Everyone knows that if you’re trying to lose weight, you have to exercise. But when you think about starting a workout routine to help you shed those stubborn extra pounds, you probably imagine a bunch of fast, intense, heart-pounding movements or have visions of slaving away on a treadmill or stair climber, with sweat flying everywhere.
You might not consider doing yoga to lose weight — yoga is slow! It seems more like something you’d do to warm up or cool down from a workout than a great workout in itself.
At Kennedy Fitness: A Jefferson Health Affiliate, we know better. That’s why we offer a variety of yoga classes in Marlton, NJ, as well as the rest of South Jersey to help any individual reach his or her fitness and weight loss goals.
In this post, we’ll look at some reasons why practicing yoga on a consistent basis can pay significant dividends on the scale. Check out this infographic for a few of the not-so-obvious ways that yoga promotes weight loss.
As you can see, the mental benefits of yoga can lead to positive physical effects. But it’s important to note that yoga is about movement, and you will burn calories — and sweat — in a 60-minute yoga session. More important than that, you will build the muscle tone your body needs to convert fat into energy.
Just because yoga is practiced in a more relaxed environment than, say, one of our High-Intensity Interval Training or kickboxing classes in Cherry Hill, it doesn’t mean you won’t find it incredibly challenging.
Here are our tips for maximizing the fat-busting effects of yoga.
Try Hot Yoga
With temperatures as high as 105 degrees in the room, a hot yoga session filled with constant, fluid movement will really get your heart pumping. By increasing the cardiovascular intensity of your workout and helping you burn more calories (more than 300 per session, on average) hot yoga ups the weight-loss ante while providing all the same benefits of traditional yoga.
Change It Up
Varying your workout routine and never really letting it get “routine” is a major key to changing your body. If you’re passionate about yoga, there are countless different types of practices to try. At Kennedy Fitness, we offer traditional yoga, hot yoga, aerial yoga, athletic yoga, yoga for strength and yoga for endurance, and our experienced, enthusiastic instructors tailor each workout to an individual’s skill level while making sure the practice never gets boring.
Pair With Nutritional Counseling
No matter how hard you work out, it’s your diet that will ultimately determine your weight loss success. It can be an overwhelming challenge to try to change your eating habits, but Kennedy Fitness offers its members free nutritional counseling to take the guesswork out of the process. Paired with consistent exercise, nutritional counseling can be the gateway to a whole new you!
For more information about any of our programs or to sign up for a yoga class, contact your local Kennedy Fitness today!