Whenever someone calls the term “Power Yoga”, the first thing that crosses someone’s head is fitness and weight loss. Well, that’s what is related to power yoga but that doesn’t completely define it. Power yoga has much more to it. It’s a fitness-based yoga practice which offers you ultimate fitness benefits like building internal body heat, increasing overall energy, building up stamina, strength, and flexibility, mental calmness, and stress relief.

Origin of Power Yoga

Most often, two American yoga teachers are considered to be the inventors of power yoga. One is Bryan Kest who is based in Los Angeles and another one is Beryl Bender Birch from New York. The yoga style they invented was much different than the traditional yoga approach and there are many variations that are still being added to this form of yoga.

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What exactly is Power Yoga?

Power yoga is a rigorous form of yoga. The term was given to this practice to differentiate it from conventional yoga approach that only involves steady and slow stretching. In Power Yoga, there is nothing slow. Its style is pretty much close to Ashtanga Method, which involves different grouping of asanas to make one complete exercise.

The power yoga has many variations to it as its style varies from teacher to teacher. This is something like intense movements with a little bit of soothing chanting and meditation. The maximum emphasis of power yoga is on strength-building, muscle-building, and weight loss.

Who should do the power yoga?

If you are a beginner and don’t do any kind of exercise then power yoga is not for you. This form of yoga needs an intense workout and a great stamina. For the required stamina, you must be used to some form of exercise before so that you can adapt to the intensity and efforts of power yoga. In addition to the stamina and energy, you must be flexible enough to perform power yoga.

Apart from a ready body, you must have the prior knowledge to yoga and it’s philosophies before you start taking the classes for power yoga. You must also be familiar with yoga practice “Surya Namaskar”.

All of this simply implies that Power Yoga requires you to have a prior knowledge of basic yoga. It is made to attract the energetic teenage candidates who want tangible and fast results from doing yoga.

What is it like to do power yoga?

The key or the basic idea behind doing power yoga is doing all those conventional and intense yoga poses continuously without stopping. Doing power yoga is like energetically pulling off the yoga poses with a little bit of mantra chanting and calmness meditation along with the rigorous workout. Power Yoga is a great way to keep fit and active for the younger generation who don’t have time to work out. 10 minutes of power yoga a day can keep you essentially fit – both physically and mentally.

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Benefits of Power Yoga

Power yoga is a fitness based derivative of Yoga with numerous physical and mental benefits. It is a holistic approach to keep your body fit and healthy.

Here are the ultimate benefits of Power Yoga that you must know:

1.      Power Yoga Burn Calories

As the power yoga is an intense form of yoga, it is beneficial in burning a lot of calories and hence promotes the weight loss. This yoga practice involves the intense movements without stopping. This means performing power yoga consumes a lot of energy from your body. The more energy you’ll consume, the more calories you burn.

2.       Power Yoga Increases Strength, Stamina, and Flexibility

The intensity and rigorousness of power yoga add to the increase of stamina and strength of your body while the multiple asanas and yoga poses you perform add to the flexibility of the body. Therefore, power yoga is good for your body’s overall fitness including stamina, strength, and flexibility.

3.      Power yoga improves blood circulation and boost immunity

Power yoga is not only for the weight loss and fitness; it also helps in boosting your immunity by improving the overall blood circulation in the body. It alleviates the strength of immunity cells and keeps you protected from the seasonal infections and other diseases.

4.      Power Yoga Releases Stress

Power yoga is not only meant to offer the physical fitness. It keeps you mentally fit too. Power yoga releases the muscle tension and relieves every kind of stress you have been facing. Many scientific studies have shown that Power Yoga effectively reduces the stress and improve the mental condition of the people suffering from depression.

5.      Power Yoga detoxifies the body

The power yoga causes the sweating which is helpful in removing the excess toxins from the body. This is helpful in improving the overall functioning of the body and hence makes you stronger.

Power Yoga for Weight Loss

If you want to lose weight quickly, power yoga is an ideal option for you. Doing 2-3 power yoga sessions of weight loss in between your regular workout program can do wonders in your weight loss campaign. Power Yoga also strengthens your body to lift weights even if you are not used to weight-lifting.

For weight loss, power yoga mixed with cardio can bring you significant results in very less time. It is an awesome practice to take care of the overall fitness and health of your body.

How to do power yoga for weight loss?

The YouTube video I am linking below will help you through the process of losing weight with the help of power yoga. The yoga trainer in the video will simply put together the practices and asanas you have to perform for losing weight. All you have to do is follow the instructor’s instructions carefully and be consistent with your practice so that you can master the art of power yoga and achieve the maximum benefits from it. If you are a beginner, I recommend you to have a particular warm up session involving basic practices to heat up your body and conventional yoga poses to increase your body flexibility to perform power yoga well.

Some Tips to Remember While Doing Power Yoga

Here are some tips you need to take care of while doing the power yoga.

• Wear comfortable clothes. Do not wear stretchy and low-quality fabrics as they can harm your skin.
• Get the right tools along with you such as yoga mat, towel, and water bottle or energy drink you prefer.
• Be silent and calm as you enter the hall to practice the power yoga. Be mindful about every activity you are performing to get the best results.
• Perform some basic stretches and stamina building activities before starting the power yoga.
• Maintain proper hygiene as power yoga will make you sweat a lot.

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