Tag fitness

5 Reasons Why Weight Loss Is Hard To Achieve

Weight loss is a simple concept that a lot of people are having a hard time achieving. It seems to be quite simple, exercise + proper nutrition = weight loss right? Well, it is that simple in a nutshell but a lot of people get lost on the proper execution of it. Having the right ingredients and a cookbook does not guarantee a fine meal; does it?

Here are a few things why we have been having a hard time reaching that ideal weight that we are aiming for and below that, some weight loss tips you can use any season of the year.

Weight Loss Struggle 1 – Impatience

A lot of diet and exercise programs before had long time tables but since a lot of people prefer a quick fix, many unsustainable diet fads and exercise programs have popped up. Many people tend to lose interest way before their bodies have adapted to the program and show any results. Being impatient never has benefited anybody when it comes to fitness. The winning formula remains to be perseverance and hard work. Working out and sweating for a week will not get rid of the flab that you have put on for years. Have faith in your program and diet plan and you will see results in time.

Weight Loss Struggle 2 – Cheating

This goes to the exercise and diet too. When doing the exercise, do not cheat your way through your workout. Follow strict form and make sure that you follow your trainer on what to lift and how many repetitions you have to do. Do not say that “that’s too heavy” or “that’s too light”. You have a trainer for a reason so follow their advice. If you are one of the people who is able to afford a nutritionist, follow the programs that they have designed for you. Don’t have a hidden stack of chocolate or secretly buy ice cream or cake on your way home. You are not cheating anybody but yourself.

Weight Loss Struggle 3 – Lifestyle

Losing weight is not a quick fix. It often requires an overhaul of ones lifestyle. Losing weight requires changing a few of you routines and that includes what you buy and bring home to the house. It also involves limiting some of your normal daily activities like watching T.V. and how much time you spend online. The reason people in the old days are a lot more fit than most of us now is because they did not spend every waking hours in the house watching T.V. and chatting online.

Weight Loss Struggle 4 – Target Weight

Make sure that you set an achievable goal so that you can actually get to it. Please don’t aim to lose 5 lbs. in a week because you will just be breaking your heart. An achievable goal is like 10 lbs in 2 months. That can still be hard for some and depends entirely on your dedication to the goal but this is where your personal trainer can be of help because a reasonable goal depends on many things like eating habits, genetics, how hard your workout programs is and more so a clear communication with your trainer is key not only in setting the target weight but on how to achieve it.

Weight Loss Struggle 5 – No Support System

Losing weight is kind of like recovering from an addiction in many ways. You also will need a strong support system because it simply cannot be done alone. Your family and/or friend can provide you the emotional support that you will need and your trainer will provide the push that you will inevitably need when you get to the point that you are getting tired and thinks that you cannot go on.

Weight Loss Tips For the Summer, Winter, Fall and Spring

Losing weight can be quite an ordeal but the summer is one of the few reasons that can really push someone to lose weight. Many want to go to the beach and have a beach worthy body, some just wants to fit in to that bikini but whatever it is the reason, losing weight still has the same formula for success.

Choose a Proper Nutrition Plan

Notice I said nutrition instead of diet? Because nowadays, it seems that the definition of the word diet is closer to “starving” than an actual diet. You do not have to avoid food. You just have to take in the proper nutrients in the proper proportions. Do not completely cut out carbohydrates in your diet because that will put your body into survival mode and actually try to reserve as much as it can and therefore produce “stored” energy a.k.a fats. The old pattern of eating smaller meals more often is still a great way to go as long as you get enough nutrients in a day. You can cut back on carbs and calories but not complete taking them out of your diet.

Get More Sleep

It sounds counter-productive but sleep actually helps you lose fat. People who do not get enough sleep generally eat more to try and boost themselves. Most will turn to caffeine and sugar for that boost of energy. But regular intake of simple sugar will cause more fat. Making sure that you get 6 to 8 hours of sleep allows your body to recover from your day and when you wake up, you will feel energized naturally.

Do Cardio Exercises

You burn calories a lot faster if you include cardio in your workout routine. It depends on you what cardio you want to do but make sure that you do it properly. Also, if you are really serious on losing weight, you can do pure cardio on the days that you are not lifting weights. Make sure that you keep yourself hydrated though because the body needs water to turn fat into actual energy. Plus you don’t want to be hydrated and just collapse on the treadmill now do you?

Eat Slowly And Chew Your Food Properly

When you chew your food properly, the better it will be digested and processed by your body. This makes sure that all of the nutrients of what you are eating actually end up in the body and not the toilet. If you eat fast and don’t chew that much, big chunks of food end up in your digestive track and the harder it is for your body to digest them and most end up being wasted. Eating slow also allows your body to react properly and let you know that you are already full. Most of the time, when you eat fast, you don’t realize that you are already full fast enough so you end up eating more. The point is, give your body time to communicate with you.

Don’t Force Through Your Workout

Lifting too heavy weights when working out will not make you lose weight. As a matter of fact, you might even gain weight if you keep doing that. Muscle tissues are heavier than fat so you might have lost a lot of fat but gained muscle so for the scale, mass is mass. You might even gain instead of lose if you go all Arnold on the weights.

Stay Active

This is the simplest advice that you can get when it comes to getting that beach body. It’s simple enough that anybody gets it but effective enough to bring anybody results. It does not matter that much what you do as long as it gets you moving. Walk the dog more often, trust me even the dog will like this. Do some power-walking in the morning. Anything as long as it gets the blood pumping, do it more often.

Drink Healthy Green Smoothies and Maximize Your Weight Loss Goals

Drinking green smoothies is indeed very healthy and good for weight loss. In fact, you can drink them every day.

What’s more, you are free to choose your ingredients and you may also vary them from time to time. As there is a wide variety of veggies and fruits, you can actually explore more on the ingredients you use in your green smoothies.

Drinking green smoothies with the same ingredients day in and day out can be boring at times and you are only getting the same level of benefits.

Tips for Making the Most Out of Your Green Smoothies:

Add Several Slices of Avocado

Adding avocado to your smoothie will not only make it creamier but will also make it healthier since avocados are a good source of protein and fats.

Use Frozen Fruit

Organic frozen fruits are best for green smoothies. When you use frozen fruits in your smoothie, they will make your smoothie colder and thicker. Frozen strawberries, peaches and cherries are simply delicious. It is also a good idea to vary your fruit ingredients.

Add Nut Milk

Nut milk can also be added into the smoothie. Try to add almond milk to make your smoothie creamier. However, if you think your smoothie already tastes great, then you can just add a little water or ice.

Include Lots and Lots of Greens

It is a healthy way to include great amounts of greens in your smoothie as this will help flush out the toxins from your body. You can add red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, carrot greens, beet greens, kale, chard or spinach. For a more nutritious recipe, you can include more greens to your recipe. When you do this you do not only get a healthy dose of vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants but also do something good to speed up your weight loss.

Aside from this, the presence of more greens will create a balance in the mixture and taste as they will reduce the sweet taste of fruits. Eating the same kinds of greens every day is not healthy as greens contain little amounts of alkaloids that if taken in large doses can cause toxicity. The key is to add different varieties of greens every other day. By doing this you will discover a whole new flavor each time you use a different variety.

Make it Deliciously Sweet

Although some fruits are naturally sweet, they are not created equal. One orange may taste sweet, while another orange may taste a bit tangy. To make your smoothie sweeter, you can add medjool dates, agave nectar, honey or more fruits. Medjool dates are quite healthy as they contain potassium and fiber. They are also good for digestion, boost your energy and reduce blood pressure.

Prepare a Different Green Smoothie Recipe Every Day

Trying a new recipe can be quite fun and exciting, and the same is true for smoothies. You can find many smoothie recipes online. Try every recipe if you can and make your own as well. Sooner or later you will find what tickles your taste buds the most.

7 Health Benefits of Including Green Smoothies in Your Diet

If you are looking for a tasty and nutritious drink, try drinking a green smoothie. Green smoothies contain ingredients that are essential for health improvement. Read on to see in what ways green smoothies can improve your health.

They Help You Lose Weight Naturally

One of the effective ways to lose weight is to drink green smoothies. They provide the minerals, vitamins, low-calorie whole food, fiber and nutrition you need for losing weight effectively, safely and quickly.

They Are Rich in Antioxidants

Green smoothies contain high levels of phytonutrients and antioxidants. These natural substances are important for your optimum fitness and health. Because of the presence of phytonutrients and antioxidants in green smoothies, your body is protected against diseases.

Green Smoothies Contain Lots of Fiber

Smoothies are more nutritious than vegetable or fruit juices due to their high fiber content. The whole vegetable and fruit used in smoothies are rich in nutrition and fiber. Fiber is good for the colon and essential for easy bowel movement. That is why smoothies are considered healthier compared to green juices.

They Improve Mental Focus and Clarity

A healthy diet can enhance your mental focus and clarity. Green smoothies are healthy alternatives to coffee, so it is a good idea to drink a delicious smoothie in the morning instead of a hot coffee. As they are caffeine-free, smoothies can provide greater energy and alertness. They can also reduce nervousness and anxiety.

They Reduce Your Appetite

Much like a wonder drink, green smoothies can help a lot in reducing your cravings for fats, salt, unhealthy sweets and junk foods. Whether you believe it or not, an amazing thing happens when you regularly drink smoothies, and that is, you will want to eat greens, veggies and fruits more instead of unhealthy foods.

They Help You Increase Consumption of Veggies and Fruits

According to the American Cancer Society, eating 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits every day can prevent an individual from getting cancer or other diseases. Most people do not like the taste of vegetables so they rarely eat them. However, drinking a cold glass of green smoothie will do the trick. The most convenient and quickest way for you to consume some leafy, dark greens and vegetables without even tasting them is to eat them with fruits. This is possible when you prepare a nutritious green smoothie since the fruits you use will mask the flavor of the veggies. Thus, even though your smoothie may taste like strawberry, banana, mango or pineapple, you are still consuming healthy amounts of tomatoes, carrots, kale, spinach, and other types of veggies.

They Are Good for Your Skin

When you eat healthy foods, you get radiant and clearer skin. As they are good sources of fiber, green smoothies make it possible for you to get rid of body toxins properly and not through the skin. This explains why you get a healthy and glowing skin when you drink smoothies regularly.

What Does Strength Training Have to do with Running?

On the face of it, strength training for runners doesn’t make sense. Running fast means lessening the weight you carry around, which is why you won’t find any “chubby” world-class runners. In fact, runners tend to be lean and mean machines, especially for those who specialize in long distance running where champions look like they’ve been starving for some time while languishing in a prison camp.

Recently, however, a growing number of the running population has come to the realization that strength training for runners has its benefits. Perhaps one of the most important benefits is that being physically strong helps prevent injuries while running. And not only does it make you stronger, but it also makes you run more efficiently. In fact, it makes you run faster!

It’s important to note however that runners have their own priorities, and these are not the same as those of bodybuilders. Runners need a different strength training program than a football player. So instead of exercises that involve pushing away weight from the body, the exercises runners should perform need to concentrate on working the target muscles that will improve balance.

According to the foremost experts of our time, here are the strengthening exercises runners need to do:

1. Planks. Do about 3 to 5 reps of these. This exercise will work the muscles in your shoulders, lower back, and core.
2. Lower Body Russian Twist. Lie with your back on the floor. Your knees, however, should be bent 90 degrees from your body, and your lower legs should be perpendicular to the floor. It’s like you’re sitting down, except that you’re lying on your back. Now keep your legs in this position while you lower them to one side. Return your legs to their original position, and then work on your other side. That’s a single rep, and you need to do 10 to 12 of these. If you find this too easy, keep your whole leg straight, 90 degrees from your body. This exercise will work your core muscles.
3. Scorpion. Go into the pushup position, but your feet should be resting on a low bench. Now try to raise your right knee to your left shoulder while you rotate your hips to the left to help you do so. Then reverse your hips to the right and try to reach behind your left shoulder with your right foot (which, by the way, is impossible so don’t be disappointed when your fail). Do as many as you can for 30 seconds, and then do it with your left leg. This exercise will work your core and shoulder muscles. If you find it too hard, just do step one. If it’s too easy, place your shins on a stability ball instead of your feet on a bench.
4. Rotational Shoulder Press. Stand straight while you carry a dumbbell in each hand just at your shoulders, with your palms facing each other. Now stretch your arms as you rotate to the left, and then go back to the original position. Then do the same as you go to the right. The entire sequence is one rep, and you should do 6 to 8 of these. This workout will work your core, triceps, and shoulders. If this is too hard, do just half the reps, or do it without the rotation.

Strength Training for Runners Offers Many Advantages

One of the many advantages of strength training for runners is that these exercises don’t take an inordinate amount of time, and you only need to do them twice or thrice a week.

Strength training offers so many advantages that everyone, no matter what age, and no matter the gender, should do them regularly. If you haven’t done any strength training before, now is the perfect time to do so.

A good place to put together your strength training workout routine is to subscribe to the MyFitnessNut.com Newsletter and then follow along with your choice of the yoga, Kettlebell or dumbbell workout series on video. With the individual videos that you’ll find there, you can put together a strength training workout for running alone or focus on general muscle building and endurance. Besides hiring a fitness coach, video is the next best way to learn from.

Traditionally, strength training for women has not been exactly a mainstream idea. Most people don’t really find muscled women all that appealing, and many women don’t engage in strength training because they’re afraid that they’ll look like a female version of the Incredible Hulk.

Strength Training for Women: End the Double-Standards

Even in the Olympics, this double standard has endured, and it was only in the 2000 Sydney Olympics that women’s weightlifting was included.

Like strength training for men, there isn’t a single program out there that’s perfect for every woman. But the best strength training programs for women will have the following features:

• Heavy weights. This is perhaps the most important aspect of them all. Regardless of what you hear about strength training for women, lifting heavy weights does not cause massive muscles. Most women who do get those large muscles consume a lot of calories for that very purpose, and they probably take a lot of protein supplements as well. Since strength training is about tearing muscle fiber, those puny 5 pound weights are virtually useless. Women really need to lift weights which feel heavy for them, so that the workout becomes effective.
• Variety. The body adapts to exercises, so you need to challenge it in different ways so that it doesn’t stop progressing. There’s also the extra benefit that having varied workouts may prevent you from getting bored.
• During the first few months, you may want to start with the basic exercises. These involve barbells dumbbells or Kettlebells, but don’t get intimidated. These exercises are the power clean, deadlift, squat, overhead press, and the bench press.
• Some of these may have different versions for women. Once you master these, you may want to look into several different versions of each of these exercises.

• Kettlebell One Arm Clean
• Kettlebell Deadlift
• Decline Bench Press
• Dumbbell Leg Exercises – Squat
• Kettlebell Push Press

• Compensate for your weakness. Everyone, men and women alike, has weaknesses. While it can be exhilarating to improve all your strengths, it’s imperative that you work on your weaknesses. You’re only as strong as your weakest point. For women, the most notable weaknesses are the inner and outer thighs (which pros call the hip adductors and abductors), the mid to upper back, the shoulders, and the triceps. You overcome these weaknesses by doing some exercises that target these specific areas.
• Motivation. A lot of women admit to quitting, since there’s a subliminal atmosphere of disapproval about women lifting weights. So work with people who want to see you succeed in order for you to always have the motivation to push forward.

Contrary to popular belief, strength training is important for women as well. It’s not just political correctness, but common sense.

Can Yoga Help Your Lower Back Pain?

The American Heart Association says that most people will suffer some form of lower back pain in their life. And if you have this debilitating affliction, you know how limiting it can be. Aside from improving heart health, helping you lose weight and drastically increasing brainwave function and recall, proper yoga practice can actually reduce lower back pain.

But there are a few yoga poses and positions that do a better job at this than others. Practice the following yoga poses in your routine every week, and benefit from less lower back pain as a result but be sure that you have proper clearance from your doctor and be certain that you are doing the poses correctly. A good yoga instructor can help you with this.

Whether sitting at your computer on the job for hour after hour, or bent over in your backyard garden, your daily activities can lead to lower back pain. One pair of yoga poses that works so well together for reducing back pain is the Cat/Cow combo.

By moving back and forth between these two postures, you begin to warm up as well as stretch your back muscles. These include the muscles in your lower back. Look to your yoga trainer or coach for proper form and function, or turn to the many yoga courses and programs offered on the Internet for convenient use in your home at your leisure.

One of the yoga positions well known for strengthening your lower back muscles is the Chair pose. A quick word of warning… If you are new to yoga take it easy with this particular mode. Mimicking the natural human body movement when you sit in a chair, you hold this pose for 10 deep breaths.

As you squat this focuses attention on your lower back muscles, and over time can condition your body with such strong muscles in that region that you not only can treat lower back pain, but you greatly reduce your risk of contracting it in the first place.

While Downward Dog may sound like a depressed canine, it is actually an excellent yoga pose for supporting all of your back muscles. This wonderful position also helps improve your overall body posture, and even engages your abdominal muscles. The longer you are able to hold this pose in a comfortable manner the better and more beneficial it is to your lower back.

Spinal Twist sounds like a great name for a rock band, but is actually a great pose for overworked back muscles. Beginners are recommended to take this slowly, as over-twisting can aggravate and accelerate back pain.

With the Spinal Twist pose you are looking to stretch gently. If you begin to feel pain of any kind, back off and move to a more comfortable position. The Standing Forward Bend is a beneficial exercise in many ways. It also effectively uses gravity to more gently and comfortably stretch your lower back after positions like the Chair pose.

With your arms raised above your head, swan dive forward on your next inhale and bend at your waist. Practicing this yoga pose will eventually allow you to touch the floor, and this is one of many simple to perform but helpful yoga positions which can help you reduce back pain.

Eating Right to Get the Most Benefits From Your Yoga Routine

To get the most benefits from yoga, poses should be done on an empty stomach.

Not only do poses work the outside of your body, but certain ones also work the inside, and if you are full or still trying to digest a big meal, you can’t do many of the poses properly.

What to Eat in Regards to Yoga

The Yoga diet is different from other types of diets in that it is not centered on counting calories or quantity of food. Instead, it relies heavily on the quality of certain types of food in their natural form, such as:

• whole grains
• seasonal fruits
• vegetables
• milk
• honey
• dried fruits

As you look at the list, notice nothing on it is processed or refined. Everything is just as nature provides it. Also, the diets of yogis stress balance and to achieve that goal in their eating, they eat select items from each food listed.

When to Eat in Regards to Yoga

As noted, yoga is best performed on an empty stomach. If you eat a meal from the recommended items, make sure you do not eat later than 1 hour prior to your practice. That way what you ate has time to digest and will not interfere with your yoga experience. If you are eating a meal heavily laden with meats or other processed and refined foods (which you shouldn’t be in the first place), allow 3 to 4 hours before doing your workout routine.

Eating Before Yoga

While not recommended, sometimes you have to have a little something to eat to carry you through the workout – especially if you are just coming from work and have not eaten in a while. A small serving of yogurt along with some fruits or vegetables a ½ hour to an hour before class would give you the energy and stamina you need to get through your poses.

Eating After Yoga

If it takes you a while to drive home after your yoga class, bring some unsalted almonds and dried fruit with you to eat on the way home. For your evening meal, concentrate on eating healthy protein like eggs or fish along with some whole grains and vegetables.

Hydration is important. Keep yourself hydrated by drinking water throughout the day and after your yoga class, but try to avoid drinking water just prior to your class. Doing yoga immediately after drinking 8 ounces of water can produce nausea in some students while others experience stomach cramps. Some yogis benefit from drinking a glass of organic juice after class to help replenish nutrients and electrolytes lost during the practice.

By eating smart and adhering to the timelines in this article, you can get the most benefit and fulfilling experience from each of your yoga classes.

There’s Many Choice for Yoga Clothes

What to wear? When you are deciding what you should wear while practicing yoga, you have entirely too many choices. Should you wear loose fitting yoga clothes, or tight ones? Are flashy, bright colors acceptable at class? Or are you expected to be muted and conservative in your clothing color choices?

These are all great questions that deserve consideration when you decide what you should wear while performing yoga asanas, poses and sequences, but there are a few simple rules you should definitely follow.

Opt for Comfort With Your Yoga Clothes

Remember, as with any physical exercise, your goal with yoga should be to dress for comfort and fit. You should be able to move easily from one pose to another without having to fuss with your outfit. If you are attending yoga class for the first time, you are already experiencing enough anxiety. No need to add to that by wearing ill-fitting clothing.

The focus of yoga is calmness and serenity, so choose clothing in colors that promote peace and tranquility in yourself and others is a good idea. One of the most popular brands of clothing many women really like is Kate Hudson’s Fabletics line. Fabletics is comfortable, stylish and affordable.

Beware of Wardrobe Malfunctions with Your Choice of Yoga Clothes

Light and loose-fitting clothing made of cotton or linen is fine for yoga. What may seem obvious may not be, so leave the leather, synthetic rubber and denim for other activities. And men, make sure that your clothing is loose, but not overly so. No need for an accidental exposure which might embarrass you as well as your fellow yoga classmates.

For women, you need to ensure that there is not an accidental wardrobe malfunction. Test out potential yoga outfits at home in front of a mirror, or simply ask your instructor for some guidelines in this area.

The Right Yoga Clothes Helps Your Instructor Help You Better

Remember, you are simply trying to cover your body, not hide it. You are aiming for function over fashion. If you are bathed in voluminous folds of fabric, your instructor may not be able to correctly see your alignment or body posture. To give you proper insight and guidance, your teacher needs to be able to see your body parts move.

And when choosing one fabric over another, this is generally personal choice. Don’t forget, however, that cotton absorbs sweat very efficiently, and retains it. If you know that you sweat heavily, you may want to choose quick-dry clothing materials that wick the sweat away from your skin. This lets your body breathe more easily.

Layer Your Yoga Clothes in Colder Weather

Many established yoga clothing companies have developed a layering method which offers many benefits. The lightweight jackets with zippers, long-sleeved hoodies and other products they make are excellent for colder weather.

These are also great to bring to a yoga class that is being held in a cold or cool room. And by wearing layers you raise your core temperature, which loosens muscles and allows your body to cool down slowly.

When wearing layers of clothing as you practice yoga, you can simply remove a layer at a time if you start getting too warm. Follow these simple clothing tips and you will maximize your physical and spiritual experience, while minimizing embarrassing or uncomfortable yoga sessions.

When you perform your yoga routines is individualistic and should be done when it best fits in with your daily schedule, lifestyle and body signals. Some yogis champion for morning workouts; others prefer to practice yoga mid-day; still others swear evening is the best time.

Your Daily Schedule When You Practice Yoga

If you have the time in the morning or can make the time, right after you get up is a good time to practice. Because yoga is best practiced on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning is a good time to run through your yoga routine. With an early morning routine, when you ate last is not an issue, as it can be at other times of the day. Because you are fresh, you can practice a variety of active energizing poses and perform a full workout, but realize the downside is your muscles may be stiff during the first few poses.

If midday is your best time of day for yoga, you may prefer to concentrate your practice on seated bends and twist poses. It can drain away the stress from the morning and prepare you for the afternoon.

For many yogis, the best time of day is in the evening. The workday is over, you most likely have not eaten since lunch (outside of a small mid-afternoon healthy snack) and your muscles are loose from the daily grind. It can be the perfect time of day to practice calming and relaxing poses.

Split yoga practices are also popular. Some yogis do a short routine in the morning to get them ready for the day and a longer routine of different poses in the evening to relax them. Regardless when you practice, finish with the Corpse Pose.

Your Lifestyle When You Practice Yoga

You may be one where the time of day does not drive your yoga practices, but instead your lifestyle. These people fit in yoga practices where it best fits in with their daily schedule. If you take yoga classes, most studios offer several classes throughout the day, so finding one that fits your schedule shouldn’t be too difficult. You may start out with some energizing poses and wind down at the end with calming and relaxing ones.

Listen to Your Body Signals When You Practice Yoga

Once you have been doing yoga for a while, you will find yourself in better tune with your body. If you listen to what it has to say, you may find out that you are practicing too often.

Our bodies are sensitive also to the change in seasons. You may find a select group of poses work well in summer, but not in the winter. However you may also find that certain poses work well both in the spring and fall because of the likeness in temperature during those two times of year.

You will find some great yoga demonstration to help you get started right here http://myfitnessnut.com/hatha-yoga-poses but regardless of which poses you do or when you practice yoga, the important part is reaping the benefits of doing yoga to improve your health and well-being.

Learning Yoga at Home or in a Class is a Matter of Personal Preference and Convenience

Yoga has been proven to reduce stress, help relieve lower back pain, increase longevity and deliver a host of other positive and beneficial health attributes. And you may want to get started practicing yoga at home, versus in an organized class. There could be many reasons for this.

The available yoga classes offered in your town may be far away from your home, or you might have young ones to tend to. Maybe you just prefer to exercise alone, or feel sensitive about your body weight or shape, and would like to get started on your own at first. Whatever your reasons for learning and practicing yoga at home, there are a few things you need to know.

Practicing Yoga at Home is a Low Cost Option

First off, practicing yoga at home as opposed to some other exercise has never been easier. A home practice of yoga requires a sticky mat and you as a basic beginning. You can always purchase two blocks and a strap for modifications, and perhaps in the future purchase a yoga blanket.

Even if you buy all of those items, as well as a meditation cushion, the physical space you need and the financial outlay you incur to practice yoga at home are both minimal. And classes offered outside your home can be costly.

Remember that when learning yoga at home, you will have to be your own strict teacher. Regular classes are attended at a particular time, and you should probably set up a space and time which is dedicated to yoga in your home. Make sure your yoga space is uncluttered and serene, and one tip here is to add images and objects that create a sense of peace and tranquillity.

Since there are literally hundreds of forms and modifications of this ancient spiritual practice, choose a yoga style which fits you best, and stick to it. Beginners can start off with forms like Iyengar or Kripalu yoga, which help you learn proper positioning.

A Yoga Instructor Can Show You How to Do Yoga at Home

While learning yoga at home can save on financial and time investments, you can get great training in a class. That means that if you want to practice at home you may want to contact a yoga teacher or instructor to ensure your efforts are correct, so that you can receive maximum benefits.

After a time you can then begin to develop your own personal practice privately at home. And if no instructor is available, the beauty of the Internet provides helpful yoga DVD courses, books and even yoga flash cards which you can purchase and have delivered to your front door.

What if you find certain aspects of both home practice and out-of-the-home structured classes attractive? Then you may want to look into joining an online yoga club. This gives you access to podcasts, user guides and video direction from trained yoga masters, available in your particular time frame, and in the privacy of your home. And there are smart-phone applications which allow you to complement your at-home yoga practice with on the go, anywhere availability.

Whether learning yoga at home versus in a structured class setting, you can access the many mind and body benefits this simple, spiritual and physical exercise delivers.

Practicing Yoga is Designed to Work with All Religions

In researching the origins of yoga leads us to understand that it was created as a spiritual practice with the goal of achieving a “union with the absolute.”

But since the early 1960s in the US and other countries of the Western world, when yoga started to be practiced for health benefits, the lines have been blurred between the religious and physical aspects of this ancient mystic practice. And in the 1980s, Hatha yoga became exponentially popular in the United States, practiced in YMCAs, Christian churches, physical therapy clinics and nonreligious yoga-specific training centers.

The fact that yoga was first created as an Eastern form of thought and philosophy in no way detracts from the physical benefits it delivers. Many Western proponents of yoga will argue that it is not religious. And in the bestselling “Meditations from the Mat” the author claims that there is nothing in the ancient yoga texts that eliminates the practice by any particular religion.

As a how-to guide for right living with a goal of spiritual and physical conditioning, practicing yoga can benefit you regardless of your spiritual or religious beliefs.

Is Practicing Yoga Religious? It’s a Matter of Perception…

The difference is in your perception. In the Western world it is seen primarily as a physical exercise regimen. In the Eastern world yoga is regarded as a spiritual life practice.

But since the human mind and body benefit so wonderfully from the regular practice of yoga, it really doesn’t matter how you view this simple but powerful activity. Healthy weight loss, reduction of stress, improved concentration and memory and even a reduction in your risks of contracting heart disease are all healthy benefits that yoga delivers.

Then there are those yogis in the Western world, like David Life and Sharon Gannon, who have developed their own yoga methods. Their Jivamukti version is based on yoga as an adaptation of practical philosophy and not religion, according to its creators.

However, both Gannon and Life openly attest that yoga is definitely linked to Hinduism and philosophical schools which also include Vedanta, Samkhya, Jainism, and Buddhism. First beginning to appear in the Upanishads as early as 1,000 BC, yoga was without a doubt created as a more spiritual practice than a physical one.

And since the very tenets of this ancient spirit and health enhancement point to each individual’s path of development, there is not any simple religious or nonreligious adaptation that we can point to and identify as yoga. There are several schools of thought and practice, both religious and physical, which dictate different forms of yoga.

Kundalini focuses on strenuous exercise and deep breathing. Hatha postures and continual movement are the basis for Astanga yoga. And there are more yoga asanas, sequences and methods which focus on sexual energy, body sensation, mental enlightenment and other immediate goals.

There is no doubt that yoga has its origins in the ancient spiritual and religious Eastern world, but today’s yoga practitioners are as diverse in their religious beliefs as are the many forms of this beneficial mental and physical exercise.