but has the benefit of more strength training and stretching.
   • Starting in whichever asana you choose, lower your body or thrust your legs until you land in a four point staff pose, which is called chaturanga dandasana in Sanskrit. Your elbows should be close to your body and bent at a 90 degree angle. Make sure to keep the abs and back side of the body engaged. This is a difficult position and keeping these muscles working will make it much easier.
   • From chatturanga dandasana, roll over your toes to an upward facing dog position. This will make it easier to transition to the next and your final position, downward facing dog.
   • Use your flexed toes to roll over on to the backs of your feet. Keep your thighs engaged and off of the floor as you push your chest through your arms. Gently arch your back and look up at the ceiling.
   • End in downward facing dog. You’ve reached the final pose in your vinyasa series and a well-earned rest, so exhale and roll back over your toes so that your body ends up in an inverted “V” shape, which is downward facing dog. This position should feel calming and allow you to rest as you get deeper into the asana, or pose. Keep your palms pressing flat against the floor, your sitting bones lifted towards the ceiling, and your abs engaged.
   • Inhale and exhale steadily for as many breaths as you like.
5. Lengthen the time of your practice. Try extending the duration of your practice by holding each pose a bit longer, adding additional asanas and flowing seamlessly between the poses. Add new and more challenging poses as you are able.
   • Many yoga classes are between 60 and 90 minutes, so you could set your practice around that length or attend a class at a studio.
6. Intensify your practice. You may want to increase the intensity of your practice to help build strength, burn calories and reduce fat. This can be done easily by holding each asana for different period and by challenging yourself with more difficult asanas.
   • For example, poses that involve lunges or squats can be taken a bit lower.
   • You can increase the speed of transitions between asanas to create more intensity. Adding a sun salutation or vinyasa between poses can help torch calories and fat.
   • You can also integrate more challenging poses. For example, you may want to try tripod headstand instead of regular headstand.
7. Increase the frequency of your practice. One of the best ways to deepen your yoga practice and burn calories and fat is to increase the number of days you practice. You can safely build up to 5-7 days per week. #*Consider making yoga part of your daily routine or mix it up with other types of exercise for maximum benefit.
8. Boost your metabolism with yogic breathing. Yogic breathing, or pranayama, is one of the core skills of any yoga practice. Focusing on your breathing can deepen your asana practice, tune you into your own body, and boost your metabolism.
   • Pranayama can help your body distribute oxygen to your body. The goal is to breath deeply by inhaling and exhaling completely and in a balanced manner through your nose. For example, you would inhale for 4 breaths, hold for 2 counts, and then exhale completely for four breaths. You can vary the counts according to your abilities.
   • You want to get the most out of your yogic breathing, so sit upright, with your shoulders back, and refrain from slouching. Breath slowly and evenly by focusing from your stomach, pulling in your belly to expand you lungs and rib cage.
   • You can also try a form of breathing called ujjayi in Sanskrit, which can help you flow through your practice more effectively. You do ujjayi by inhaling and exhaling evenly through your nose and making a slight sound like the sea when you breathe.

Combining Yoga with Diet and Exercise

1. Engage in different types of exercise. Try mixing different types of exercise with yoga. This may help you most effectively reduce your overall body fat.
   • Aim to walk 10,000 steps a day, which translates to walking about 5 miles (or 8km) per day. Wearing a pedometer can help you make sure you’re taking enough steps per day.
   • Any type of cardiovascular exercise can help you lose fat when combined with yoga. Beyond walking, consider running, swimming, rowing, or biking.
2. Strength train with weights. In addition to cardiovascular exercise, strength training can help you reduce fat. It builds calorie-burning muscle while promoting your overall health and may also help improve you yoga practice.
   • Before you begin any strength training program, consult with your doctor and maybe even with a certified trainer, who will create the best plan for your abilities and needs.
3. Eat healthy, regular meals. Eating healthy, balanced, and regular meals can help you lose any weight and burn fat. Foods that have moderate fat, complex carbohydrates, and are high in nutrients, for example, are best for your general health.
   • Stick to a diet of about 1,500-2,000 nutrient-rich calories a day, depending on how active you are.
   • Eat lean proteins such as chicken, ground sirloin, or edamame with most meals, which will give your metabolism a slight boost and help you burn more calories. This will also help you burn any fat that may be contributing to excess weight.
   • Eat whole grains such as whole wheat, oatmeal, and quinoa instead of starchy counterparts like bread.
4. Avoid unhealthy foods. If you’re trying to reduce fat, it’s a good idea to avoid unhealthy or junk foods, many of which are loaded with fat and calories. Potato chips, nachos, pizza, burgers, cake, and ice cream will not help you lose weight, or excess water and sodium.
   • Stay away from starchy, refined carbs such as bread, crackers, pasta, rice, cereal, and baked goods. Eliminating these foods can also help you lose weight overall.

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