How Many Calories Does Yoga Burn? – Yoga Health Gains

Yoga is a great activity, especially if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or high cholesterol. This will give you flexibility, mind-body awareness, and strength. However, you also have to do aerobic activities such as swimming, biking, and walking if you are to perform fast-moving yoga.

If you have certain health conditions such as diabetes, heart problems, and high blood pressure, ask your doctor about it. You need to do this since you have to avoid specific postures such as ones when you are upside down or ones that demand balance. With conditions, as mentioned, you need to have gentler yoga programs. This may be coupled with other light aerobic activities such as swimming or walking.

Do you have arthritis? If you do, yoga can help you mitigate the symptoms by keeping you relaxed, in shape, and healthy. As mentioned earlier, if you experience any medical condition or if you are pregnant, do not hesitate to talk to your doctor about it. You have to ensure that you can perform any activity so that you won't be harmed in the process.

We are back to the question. How many calories does yoga burn? That depends on what type of yoga activity you are signing up. Some types of yoga are centered on meditation, while some are for weight loss. Let us find out the different amounts of calories burned for each type of yoga activity.

Hatha Yoga

In a nutshell, Hatha Yoga means the overall or general physical yoga practices. It is used to describe some of the basic yoga practices in the west. If you want to go for a gentler and more relaxed introduction to yoga, this is the best class that you should join. This will leave you more stretched out than dripping with sweat. For starters and yoga beginners, this is a perfect choice.

On average, a regular Hatha yoga class can burn up to 175 and 298 calories.

Vinyasa Yoga

This is another prevalent practice that people prefer over the more mellow types. Vinyasa Yoga is a more strenuous and physically exhausting kind of yoga activity. Moreover, this requires the student to coordinate their breath to their movement. As this yoga class involves more action, the student is expected to move through a more continuous flow of poses.

Since strenuous physical movement is involved in this yoga program, anyone can burn 550 calories for an hour of Vinyasa class.

Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga is also known as power yoga, which accurately means "eight-limbed yoga." It follows a particular order of set poses that coordinate movement to breathe. In that way, one can say that Ashtanga yoga has similarities with Vinyasa yoga. This yoga class lets the student go through a series of coordinated poses through a particular flow. It means that this yoga burns a high number of calories. 

One can expect to burn between 450 and 550 calories in an hour-long class.

Bikram Yoga

Bikram Yoga is usually done in a heated room. It involves a series of 26 poses all done while the student is in a warm environment. This yoga class was created in the 1970s by Bikram Choudhury. It typically involves a 90-minute class that can burn around 330 calories.

However, contrary to common belief, the hot temperature along in the yoga room does not burn the extra calories. You have to move correctly with the right poses if you want to perform this kind of yoga activity.

Iyengar Yoga

Iyengar yoga is an uncommon kind of yoga activity that concentrates on alignment and placement. If you are a fan of yoga activities that do not involve much movement, then you should enroll in this class. The participants or students are encouraged to use blocks and props to help them with proper and precise yoga positions. This kind of yoga activity requires the utmost precision since there is not much movement involved.

In this kind of yoga class, poses are held for quite a long time. This is why holding these poses involves precision and accuracy. Iyengar yoga is not advisable if you are planning to burn as many calories as you can. It can only burn around 175 calories, which is not much compared to other yoga activities mentioned. Get more tips about yoga benefits.

The rule of thumb is that you should burn more calories more than you consume. That is the sure-fire way of shedding some weight. How many calories does yoga burn? As previously mentioned, that entirely depends on the type of yoga class you are enrolled in or are planning to join in.

Rest assured, yoga will help burn calories. However, other activities also burn calories in the same period. Think about your needs and the calories you need to burn before engaging in any physical activity. Nevertheless, yoga has countless benefits aside from weight loss, such as improving mindfulness and better sleep.

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