Out of Control Fatroll

If you follow any of us via all of the usual social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), you probably noticed that Kristine, Jenni, and I were at yoga on Saturday morning.  In the wonderful city of Austin where hippies and free events are still the norm, yoga is offered under a beautiful, large oak tree next to Barton Springs every Saturday morning during the summer.  As girls in our 20’s, we’re all about:  1) burning calories in creative ways (go figure!), 2) doing anything that is F-R-E-E, and 3) a workout that allows us to lay out and work on our tans afterwards.

A light breeze blew through the branches above us and for an hour on Saturday morning it seemed that Mother Nature decided to give us all a break and not be too unbearably hot as to keep us from enjoying a meditative hour of yoga outdoors in June in Texas.  While the weather cooperated, the guys playing in three different football games around our oak tree managed to looked at us in amusement and interrupted our lotus pose with their ball at least once.  Talk about the convergence of two VERY different ideas on what is considered a good workout on a Saturday morning!

Yoga at Barton Springs

For a decade or so (at least in my opinion), yoga has been all the rage.  It’s all about opening your joints and muscles and is honestly the complete opposite to most workout regimens.  Yoga is not (usually) fast paced, does not use heavy weights (unless you count your own body weight), and requires no equipment.  It’s just you, your mat, and the universe.  Yoga is all about getting you back in connection with…well, YOU.

Yoga is an ancient Indian body of knowledge that dates back more than 5000 years ago. The word “Yoga” came from the Sanskrit word “yuj” which means “to unite or integrate.” Yoga then is about the union of a person’s own consciousness and the universal consciousness.

The main focus of yoga is to integrate the mind, body and spirit, which is done through the three main Yoga structures:  Exercising, Breathing, and Meditation.  This workout is all about poses and careful breathing, giving you an awareness of yourself that achieves a “quiet” mind and the ability to focus and relieve stress.  Do I hear a “my body is a temple” coming?

So yoga is all about becoming one with yourself and nature…blah blah blah.  How does it help me get rid of my fat roll?!

Well,  according to WebMD the main benefits of practicing yoga are:  flexibility, strength, posture, breathing, stress relief, increased concentration, and lowered blood pressure/heart rate.  This is a great exercise to stop and let your body smell the roses.  While you may not get a crazy cardio workout from it, it will help improve your body’s ability to function better in everyday tasks and even in your other workouts.

For those of you that like variety, there are actually several different kinds of yoga:

Hatha

Ashtanga

Power

Vinyasa

Bikram (Hot)

To find out more about each style, how to burn more calories in yoga and to get a better idea of how many calories you burn practicing each of the above disciplines check out this site.

Get this!  Bikram Yoga allows you to burn as many as 630 calories in an hour!!!  Not too shabby!  I could manage to sweat and pose for 60 minutes if it meant I could eat 630 more calories that day.  Which I would aptly spend on Panera Bread’s Chocolate Chipper cookie (nutritional info).  Wait, I only get one cookie for all of that torture?! Forget that!

Maybe, I’m finally starting to learn…