A lot of people wonder, “Does Yoga change your body shape? Does it help to maximize muscle-building while encouraging fat loss, even though it’s not a high-intensity resistance training workout?”
The truth is that Yoga is an amazing form of exercise, one that will lead to visible, noticeable improvements in your health.
Below, we’re going to take a closer look at how Yoga can improve not only your overall health, but also your body composition. The answer to “Does Yoga change your body shape?” is a resounding yes, and by the time you reach the end of this page, you’ll know exactly what Yoga can do for you.
Does Yoga Change Your Body Shape? Let Us Count the Ways…
Let’s dive in with the basics of how Yoga can improve, sculpt, and tighten your body.
Yoga is NOT a high-intensity exercise like CrossFit or HIIT training. It is, however, an endurance-focused workout. It uses static (stationary, unmoving) and dynamic (active) poses to engage your muscles, working them to build both muscular strength and endurance.
Yoga won’t burn as many calories as you would burn with, say, a hardcore rowing workout, a weightlifting session, or a run. This means that it will burn fewer calories—and less fat—than something a bit more physically demanding. You won’t see rapid weight loss with a daily Yoga workout session.
But that doesn’t mean Yoga won’t improve your body in a lot of really important ways.
Tighten your muscles. With Yoga, you’re not going to become “jacked” or “swoll”. Yoga focuses primarily on muscular endurance (holding a muscle contraction for longer periods), which typically develops long, lean muscles rather than thick, noticeably large muscles. That’s definitely not a bad thing—you’ll be slimmer, leaner, and still very strong, just not with the raw power you develop lifting weights. However, you’ll be better able to keep up with your activities of daily life because you’re in better control of your body weight and movements.
Tone your core. Yoga maximizes the strength of your core (abs, back, and obliques), and helps your core muscles to move more efficiently in connection with both your upper and lower body. You’ll find that the better core strength leads to reduced belly fat. With Yoga, you’ve got a much better chance of getting that six-pack you want because the exercises you do will naturally target your ab muscles.
Strengthen your back. This is probably one of the greatest benefits of Yoga! A lot of people experience back problems because they fail to strengthen their lower back muscles, the muscles that protect and support their spine. With Yoga, however, you’re strengthening and stretching your back muscles in most of the poses and workouts you do. Your lower back muscles will naturally become stronger, your spine will become more flexible, and your risk of injuries will drastically decrease because of the greater mobility developed by Yoga.
Improve cardiovascular conditioning. Yoga may not be a proper “cardio” workout like running, jogging, jumping rope, or rowing, but that doesn’t mean it won’t improve your cardiovascular conditioning. You’ll find that transitioning through the various poses will engage your muscles and work your heart and lungs very efficiently. You’ll see serious increases in your cardiovascular endurance, particularly in relation to your muscular endurance. Your body will become more adept at supplying your muscles with energy, helping you be more “fit” overall than if you were just able to run longer or row harder.
Enhance balance and stability. Yoga is all about the balance poses, focusing on your stability and holding a single position for long periods of time. This may not seem like a big deal, but it really is! Not only will you be more in control of your body while you move, but these balance and stability poses develop the secondary stabilizer muscles that often get ignored during traditional workouts.
Try it for yourself: stand on one foot, and lift yourself as high up onto your toes as you can. You’ll find that your foot, calf, and shin muscles all start to fire on overdrive in order to maintain your balance. These are muscles you’d probably never work out in the gym, no matter how much you squat or lunge. Yoga will develop all the secondary muscles in your body, which will lead to better overall strength and balance.
In reality, Yoga is one of the absolute best workouts you can do! It may not get you “ripped” or turn you into a bodybuilding champion, but it’s guaranteed to make you much healthier and fitter within the scope of your normal daily activities. You’ll find that you can run, jump, play, clean, care for your family, and do your work more effectively and with less pain because of your daily Yoga sessions. Add to that a leaner body with better core musculature, and you’ve got a winner.
Does Yoga Change Your Body Shape? With Yoga Lean It Certainly Does!
Want to start seeing improvements in your physical health today? Start training with Get Yoga Lean and get ready to see the difference!
Get Yoga Lean is our simple solution to exercise, a mind-and-body approach that will get you fit, ripped, and lean doing a few highly effective Yoga workouts a week. You’ll feel better about yourself, look better in the mirror, and be in more control over your every movement and activity thanks to Yoga. What we’re offering is going to change your life for the better—guaranteed!
Try Get Yoga Lean today and see how it helps you to feel happier, fitter, stronger, and more in charge of your body and mind both. You’ll never want to go back to another workout. And when people ask “Does Yoga change your body shape?” you can just point at your physique and say, “Here’s the proof!”
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