TeamFLEX Newsletter

Weight Loss Spotlight

Yoga & Weight Loss

Channel Yoga Into Weight Loss

Yoga is more then a fashion trend. Yoga has been around for thousands of years and it isn't until recently it conquered the western society.

Yoga is more in demand then ever before and one reason is our high stress lifestyles and our high-pressure jobs. A workout like yoga helps us to slow down a little and regain the center of our being while strengthening and stretching our muscles. Yoga really offers your body a lot of benefits that you can't get from just a weight-training workout. In yoga you will learn how to improve your muscular endurance, your flexibility, your balance and your coordination.

The sudden popularity has created a yoga boom all across the American continent. Never before has the demand for yoga instructors been this high. If taking a yoga class for the first time makes you feel a little out of place with all the new terms used in the class you are not alone.

While everybody else in the class seems to know what downward facing dog position is you find yourself being on a 20 seconds delay trying to keep up with all the poses. However the second time around it gets easier and you won't feel as out of place. Usually the instructors are more then helpful trying to get you to blend in.

The first time you complete a full hour of yoga you might feel exhausted because so much toxins have been released in your body while releasing the build up stress. If you keep taking yoga classes you will experience a boost of energy and a natural euphoric state of mind after the class instead of a fatigue feeling.

Yoga helps you strengthening your core of your body. The core is the balance between your abdominal muscles and your back muscles. When you do exercises for your core you work with a lot of balance movements and stability exercises for your body. Once you strengthened the center of your body the rest of the positions get a lot easier. Your endurance increases and your ability to hold a position improve.

Yoga has proven to be an excellent stress-reducing workout for people of all ages. There is even a mummy and me yoga class for newborn babies and mothers using stretching and massage movements involving both mother and child in the class.

The high tempo all around us sometimes catch up with us and we carry a lot of it between our shoulder blades and in our trapezius muscles, which is our major neck muscle. Yoga can help relieving some of this pain built up in our muscles.

There are several different types of yoga but they pretty much come from the same foundation. Some of the more common known styles of yoga are Siddha and Hatha Yoga. There is a lot of information available online and in the bookstore about yoga if you want to learn more about the history, the science and the practice of yoga.

Wear comfortable clothes and take your socks off when taking a yoga class. You will be most comfortable in cotton lose clothes. The fitness center usually provides the yoga mat that you will need for comfort. The breathing is also important in yoga. You will learn how to breathe into through your nose and out through your mouth holding the breath for several seconds to increase the blood flow and the oxygen flow to the muscles while holding the stretches.