It’s Time To Stretch Yourself Thin

How Yoga Can Help You Get the Figure You’ve Always Wanted

When many people think of yoga, they think of stretching their body past its limits, maneuvering it into impossible poses, all with mindful intent.  Yes, yoga does include stretching and holding postures, but it also focuses on breathing and strength, and any form of exercise that focuses on strength will help people tighten and tone their bodies in amazing ways.  Yoga can do that.

Health experts will tell you that other exercises will burn more calories faster, and that’s true, but they’ll also tell you that yoga is a great exercise for other reasons. While you might not burn as many calories as you would jogging, you certainly will burn more than you would have sitting on the couch.  More than that, though, yoga is strength training, except instead of using weights,you’re using your own body as resistance, and any time you strengthen your muscles , you’re turning your body into a more efficient machine.

But there’s more. When you focus on exercises that burn more calories, you’re sometimes not benefiting your entire body. Where running helps with leg muscles and endurance, yoga focuses on every muscle in the body (and the mind as well).  The Mayo Clinic also recommends yoga, saying that not only does it help improve general overall fitness, doing yoga might also help with losing weight because of “healthy lifestyle changes”people choose to make due to practicing it.  One thing yoga focuses on that many other forms of exercise don’t is becoming aware of one’s body, and that awareness can benefit anyone.

Finally, yoga also emphasizes the mind.  While doing postures, you have a single point of focus, and that’s on your breathing.  One goal is to calm your mind and find peace, and feeling relaxed and in control is always a positive.

So if you’re looking for a type of exercise to strengthen and tone your body, you might consider yoga. You’ll find peace of mind and you might, after a few months, realize you’ve toned your body into becoming the figure you’ve always wanted.