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Bikram yoga is a type of hot yoga that is ideal for weight loss. It involves practicing yoga in a heated room while pushing through active postures to detox the body of excess salt, water, and toxins while burning fat.
Bikram yoga enthusiasts will claim they burn 1,000 calories per class, but it’s unlikely that you’ll burn anywhere near that many.
A more reasonable range is between 450 and 700 calories for a 90-minute session based on your weight, which is still a considerable amount of calories to help you with weight loss.
Here are Five Bikram Yoga Poses for Weight Loss
1) Awkward Pose
The intensity of this pose will strengthen the muscles of your shoulders, core, and legs. It's often seen as one of the most challenging poses for the lower half of the body due to difficulties with balance and building strength.
This pose leads to weight loss by strengthening the deltoids and abdominal muscles, as well as the quadriceps and calves.
How to do it?
- Begin with your legs straight, feet parallel.
- Bend your knees and squat down as low as possible, keeping your knees over your ankles.
- To lift yourself onto your tiptoes, put both arms out in front of you for balance.
- Squeeze the tops of your feet to help keep you balanced.
- Come back onto your heels and rest for a moment.
- Come back onto your toes with knees together and stay there longer than last time.
- Straighten the spine, stack the torso over hips, while breathing deeply.
2) Standing Head To Knee Pose
In this pose, the muscles in your legs—such as the hamstrings and calves—stretch and become more flexible. This pose is very difficult to maintain since you must balance on one foot that is raised behind you.
This weight loss asana strengthens the shoulder muscles, biceps, and triceps of the arms, abdominal muscles, as well as upper and lateral back muscles, resulting in weight loss.
How to do it?
- Stand straight with your feet wide apart.
- Shift your weight to the right foot and bend that knee, planting it on the floor.
- Interlace your fingers under your belly; then lift the left foot, bending its knee.
- Fold forward until you can hook that foot in the V formed by your hands.
- After you hook your foot, stretch out as much as you can.
- Bend both legs if you are a beginner.
- If your leg is off the floor, keep it bent. If it is straight, keep it straight!
- Stay in this pose for as long as you can and then switch sides.
3) Full-Locust Pose
With the full-locust pose, you increase your breathing capacity, the strength of your back muscles, and the flexibility of your spine, as well as burn off some fat and tone up your shoulders, thighs, and abs.
How to do it?
- Start on all fours, then come down to your belly and bring your arms by your side.
- Bring your legs together, look straight ahead, and then lift your torso and legs up so that you're balancing on your stomach and abdomen.
- Hold this position while inhaling deeply through your nose for a count of eight, then exhaling through your mouth for a count of twenty.
4) Standing Bow Pose
Standing Bow Pose is a backbend that requires you to balance on one leg while reaching back with the other leg and grabbing hold of the foot. This weight loss asana helps improve flexibility in the back, legs, arms, shoulders, core, organs, and circulation.
How to do it?
- Stand with your feet slightly apart, arms at your side.
- Exhale as you bend forward from the waist, lifting your left leg up and back.
- Grab hold of the left ankle with your left hand and stretch out ahead of you to balance.
- Inhale as you pull your left foot towards your hips, deepening the stretch for 5 to 10 breaths before repeating it on the other side.
5) Corpse Pose
Corpse Pose is a restorative pose that allows the body and mind to completely relax after a sweaty weight loss session. It is often done at the end of a yoga class in order to help students transition from an active practice into a state of complete relaxation.
How to do it?
- Lie on your back, with your legs hip-width apart and arms by your sides.
- Your hands should face upward.
- Allow your entire body to relax, releasing any tension you may be holding in your muscles. Breathe deeply and slowly.
- Stay in this pose for 5 to 10 minutes until you feel completely relaxed.
Takeaway
It's important to remember that no one style of yoga is better or worse than any other, and you should always avoid comparing yourself to others. Each person walks into a yoga class with their own mind, body, and experience, so your needs will probably be different from someone else's.
Your yoga instructor will have the most knowledge of what exercises are most helpful for weight loss in the case of Bikram yoga.
