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Can Yoga Serve as Cardio?

October 30th, 2007 by Adam Maywald, Editor · No Comments

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Can yoga classes be substituted for cardio workouts?

A cardio workout is a workout which raises your heart rate for a certain period of time. An average cardio workout lasts between twenty and thirty minutes, though they can be significantly shorter. Cardio workouts are designed in order to effect all of the major muscle groups, and you should have minor difficulty breathing during the most intense parts of the workout. Cardio workouts are workouts that make you sweat, so if you are sweating during a workout, raising your heart rate and breathing hard, your workout probably qualifies as a cardio workout.

There are a few different types of athletic yoga which are closely related to gymnastics in style. For example, Ashtanga yoga in its traditional form and Power Vinyasa yoga both involve practices which repeat difficult sun salutations in order to elevate your heart rate. You can easily burn around 500 calories in a single hour by completing these types of yoga practices. There are also restorative yoga practices which do not offer the same cardio boost, but they do make it possible for you to remain limber and strong enough for the faster and more intense practices.

Yoga has many great advantages, as it can serve as a great stress reliever, spiritual practice and even a foundation for meditation. Yoga is also great for stretching and building flexibility, which is an area of your health that is often overlooked. Restorative yoga burns around 200 calories in an hour, but the calorie burn is not comparable to what you will experience through an aerobics class or a run on the track.

Do not be disappointed, as yoga is still a great addition to any exercise plan that is meant to be well rounded. Exercise is meant to be much more than simply burning calories, it is meant instead to be a complete lifestyle change. It is important that you try to be active on a consistent basis throughout the day, especially if you want to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight consistently.

Yoga can serve as a great introduction to exercise, as it will allow you to create a habit, learn to be more active, and to stick with it overtime, but yoga is not enough to provide everything that you need in a well-rounded exercise plan. You will still need to incorporate cardio exercise or aerobics into your exercise plan for at least three to five days a week and you cannot forget strength training either.

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