Can Yin Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
Yin yoga is a highly effective yoga technique that is not only great for relaxing and improving flexibility, but is also helpful for weight loss. This article shares how integrating yin yoga into your life can help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Have you ever sat and wondered if you could just relax and release the day’s stress, and simultaneously tone up and lose weight? Don’t worry, your wish is neither absurd nor impossible.
Not everyone has the stamina or temperament to go on long runs, jump around energetically, or lift weights in order to lose a few pounds. Athlete or not, yin yoga leaves no one behind. It includes everyone who is interested in a more mindful approach to life.
Yin yoga is a healthy weight loss alternative. One of the best ways to get in shape is to follow a combination of healthy diet and exercise, and yin yoga targets both these aspects. It improves your metabolism and simultaneously tones you up, leading to effective weight loss.
What’s more is that yin yoga can not only help you lose weight, it is also a great way to help you achieve a conscious connection between your mind and body. This connection makes you more aware of what your dietary habits are, and how you can improve them.
In this article, we dive into how to use yin yoga as part of your weight loss plan and other health benefits of this ancient yoga practice, read on!
What is yin yoga?
With its roots in traditional Taoist practices, yin yoga is a slow-paced yoga style that reaches the body’s joints and connective tissues such as fascia, tendons, and ligaments.
It is a passive form of yoga in which one holds a pose for a few minutes to lengthen and strengthen tissues.
It helps balance robust activities with slower, calmer ones. There are a number of benefits to it, such as a stronger body to an increased flexibility level.
It’s important not to give up as yin yoga requires perseverance.
If you do persevere, you reap great rewards.
Your body tones up, your mind relaxes, you become self-aware and deepen the connection with your inner self, and you are also able to reduce cellulite.
We discuss these benefits in detail below so keep reading on!
Learn how yin yoga helps you burn calories
While yin yoga is best known for releasing stress and reducing anxiety levels, this gentle technique can also help you burn calories.
A key component of weight loss is to lower cortisol levels, and it helps you achieve just that. Lower cortisol levels lead to easier melting of belly fat, a great worry for many people.
This point is also proven in studies that suggest yin yoga as a weight loss alternative for people whose BMI is over 30kg/m² or those who want to avoid intense activities.
To simplify it further, yin yoga helps your weight loss goals indirectly by cleansing your body and improving your digestion and metabolism.
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Tone up with yin yoga
Strengthening of the muscles is a core component of toning up.
Since the core focus of yin yoga is on stretching and developing flexibility, it sets the base for a stronger body.
Training your fascia to improve flexibility leads to a more toned body.
In order to do this, it is essential to balance out active and energetic stretches with passive ones, and that is where yin yoga helps.
When you hold poses, cells present in the fascia increase the production of hyaluronic acid and collagen.
Hyaluronic acid is used to pull fluid into tissues and collagen is helpful in strengthening connective tissues.
Both hyaluronic acid and collagen also help tighten skin and give a toned, youthful appearance.
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How yin yoga changes your body?
As discussed earlier, one of the biggest physical advantages of yin yoga is how it leads to strengthening of the muscles and increased flexibility.
It is an excellent method to relieve stress, cancel out external noise, and simply be at peace with your inner self.
As you delve deeper, physical changes such as longer and stronger muscles become visible, improved blood flow, and better digestion are other beneficial side effects from this practice.
Combined, these changes help improve a person’s long-term health.
Changes to expect as your yin practice deepens
Gradually, better joint mobility can be noticed.
It becomes easier to move around and the chances of random injuries decrease.
Flexible fascia also results in more springiness or bounciness.
Basically, your body strengthens from the inside, making it more resistant to injuries caused by sudden movement.
Tension in muscles is reduced by practicing yin yoga, which paves way for other strenuous forms of exercise. A healthier body is also less prone to diseases such as arthritis, gout, etc.
Yin yoga helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to a more relaxed state, and an improved nutrient and blood flow to different organs of the body.
With practice, you’ll notice that whatever pose you try deepens itself.
For example, hip stretches that might seem impossible in the beginning will start coming naturally as your flexibility increases.
Yin yoga and cellulite reduction
Yin yoga is a great natural method to control and reduce cellulite.
By working on your fascia, you ensure that fat doesn’t accumulate under your skin to form cellulite.
Yin yoga helps you get rid of toxins in the body and regulate blood flow.
As waste products are flushed from the system, the skin’s appearance becomes healthier and tighter.
Other health benefits of yin yoga
Yin yoga isn’t just good for your physical fitness, it is a great way of improving your mental health as well.
Studies show its positive impact on stress reduction.
It is a great tool to combat depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
Other benefits include a calmer and more deeply-connected mind, hydrated fascia, improved balance, and a greater flow of oxygen.
Yin yoga helps one release negative emotions by lowering cortisol levels.
By reducing stress and becoming more self-aware, one tends to make healthier future choices as well e.g. eating healthy and avoiding emotional eating.
Yin yoga can also be treated as a form of meditation to connect with one’s inner self, hence promoting mindfulness and leading to an overall improvement in one’s quality of life.
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7 yin yoga poses that help with weight loss
Some yin yoga poses are better at helping with weight loss. Let’s have a look at seven poses that lead to it:
1. Caterpillar – Paschimottanasana
This forward fold not only stretches the hamstrings and ligaments found around the spine, it is also great for abdominal compression.
The latter leads to better digestion
2. Sphinx – Salamba Bhujangasana
This asana is defined by curving the lower back up like a sphinx.
The myofascial release it leads to is what’s needed for the reproductive and digestive systems to function at an optimal level.
3. Swan – Hamsasana
One knee is bent with the leg tucked in while the other is stretched backwards.
The swan helps metabolize food, particularly fat, by actively involving the liver.
4. Straddle – Prasarita Padottanasana
You go into this pose by stretching the legs and folding forward.
It has a similar effect of metabolizing food by involving both the liver and stomach.
5. Dragonfly – Maksikanagasana
It can be started in downward dog by keeping one foot between both hands.
The other foot is to be slid as backward as possible.
This again helps with the body’s metabolism.
6. Shoelace – Supta Gomukhasana
In a cross-legged position, bring one foot under the opposite thigh and the other over it.
If you choose to fold forward, this pose would compress the stomach as well.
It is helpful in the efficient burning of calories and in stimulating the kidneys to flush toxins.
7. Reclining twists – Supta Matsyendrasana
It is a simple pose in which one lies on their back and draws up both knees.
The arms are kept wide open and the knees are moved from one side to the other.
Again, this pose is great for burning calories, compressing the stomach, and stimulating the bladder.
The best yoga type for weight loss
While we have discussed the benefits of yin yoga and how it helps in weight reduction, there are other yoga types that are more efficient when it comes to weight loss.
Vinyasa seems to be the clear winner at burning calories, especially its poses involving core exercises.
Quick movements involving the whole body build a lot of heat and vinyasa’s focus on cardiovascular activities further aids this process.
If you are looking for strength training involving core strengthening and arm balances, Ashtanga yoga might be your pick.
The poses normally remain the same during multiple classes till the set advances to the next level.
Hot yoga is an interesting style that takes place in rooms with very high temperatures.
The goal is to make you sweat and for the heat to stretch your muscles more.
Holding different poses in such high temperatures allows one to stretch muscles, sweat out, and trim down.
These are some examples of yoga types that could help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Each person is different so it is important to research thoroughly.
Take time to understand your body type, the sort of pace you prefer, and the yoga type that fits your goals perfectly.
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