I know what you’re thinking, can yoga really help you lose weight?
Not only that it can, it’s the best weight loss tool!
Why?
It will challenge the body, but also your mind. So, not only you lose fat from performing demanding yoga poses, your mind gets stronger and you become more self aware. Which makes it easy on you to control your eating and lifestyle habits.
With yoga you not only lose weight, you keep it off as well.
Let’s get right into it, here are 11 yoga poses for fast weight loss
*just a note: if a pose is one sided – always perform it on the other side as well.
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1. Wide-legged forward bend (Prasarita Padottanasana)
- Standing firmly on the ground, place feet 3 – 4 feet apart.
- Now, bend forward from your hips, not your waist
- Maintain straight long back, don’t hunch over
- Stay in the pose for at least 30 seconds while breathing deeply in and out
If you bend properly from your hips, you should feel intense stretch in hamstrings. Try to bring hands towards the sky so that you get a good stretch in your arms and shoulders, as well.
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2. Half boat pose (Ardha Navasana)
- Place hands firmly on the floor so that you can keep balance
- Now, lift the legs up
- Once you get stable in the pose, you can lift your arms off the floor as well
- Make sure that your arms stay parallel with the floor
- Maintain the pose for at least 30 seconds
It may look easy, but it’s actually super hard and challenging to maintain this pose. It will work your tummy, not only building the abs, but improving digestion and boosting metabolism, as well.
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3. Side plank (Vasisthasana)
- First, you get into the regular plank pose, but keep feet together
- Than tilt your whole body to one side, resting on one foot, as the other foot stays on top of it
- Keep the weight on your foot and one arm, as you bring the other arm up over your body, reaching toward the sky with it
- Keep hips and shoulders aligned
- Keep the core strong
- Maintain the pose for at least 30 seconds
Side plank works the whole body, but especially the core. It’s very challenging so if you can’t maintain it for 30 seconds, just do what you can and keep working at it. Same goes for any other pose, too.
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4. Chair pose (Utkatasana)
- Stand up straight, keeping feet hip width apart
- Bring your arms over your head
- Than sit down into a squat position
- Get thighs parallel with the ground as much as you can
- Hold pose for at least 30 seconds
You can feel this one in your legs, especially quadriceps.
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5. Shoulder stand (Sarvangasana)
- Start with laying on the floor on your back
- Than, bring your legs up towards the sky
- Push your hips forward and bring your chest close to your chin, as much as you can
- Support your back with your arms and elongate your legs
- You should be standing inverted on your shoulders
- Stay in the pose for at least 30 seconds
Inversions are extremely useful for overall health. They feel stressful and uncomfortable at first, so start slowly with them. But definitely, do practice inversions.
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6. Tree pose (Vrikshasana)
- Start just with standing firmly on the ground
- Than, shift the weight from both feet to just one foot
- Now, as you’re standing on just one foot, lift the other foot against your thigh
- Arms go above the head
- Core needs to be very strong here
- Maintain the pose for at least 30 seconds
Another pose that appears easy, but once you try it, you realize how hard it is to keep the balance and not fall to the sides.
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7. Dolphin pose (Ardha Pincha Mayusarana)
- Come down to your knees and elbows
- Hands in front of you with fingers interlocked
- Curl your toes and lift your knees and hips up off the ground
- Put your head down and keep back in a straight line
- Stay in pose for at least 30 seconds
Dolphin pose is great to build arms and shoulders strength.
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8. Fish pose (Matsyasana)
- Begin by sitting down with legs straight on the ground
- Keep elbows to your sides
- Roll your back slightly backwards and place elbows down on the ground
- Open the chest up and bring top of the head over to the ground
- If you can’t reach ground with the top of the head, adjust the elbows
- Maintain the pose for at least 30 seconds
This pose relieves shoulder and back tensions (which we all suffer from, unfortunately). It also gets blood moving through the whole body.
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9. Side leg lift pose (Ananthasana)
- Lay down on one side of the body
- Bring the leg (that’s on top of the lag laying on the ground) towards your head, bending it at the knee
- Now, grab the toe with your hand and extend both the leg and the arm together up towards the sky
- Maintain the pose for at least 30 seconds
This pose is great to shrink your waistline. So, if you’ve got some rolls on your waist, do this pose regularly to get rid of them.
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10. Bridge pose (Setu Bandhasana)
- Lay down on your back
- Place your heels as close as you can to your butt
- Hold your ankles with your hands but keep your thumb outside
- Now, lift your hips up and get them as high as you can
- Stay in the pose for at least 30 seconds
Work the whole body with this pose, but especially the tummy and the back. Great pose to flatten bloated stomach.
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11. Bow pose (Dhanurasana)
- Begin by laying down on your belly
- With your arms kept to your sides, reach for the outer side of the feet
- Relax the chin down to the floor and relax the glutes
- Now, that you are relaxed in this pose, lift yourself off the ground, lifting both upper body and legs
- Lift yourself up as much as you can, head should be straight with eyes looking directly in front of you
- Hold the pose for at least 30 seconds
Great pose to work the whole body and melt away fat from your thighs. It improves digestion and speeds up metabolism. Reduces belly bloat very fast, too.
