The benefits of Yoga are many, with the vast improvements in physical, mental, and spiritual health confirmed by scientific research and the millions of people who practice this form of mind-body exercise.

With this in mind, can yoga improve your life if you are already quite fit? The answer is yes.

People who work out or play sport often suffer from sports related injuries, often through repetitive strain of the specific parts of the body that their chosen activity uses. Yoga, being a full body workout, exercises and strengthens a much broader range of muscles than most activities. Those who work out heavily and regularly may suffer from injuries to the shoulders, hips, and hamstrings. It should come as no surprise that yoga can help to prevent such injuries.

Yoga has the benefit of building strength and endurance, increasing flexibility and helping to prevent injury, and many devoted athletes practice it. Please see my post on 10 Great Reasons to Do Yoga at Home.

There are styles of yoga that concentrate more on the physical workout than the chanting, meditative, more spiritual side. The chanting and meditation side of yoga may put some people off who are more focused on the physical health benefits. There are many fusion style classes that offer the deeper benefits of yoga while giving you a good and solid workout.  

I am a yoga and pilates instructor, but I also have a huge passion for working out with weights. So there are definitely days where I find myself torn between whether to do a full yoga practice, or hit the weights. If your aim is weight loss, adding weights will help you tremendously, often even more than Cardio.

Cardio vs. Weights for Weight Loss

This information may come as a surprise to you. But with this post, I am speaking from direct personal experience about weightlifting. In the fitness teaching world, I am there are many avid runners and cyclists who have shared their stories with me. There’s a big misconception in the general population about the best way for one to lose weight. Most people think it’s cardio. But here is the shocker – in reality, cardio does almost nothing for weight loss and fat loss. If you want to burn the fat off your body, the fastest and healthiest way to do it is through weightlifting. Let’s take a look at a few of the reasons why.  

The First Problem with ‘Too Much’ Cardio

Let’s be honest, cardio is great for you and feels amazing. The problem with excessive cardio as a fat burning tactic is that it simply doesn’t work. Not in the way it is purported to. Let’s look at the math. An average person might expect to burn about 300 calories from a brisk jog in an hour.

However, what fitness professionals don’t tell you about is how many calories your resting metabolic rate would consume anyway. Even if you did nothing by lie in bed, you would burn about 120 calories. That means all that jogging really only burned you 180 calories. That’s about half a latte. Most people after doing a cardio workout feel like they need to eat a little more, and more than compensate for their workout with their increased appetite. The result? At the end of the day, cardio doesn’t do much at all for burning fat or losing weight.  

The Second Problem

Another common problem with cardio is that much of the gains athletes experience come not from improved physique, but from more efficient muscle movements. Once you get the body used to a certain movement, it can perform that movement much more efficiently. A runner might think he’s improving if he can jog for an hour instead of 30 minutes.

But in reality, he’s not developing much muscle – while also placing much strain on ligaments and joints (which is not only unnecessary, but also highly un-recommended

So Why Does Weightlifting Burn Fat?

Sometimes we need to step away from what we continually hear; away from the status quo and take a look at things differently. And this doesn’t mean that you need to become a bodybuilder. It simply means that you may wish to add weightlifting to your workout. The biggest burner of calories in your life is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). On average you can expect to burn between 1600 to 1800 calories a day if you’re a man, 300 calories fewer if you’re a woman, just from your BMR.

The best way to increase this number? Pick up those weights and get started on building some muscle with weightlifting. Increasing your body’s muscle mass by just 5 pounds will increase your BMR by about 400 to 600 kcal per day. That’s a massive increase.

If you take your body fat percentage down and the amount of muscle in your body up, you’ll naturally burn fat. It’s just what your body will do. I have heard plenty of people – women especially – express concern over adding weightlifting to their workouts because they don’t wish to add any bulk to their physique.

As a once professional dancer, I can totally relate to this concern. Dancers need to aim for length and flexibility of muscle tissue. But what I have discovered is that as long as you are adding deep stretching, while using weights on the lighter side, there is no concern for bulking up. Of course every single body is completely different, but I can promise you that adding weights feels really good.

You can even add weights to your yoga routine to get a feel for how organic working with weights can feel.  The simple truth to fat loss and weight loss is this: eat healthy, build muscle, get time for stretch and relaxation, and let nature do the rest of the work.

Below, I have included a great write-up from Yoga Download on the benefits of yoga and weights fusion classes:

We’ve all faced the dilemma: you have a limited amount of time to move your body and relieve stress. Do you practice yoga or do strength training? Problem solved: Yoga sculpt. If you’ve never tried a yoga fusion class, here’s your chance to garner all the benefits of a strength workout blended with the mindfulness of yoga. 

These hybrid workouts can combine yoga with weights, barre, Pilates, HIIT, cardio––the variety is part of the fun! In these special classes, the emphasis is on getting stronger and sculpted, but also staying mindful and maintaining mobility. It’s one of the most efficient and effective ways to ensure that you prevent injury and enhance your strength, balance, and flexibility.

Here are a few reasons we love these yoga fitness fusion classes: 

Yoga Sculpt Workouts Boost Your Mood and Elevate Your Energy Levels

We’re all emerging from what may arguably be one of the most challenging period of our lives. Over the last year you may fallen into a rut with your yoga practice and your workouts. Trying something new helps stimulate your brain and gets your heart pumping and muscles singing. These classes move non-stop, stimulating your feel-good hormones or endorphins. Simply put, they are fun! 

Fusion Classes Save Time 

As the world opens up, suddenly our schedules are busier and our time to reset and recharge is becoming more limited. If you don’t want to miss out on your yoga or your fitness routine, a Yoga Sculpt class will allow you to stay on track. You won’t sacrifice dedicated strength work or lose out on maintaining flexibility. It’s truly the best of both worlds. In addition to all the physical benefits of strength and suppleness, you’ll receive the mental and spiritual benefits of yoga all in one class.

Yoga Sculpt Classes are Excellent for your Overall Health

One of the greatest benefits of strength-focused classes is that weight training and weight-bearing yoga poses strengthen your bones. Once you turn 35, you start losing bone and muscle each year. By ensuring you keep your skeleton strong, you’re basically making sure you can stay active for many more years to come. Of course, muscular strength and balance are vital components to longevity and play a major part of these hybrid classes. You’ll also boost heart health by working at a higher intensity level. Yoga Sculpt truly gives you the best of both worlds in one empowering class. 

The post How Adding Weights to a Yoga Routine Helps With Weight Loss (+ Fusion Class Ideas!) appeared first on Mindful Mystic Mama.