How Much Calories Different Yoga Forms Burn

People mostly opt for yoga because, either they want to lose some weight or build a good physique. Someone with such targets is excessively concerned about how much calories a particular yoga form is burning. Therefore, if someone wants to lose weight then he certainly will choose a form that burns many calories. 

However, as you go deeper into yoga practice and start to observe its effects on your life, your purpose of practicing yoga no longer remains limited to its physical aspect. If you get the chance to learn yogain Rishikesh or in any other hub famous for learning yoga in India, then you will get to learn about all aspects of yoga thoroughly.

In either case, whether you are learning yoga to lose weight or to experience mind body system, you can still get benefits from knowing how much calories different forms of yoga burn, so that you can avoid being exhausted by pushing yourself too far. 

Like in any other workout, math for calorie burning in yoga is pretty straightforward. The more vigorous a form is, the more calories it will burn. The following table will provide a good idea about how much calories you burn in your yoga practice. 

Type of Yoga	Calories Burned* (1 hour for a person with weight 150lb)
Hatha Yoga	189
Ashtanga Yoga	351
Bikram Yoga	477
Vinyasa Yoga	594

* Source: www.healthstatus.com

Let’s also discuss what poses are included in different forms of yoga. 

Hatha Yoga

People usually start their yoga journey with Hatha yoga, because of its popularity and diversity. Hatha yoga comprises a wide range of asanas and pranayamas that help us in building a better mind-body connection. 

Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga yoga is comparatively more challenging than Hatha yoga. Reason being, it includes the poses in which practitioners are required to perform challenging cardiovascular movements in one flow which puts extra pressure on body muscles. The emphasis is given to the flow, since in Ashtanga yoga what comes next is already decided and always the exact same routine is followed. Apart from building muscle strength and body flexibility, Ashtanga also reduces stress.

Bikram Yoga

Bikram yoga is practiced in hot temperature, and its practice includes 26 asanas and 2 pranayamas. The reason behind the high room temperature is to quicken the metabolic activity and toxin removal through excessive sweating. 

Vinyasa Yoga

Also known as Vinyasa Flow, this form of yoga has much diversity to it. The main focus is same as in other forms, which is to blend breathing with physical movements, but style is comparatively more vigorous. Poses are performed in one flow, like in Ashtanga yoga; however, their order is never same, and therefore, practitioners have to focus hard to maintain the flow when they transit between the poses. Vinyasa yoga builds strength in our muscles and improves our reflexes.

 
Knowing which yoga form has what sort of practice and burns how much calories can help you in choosing the right form for you.

4 New Styles of Doing Yoga That You Probably Have Never Heard About

All yoga practitioners like to modify their style of doing yoga with time. Some do it because their purpose of doing yoga has changed, some want to move on to something more challenging and some simply for the sake of change. Every once in a while a new, innovative and exciting style of doing yoga is introduced. This gives practitioners one more reason to switch to different style of doing yoga, even if it is just for fun.

In this article, we will discuss 4 such new styles of doing yoga, which are not yet quite popular worldwide but are being adopted in the yoga community readily. These new styles of doing yoga will make your yoga practice much more fun and challenging. So, let’s get down to knowing these exciting new styles yoga.

Laughter Yoga

Laughter has been considered the best medicine. And another good thing about it is that our body cannot distinguish between real laughter and fake laughter. So, even if we are laughing voluntarily, it is benefiting our body in the same manner, as when we laugh involuntarily.

Dr. Madan Kataria from India found that laughter can instantly change our mood by releasing endorphin, which led him to develop Laughter yoga. His further research showed that regular practice of Laughter yoga has helped practitioners in bringing their stress levels down, has strengthened their immune system and brought positive energy in their lives. Its practice includes lots of laughter while doing poses. The aim behind its practice is to make tough things in life look easier to deal with.

Viniyoga

Viniyoga is derived from Sanskrit language and it means adapting appropriate applications for specific purposes. The purpose behind developing Viniyoga was to make the process of self-awareness more comprehensive and authentic for the individual practitioner. Its practice includes all the regular components of yoga practice, such as asana, pranayama, mantra, chanting, etc. but in a more personalized way.

Unnata Aerial Yoga

Unnata means elevation. And as the name implies, in Unnata Aerial yoga traditional yoga poses are practiced in air with the support of a circus hammock. The purpose of this style of doing yoga is to achieve results quickly by gaining better physical and mental stability.

Wall Yoga

Wall yoga was first introduced by renowned yogi BKS Iyengar and has been around for a couple of decades. In its practice students use ropes or belts for support, which are attached to a wall. To get better balance in poses, practitioners can also adjust the height where ropes or straps are attached to the wall. The support of belts while doing yoga poses enables practitioners to remain in a particular pose for longer, as well as boosts their confidence. 

As a yoga practitioner you should never stop learning new things, whether you have taken your initial training at a yoga retreat in Rishikesh or at a local studio. Learning new styles of doing yoga introduces you to new challenging poses, keeps you engaged in yoga practice, broadens your knowledge of doing yoga, as well as benefits you in more ways.

How to Set-up an Ideal Spot for Your Meditation Practice

Your surroundings and the environment you practice yoga in play a crucial role in enhancing the effects of your yoga practice. While for learned yogis, who have spent a lifetime practicing yoga, it can be easy to meditate even in the most unlikely surroundings, but for an average yoga practitioner, having a quiet place for meditation practice is helpful, as well as essential.

According to Deepak Chopra, meditation isn’t primarily about quieting your mind, but about finding the quiet that is already there beneath the clutter of our day-to-day thoughts. While you are still learning how to achieve this state of quiet by building a better mind-body connection, it is helpful to build a connection with an ideal place in the first place.

Let’s discuss how one can set-up an ideal spot for meditation practice and why it is important.

Choose a place that is quiet and easily accessible
It can be within your house or nearby, for instance in your garden. You can also find a place in your vicinity which is usually quiet, like at a local park, but make sure that it isn’t very far from your house, because if the place is not easily accessible, you cannot really make a bond with it.

Keep the place simple

If you have chosen a place for your meditation practice within your house premises, try to keep the surrounding as simple and clean. It is understandable that as human beings, we need motivations from an external source to keep us going, so, you can personalize the space with a few things that inspire you. Meditation is about finding the voice within; therefore, with time you will be able to draw the motivations from within. And since all the answers are within you, you can even begin with your practice only by making sure that place is clean.

Find a meditation seat for your spot

A meditation seat or ‘asana’ is crucial for meditation practice. It can be a simple pillow, a rolled or folded blanket, or meditation pillow, which are made specifically for the purpose.

Make sure that the place has enough fresh air and natural light

It is important that you make sure that you have access to fresh air and natural light during your meditation practice, since closed and dimly lit spaces can make you feel dizzy instead of fresh and alive. Breathing is crucial while doing mediation, and having the flow of fresh air around helps you to concentrate on your practice. Natural light also augments the effects of meditation on your body and mind.

Irrespective of the place you have learned yoga from, whether at a yoga retreat in Rishikesh or at a local studio, the two most important things about meditation practice are; first, to know what is the core concept behind its practice, which is transformation of a person’s conscience, and second, practicing it in an ideal place that helps us in building an affinity towards the process, as well as enhances its effects.

Yoga Practice and Music

Music arguably has been an indispensable part of yoga practice. For most people music works as an energy booster while they are doing other workouts, such as gym practice, running, etc. That is why including music in yoga practice seems useful.

However, yoga practice and music have old ties. Yoga in India has always been practiced along with mantras and chanting. And whether you include mantra and chanting in your practice or not, the prolonged utterance of the “Om” sound is inevitable in every yoga class. In addition, instruments such as Indian flute and sitar also have been part of yoga practice for centuries.

The goal of yoga practice is to teach a person how to switch off the voices outside and listen to the voice within. How then music being an external source of sound be helpful in yoga practice? Let’s find out.

Whether you should include music in your yoga practice or not firstly depends upon your purpose of doing yoga, and secondly, which form of yoga are you practicing.

When Music Can be Helpful

If your purpose of doing yoga is primarily to build a better physique and you have opted for a vigorous form or style of yoga, then it will be helpful to go along with the music. Music has the power of stimulating our movements and can help us is achieving momentum when we are required to do poses in a flow. In this way, music also helps us in learning challenging poses rather easily.

However, the music you play should be soothing or have mild beats. At different places people prefer different styles of music, so there is no standard for it. For instance, music played at a yoga retreat in Rishikesh can be quite different from what people listen to at your local studio in the United States. You can try out a CD of yoga music or simply play your favorite instrumentals. And try not to include any music that has lyrics to it, even if they are in foreign language.

When Music Can be Distracting

If you are doing yoga for its spiritual aspect and want to improve your awareness of the mind-body-soul connection within, then it is better not have any music during the practice. Silence is required in more intense practice of yoga, such as meditation, since the primary purpose of such practice is to listen to the voice inside and external sounds can be distracting. Besides, since music can stimulate our emotional state, it can change the way we perceive our practice, and therefore can be a distraction.

However, some yoga practitioners find music helpful in building concentration during meditation practice, because according to them there cannot be absolute silence in the environment, since there are always sounds around. 

In conclusion, while performing the physical poses music is usually helpful, in meditative practice it depends upon individuals’ taste. During your personal yoga practice, you can choose to do things your way but in a class you should make sure that everyone is comfortable with music during practice before plugging-in anything.

The Evolution of Yoga

Although the core purpose behind yoga has always been the being-transformation, but how it is practiced has inevitably changed over time. How yoga is being practiced today is quite different from how it was being practiced a century ago, let alone in ancient times and during the time of its origin. Like any other process, yoga too has evolved with time and in the due course, new things have been discovered as well.

In India, yoga has always been a part of the culture, more of a lifestyle than a workout. People there used to learn yoga through private lessons from yogis and Hindu gurus, or from family members or friends who had learned yoga from them. It’s the popularity of yoga in western countries over the last century that has made it a trendy studio workout. But many Indian gurus do not quite stomach how yoga has been transformed due to western influences, since for them yoga has always been a part of education rather than a physical workout.

Even though representing yoga as a physical workout had initially helped in spreading awareness about it in western countries, but it is yoga’s psychological, physiological, biochemical healing abilities that have given it the real popularity. However, even till today people in western countries mostly opt for the physical aspect of this mostly spiritual practice. And since modern western lifestyle is being adopted in various parts of India for past few decades, current Indian generation perceives yoga in the much the same manner as western people do.

Whether practiced for the psychological, physiological and spiritual benefits or just as a mystic workout option, yoga benefits everyone. The trendier version of yoga has been able to attract more followers worldwide, who later use their discretion to continue doing it as a workout or to delve deeper and understand its spiritual aspect. In addition, openness in yoga has helped evolve many new and beneficial styles, such as Power yoga, Hot yoga, Aqua yoga, etc.

To learn yoga in India has always been considered a privilege in the yoga community. And indeed, there is a difference between learning it in a yoga retreat in Rishikesh or other hubs in the country, and in learning it at local yoga studio.  Only in India, you can come to know and comprehend the spiritual roots associated with yoga practice. Surely, this knowledge helps you in understanding the true concept behind the practice, which is being-transformation.

Inevitably, from yoga attire, which has evolved from cotton robes to skin-tight yoga clothing, to the way poses are performed, which, in general has become more vigorous over time, every aspect of yoga has evolved. However, as long as practitioners understand the true concept behind yoga practice, changes are acceptable and in fact welcome.

How to Build Yoga Community in Your Yoga Class

As a yoga teacher, you have various challenges to address that you hadn’t even thought of as a yoga student. Developing precision in yoga poses is probably the simplest aspect of becoming a yoga teacher, yet it occupies most of the attention of aspiring yoga teachers. However, aspects that are more important come upfront after you have start giving yoga lessons.

One such aspect, crucial for a successful class conduct, is to build a yoga community within your yoga class. Taking yoga training at residential retreats in Rishikesh, Bali or other yoga hubs can help you in realizing the importance of community, since you experience it yourself there. On the other hand, local studios may not be able to build that kind of an environment for nurturing camaraderie and community building.

Let’s discuss a few factors that will help you in achieving this feat; irrespective of the place you give lessons, whether at a studio or at home.

Welcome Everyone Warmly

Going to a new place often gives us a queasy feeling, especially if it includes meeting lots of strangers, like at a yoga class. You can ensure that your new students feel that they belong in the class from the very first day by inviting them in a friendly manner, as well as asking all the students to follow this ritual.

Call Everyone by Name

It is important that you and all your students know each other by name. Calling each other by name builds a bond between us and helps to establish good communication. Learning about each other’s life experiences inspires us to help others. And in this friendly environment teaching, learning and practicing yoga becomes much more fun.

Include Extracurricular Activities

The best bond between people is built when they share an adventure. Including extracurricular activities such as outdoor activities brings the sense of teaming up in your students and they learn to work as a community. Besides, adventurous activities also help us in living in the present moment which helps us in building focus in our yoga practice. 

Switch Roles

Switching roles is another good way to let people know about each other in a way they cannot know otherwise. For instance, ask your students to conduct the class every once in a while and let them teach each other. It will also give you a good idea about how much each of your students has learned so far, and how good their teaching skills are. Accordingly, you can advise them on what path they should choose for themselves. In addition, it will also make your class more alive and build a sense of camaraderie in your students.

Allow the Community to Grow

While you build a yoga community in your class, allow it to grow beyond the classroom. Let your students spread the awareness about yoga and build their own yoga communities. The more your yoga community will grow, stronger it will become. In fact, the idea of building your yoga community must have first come to you in the same fashion, from your teacher.

How Yoga Helps Us in Cultivating Our Intuitive Abilities

Intuition can best be defined as a person’s ability to know that something is right or wrong, or possible or impossible without any intellectual proof for it. American Entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, who co-founded the Apple Inc. once said, “Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion.”

Intuitive ability is an inborn quality and we only have to learn how to cultivate it. Easily, we can say here this can only be done by knowing ourselves in a better way. Yoga has been practiced for centuries for the purpose of self-awareness; therefore, what better way there could be other than yoga to cultivate our intuitive abilities?

Let’s see how yoga practice helps us in cultivating our intuitive abilities at different levels.

Physically

We are all aware that yoga practice provides relief from stress related issues, but how does it do that? With yoga we become able to cultivate body’s natural intuitive mechanism to deal with these problems. Yoga poses physically transform us to control the secretion of cortisol, the stress hormone. Apart from that, our body intuitively learns how to protect itself against internal secretion of toxins and external physical injuries by tightening and loosening certain body parts.

Mentally

Our mind’s abilities, just like our physical abilities, pretty much depend upon what it has been stimulating to over time. Our habits may keep some parts of our brain and even body disengaged. But it isn’t always possible to keep them disengaged and avoiding such needs can put stress on us.

Most of us get inspirations from external sources, and find other's voices effective in stimulating our disengaged parts. However, yoga on the other hand teaches us how to cultivate genuine inspirations, which means finding the answers by listening to the voice within.

Emotionally

Time and again it has been mentioned that yoga improves our perception towards life, ourselves as well as others. And our emotions pretty much depend upon how we see things in life. By and large, it is our conscience that builds our perception while the development of one’s conscience is an on-going process. It isn’t something that requires gathering knowledge only, but is based on one’s instincts and intuition as well.

Yoga, as mentioned above, provides a connectedness with ourselves and as a result we are able to clearly understand our emotions, and consequently refine our sense of self-righteousness. 

Spiritually

Yoga practice builds in us the spirit to take our own path. And this spiritual awareness cannot come with worldly knowledge. And it’s only our intuitive abilities that enable us to define something that hasn’t been defined before.

Learning yoga in India can give you an experience that can reform your life. Unlike in western countries, where analytical reasoning is the only way to comprehend things, in India people primarily rely upon their intuition and instincts to make decisions. Reason enough, why learning and practicing yoga in Rishikesh, Goa, Dharamshala and other yoga hubs in India, is a dream for many yoga practitioners throughout the world.