Toning can be one of the hardest goals to achieve when it comes to your health and fitness. The right exercise is key to changing your results and setting out on a path to muscle definition. One of the best forms of exercise to help shape and tone your body is yoga. If you’ve never tried yoga, don’t worry, it’s an exercise for everybody. To learn where to start with yoga and just how yoga can help you shape and tone your body, let’s find out more.
Find the right studio
Yoga studios are bountiful in almost every major city of town in the country. You’ll find yoga in Melbourne on just about every street or road in the city. The key is finding the right studio for your skill level and particular interests. There are various forms of yoga, including yin and yang, hot yoga and many more. Depending on your individual skill level and goals, you may want to opt for a studio that specialises in one form. Alternatively, if you are just starting out, finding a studio that offers variation in its classes and schedule might be better.
Trying out different forms can be a great way to learn quickly and also find out which yoga is your favourite. You will get a sense of whether these are your people pretty quick, but try and keep an open mind when trying out studios.
Get the right equipment
Yoga is a fantastic exercise for those who aren’t interested in learning to use machines or purchasing lots of equipment. Yoga requires just three easy to find and relatively cheap pieces of equipment; a towel, a yoga mat and a water bottle. For the rest of your yoga exercises, all you need is your body. When it comes to finding the right yoga mat, be sure to look for an option that has plenty of grip. Yoga may seem like just stretching, but as you challenge your body and mind, you will be sweating. Having a mat with plenty of grip allows you to maintain better balance and avoid those embarrassing falls in class. If you’re unsure, you can ask your local studio what their preferred brand is.
Get to know the forms of yoga
Education is the key to confidence, and confidence is the key to achieving your results. Learning the difference between yin and yang yoga can help you know how you can tone faster. Both are important to achieving your goals, but yin will focus more on restoring your muscles and helping you recover. Whereas yang or hatha yoga is about improving strength, tone and flexibility. Striking the right balance between the two and working in a few hot yoga sessions will help you tone a lot faster. The benefits of hot yoga are obvious, you get the same challenge from the exercise, and the increased sweats from the heat. Hot yoga can be a great way to help tone and drop some excess fat.
What to wear
Yoga is all about movement and letting your body flow through positions. Wearing loose, stretchy pants or comfortable clothing is the best option. Be sure to wear a tighter fitting shirt though, the last thing you want is your shirt falling over your face in the middle of a pose as you get a little more horizontal. A big benefit to yoga is the lack of investment required when it comes to footwear. Yoga is traditionally performed in bare feet and almost all studios will adhere to this as well. Being barefoot means you can really grip and allow your body to move and flow like never before. If you are someone who sweats quite a lot, it’s a good idea to buy a pair of grip socks to wear in your class. Grip socks can help give you a little extra stickiness and allow you to challenge yourself in class to achieve your toning goals.
Learn to breathe
This may sound obvious, but learning to breathe effectively will help you achieve so much more in your yoga journey. Yoga is all about the breath and how to use the breath effectively to get deeper in a pose or create more room. Breathing is a key to calming your mind in yoga which will mean you can spend more time in a pose and help tone your body even faster. Deep breathing, especially through the nose is a great thing to practice before your yoga class.
Yoga is a great way to try a new exercise and achieve your goal of toning your body. Yoga challenges your body to become more flexible, stronger and improve your balance. These three things combined will help shape and tone your body in areas you didn’t think possible. Getting started is easy, by using this guide you’ll be on your way to toning your body and becoming a yoga enthusiast in no time.
