By Kimaya Singh

Could anyone firm up with yoga? People start practicing yoga for a variety of reasons. If your primary goal is to achieve a firmer, leaner physique, it can certainly help. Of course, practicing yoga alone isn’t enough. Certain poses are more conducive to building strong, toned, lean muscles than others, too, so you’ll want to learn the best ones and make them a regular part of your routine. Can yoga be used to get the lean body of your dreams? When combined with the right diet and exercise regimen, it can help you achieve incredible results.

Body-Toning Basics

If you’re eager to start working toward a lean, toned physique, there are a few basic things you need to understand. Building strong muscles is a huge part of it, and yoga is an excellent way to strengthen and tone them. With that being said, however, the work isn’t going to do you a lot of good if a layer of body fat covers everything. Yoga can help melt away fat to a certain degree, but cardio is the way to go when it comes to burning fat quickly and efficiently. One option is to engage in intervals of intense cardio between yoga poses; another is to do cardio either before or after practicing yoga. Without incorporating yoga into your fitness routine, you’re unlikely to achieve the kinds of firm results you’re after.

Weight-Bearing Yoga Poses

Most yoga poses require you to support your own body weight for extended periods of time, and that’s how it works to strengthen and tone muscles. Some poses are more effective than others. Also, if you have specific areas that you’d especially like to improve, zero in on poses that work them effectively.

A few examples of yoga poses that give you the most muscle-building bang for your buck include:

• Kneeling Locust – Move from Downward Dog onto all fours. Extend and lift your left arm and right leg while keeping them straight and lined up with your back, which should be flat. Tighten your abs and glutes, hold them for a few beats, release them and then switch sides.

• Bear – Move from Downward Dog and walk feet up toward the hands. Line up your feet at the edges of the mat, and then bend your knees so they are lined up with your hips. Move your torso so it’s between your thighs, extend your arms in front of you and hold the pose for at least 30 seconds.

The most important thing of all is to practice yoga regularly. As long as you do, you should start seeing results in no time.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

See our testimonials to find out what our graduates have to say about teaching therapeutic yoga sessions and our selection of online yoga instructor intensive courses.

If you are a teacher, yoga school manager, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is. Namaste!

Related Posts

Women Fitness – Yoga

Gym Yoga or Studio Yoga