If you ask a keen yogi to list why they like yoga, then weight loss is likely at the end of this list. And nevertheless, even if we joined the yoga community for the mind and body to be in harmony, we are still curious – how many calories does our favorite kind of yoga help us burn?
Yoga is compared to the “leading” activity of the moment, like jogging, swimming, or kickboxing when discussing realistic strategies to reduce weight. While some yoga techniques call for a certain level of athleticism, most programs focus on developing skills like flexibility, breath control, strength, balance, and mental discipline rather than muscular prowess. How many kilocalories do we burn in a typical school day?
Type of yoga Takes calories (1 hour / for a yogi weighing 70 kilograms)
- Hatha 189 calories
- Ashtanga 351 calories
- Bikram 477 calories
- Vinyasa 594 calories
Contents
Hatha
You may join up for classes in this style, the most common form of yoga, at virtually any studio or gym. Hatha Yoga combines physical exercises and mental discipline. The main goal is to teach the body and mind to work together effectively and charge with vital energy. The practice includes asanas that develop strength and flexibility and a system of Pranayama breathing exercises.
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga
Ashtanga yoga is a particularly intense type of yoga with rapid changes of asanas and fixation of poses under the account. In Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, breathing with movement, there is also a lot of attention paid to bandhas, which perform pretty complex asanas. To start practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, you must be in good physical shape and have developed muscles. It includes cardio exercises and meditations. Ashtanga asanas are always the same in each series and in specific order. This yoga cleanses the body by maintaining internal heat, which burns toxins. In addition, Ashtanga classes will make you incredibly strong and flexible, increase stress resistance and begin to be focused.
Bikram
Vinyasa helps the muscles stay warmed up and elastic, but some people find the sequence of asanas tedious and prefer to do one pose after another without transitions. Bikram Yoga gives such an opportunity — it includes a set of 26 asanas and two breathing techniques. The body warms up. It accelerates the pulse and metabolism. And although you get hot, sweating helps control the body’s internal temperature, promotes the removal of toxins from the body, and increases muscle elasticity.
Vinyasa
It is a smooth yoga style that combines breathing with movement. Vinyasa develops strength, and various postures, especially stands, hand balances, deflections, and inverted poses, involve the body’s resistance. Many yogis love Vinyasa for its diversity because teachers follow no single sequence, and each lesson takes place differently. The body does not have time to remember and get used to certainty.
Other factors to think about
As seen from the descriptions, evaluating the intensity of exercises is not necessarily based on how much we sweat during classes. While a rapid heartbeat is associated with a high number of calories burned, other factors increase the heartbeat but are not involved in calorie consumption.
As with any other physical exercise, the amount of calories lost depends on your characteristics — weight, gender, physique, effort, and so on.
Increase yoga class intensity.
We will consume more calories if we use bigger muscles. Such a simple change in practice, such as deepening the warrior’s posture and squats, will make the correct muscles work, which will burn more calories.
A healthier body, healthier mind
Regardless of how many calories we lost during the class, regular practice gives us advantages in weight control. Yoga teaches its practitioners the values of self-awareness, self-care, and non-abuse.
Yoga also helps to fight stress, as a result of which our body does not secrete excessive amounts of hormones that affect the figure. Yoga classes make us stronger and more resilient, manifested in other types of physical activity — we can run more or ride a bike and, as a result, lose weight faster.
During classes, your whole body works.
Gym workouts at developing a single muscle group, while performing any asana, involves the strength of the whole body, grows, and “trains” the muscles as you connect them to work on a series of asanas.
Yoga is about energy and concentration.
Yoga not only restores strength and increases energy levels but also allows you to discharge and give an outlet to happy endorphins. Therefore, you notice that you have become more cheerful and attentive after practice.
Try not to consider yoga classes only in terms of the number of calories lost during training, also think about how much you like what you do, how you feel after the course, and which exercises are more suitable not only for the body but also for the mind.
Yoga makes us stronger physically and mentally, forces us to improve daily, and helps us find peace in difficult situations. That is, the experience gained in the classroom necessarily penetrates our daily life, making it better.