Release Your Inner Warrior with Yoga to Fight Fat and Stress

Stress and increasing weight can be a long or short-term health issue for many. Sedentary lifestyle, family responsibilities, work pressure and other life events contribute to the two. Apart from self-imposed situations that are beyond your control, there are ways in which you can de-stress and discard fat forever. One of them is yoga; it combines exercise with meditation.

Yoga is a common spiritual practice to gain control over both your mind and body. Practising yoga exercises can help in releasing tension around the joints to ease pressure off your mind and work your muscles simultaneously to help you lose weight. Yoga combines meditation, postures and breathing techniques that give control to both the mind and body.

Yoga for Stress Relief

The meditative techniques of yoga can contribute greatly to stress relief. The bow pose, the uttanasana pose and the sitting on the wall pose are some easy yoga poses for stress relief. These are low-impact poses that are designed to help you to relax by meditative breathing and have a very calming effect.

When trying yoga for stress relief, focus on yoga poses that you can hold on to for longer periods of time without pushing your body too hard. The aim of practising yoga should be to focus on being comfortable, calm and centred.

Yoga for Weight Loss

Yoga has many physical benefits ranging from weight management, flexibility to building strength and better breathing. Many yoga postures can be used for weight loss. However, the yoga postures for weight loss depend on your health and flexibility. Those who are mildly obese or those who used to engage in physical activities earlier can do more poses than those who are obese or have a sedentary lifestyle.

You should only do the postures with which you feel comfortable. Some easy yoga poses for weight loss include side bending or stretching, leg levitation and the snake pose. These poses stretch muscles, increase flexibility and help the body to burn calories. There is advanced yoga poses for weight loss which involves more intense stretching but is difficult to hold. Once you master the easy yoga poses, be on the lookout for the poses that seem a little more difficult to do. They will make your muscles more flexible and your body will be able to burn calories more easily.

Other Reasons to Practice Yoga

Apart from stress reduction and weight loss, yoga postures will help increase strength, lower blood pressure, aid in digestion, improve blood circulation, keep the spine supple and give you control over your body.

Just remember that you can never force your body beyond its ability. If you feel any kind of pain or discomfort at any point of time, just stop performing the asanas right there. The discomfort may be due to an incorrect posture or physical injury. To avoid injury, you need to practice yoga under the guidance of a trained professional.

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