Yoga for Weight Loss
By Andrea Ferretti
There’s no question that yoga practice builds body awareness and acceptance, but yoga as a sure-fire path to weight loss? Until now, doctors and scientists weren’t convinced. But a study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle may make them sit up and take notice.
Researchers queried healthy men and women about their weight history and physical activity from the ages of 45 to 55. It turned out that study subjects who were overweight and did yoga at least once a week had lost five pounds over the 10-year period, while their non-yogi counterparts had gained eight. (Yoga practitioners of normal weight did tend to gain weight over the years, but people who didn’t practice gained more.)
The reason? Lead researcher and Anusara Yoga practitioner Alan Kristal believes that it’s not the number of calories that yoga burns, since only the most vigorous yoga practice will burn enough to trigger a weight loss. “But yoga builds mindfulness,” says Kristal, who is also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health. “You learn to feel when you’re full, and you don’t like the feeling of overeating. You recognize anxiety and stress for what they are instead of trying to mask them with food.”
Standing Pigeon Pose
This pose is also a good stretch for the back and shoulder, knee and ankle joints
Top 5 benefits
- Relieves pain and discomfort in the entire hip area
• Strengthens hips, knee and ankle joints, increasing mobility and range of motion
• Strengthens the thigh muscles
• Increases circulation, improving the body’s ability to detoxify
• Increases the ability to sit, stand and walk for longer periods of time without discomfort and pain
Off-the-mat suggestions
- At your bathroom sink or counter top
• At your desk at home or at work
• Holding on to a secure handrail or banister
• Standing at the window with hands on the windowsill
• Any tabletop or flat area
Contraindications
Recent hip or knee surgery or injury; colds; flu; sinus infections; some rotator cuff conditions; recent shoulder or wrist injuries.
The steps
- Stand in Mountain Pose to ground and prepare.
- Take three rounds of the three-level breath. (If you don’t know the three-level breath, simply breathe in and out, deeply and calmly, three times.)
- Hold on to the edge of the kitchen sink, with your hands shoulder-width apart. Make sure you can hang on securely without slipping. Slip on a pair of rubber (kitchen) gloves if you need extra grip.
- Walk back and away from the sink until your arms are straight (or close enough), and your hips are in line with your ankles. Step your feet one to two feet (30 to 60 cm) apart. Keep your legs straight, if possible; otherwise, bend your knees slightly.
- Lower your torso and flatten your back, so that it’s parallel to the floor. Drop your head downward to relax your neck. Take a few deep breaths and stretch out your lower back by gently pushing your hips back before moving on to the next stretch (a nice bonus back stretch!).
- Bend your right leg, then bend and lift your left leg, placing the left ankle on the right leg slightly below and beyond the right knee. Your left leg and knee will be turned outward, pointing toward the side of the room. Keep the left foot flexed.
- As you inhale, draw your breath up into the torso, and as you exhale,slowly start nudging the left knee toward the floor while bending the right knee into a deeper standing squat.Try dropping the tailbone and lower back downward to the floor to deepen the stretch into the back muscles.
- Repeat for three to six breaths.
- On the last exhalation,straighten the right leg and release the left legto the floor.
- Return to Mountain Pose.
- Repeat on the other side, placing the right leg over the left.
- For an extra-deep stretch (optional),repeat once more on each side.
For more Kitchen Yoga stretches, check out Kitchen Yoga by Ruth Shaw
An article by Dr. Timothy McCall, who I had the honor to study under several years ago, has a list of 38 ways Yoga benefits health. I have decided to break it down for you over the next several months. The basic reasons are why I am such a proponent of Yoga for every health issue. Here are the first 6.
- Improves your flexibility
Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you probably won’t be able to touch your toes, never mind do a back bend. But if you stick with it, you’ll notice a gradual loosening, and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You’ll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. That’s no coincidence. Tight hips can strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. And inflexibility in muscles and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can cause poor posture.
- Builds muscle strength
Strong muscles do more than look good. They also protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain, and help prevent falls in elderly people. And when you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility. If you just went to the gym and lifted weights, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility.
- Perfects your posture
Your head is like a bowling ball—big, round, and heavy. When it’s balanced directly over an erect spine, it takes much less work for your neck and back muscles to support it. Move it several inches forward, however, and you start to strain those muscles. Hold up that forward-leaning bowling ball for eight or 12 hours a day and it’s no wonder you’re tired. And fatigue might not be your only problem. Poor posture can cause back, neck, and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain and degenerative arthritis of the spine.
- Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown
Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by “squeezing and soaking” areas of cartilage that normally aren’t used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.
- Protects your spine
Spinal disks—the shock absorbers between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves—crave movement. That’s the only way they get their nutrients. If you’ve got a well-balanced asana practice with plenty of backbends, forward bends, and twists, you’ll help keep your disks supple.
- Betters your bone health
It’s well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift your own weight. And some, like Downward- and Upward-Facing Dog, help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. In an unpublished study conducted at California State University, Los Angeles, yoga practice increased bone density in the vertebrae. Yoga’s ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol may help keep calcium in the bones.
7. Increases your blood flow
Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Handstand, and Shoulder stand, encourage venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. This can help if you have swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues. And it thins the blood by making platelets less sticky and by cutting the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood. This can lead to a decrease in heart attacks and strokes since blood clots are often the cause of these killers.
8. Drains your lymphs and boosts immunity
When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.
My recent Yoga teacher certification in December
More of the 38 benefits in my February newsletter!
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. unknown
