There has been a lot of curiosity about the best and worst yoga poses for weight loss. Yoga is an ancient Indian discipline that was designed to increase self-awareness and self-understanding through the use of meditation tools and controlled breathing practices.

Physical poses were later added to the practice to make it more comfortable to sit for a long time when meditating. In the West, poses became a popular way to get toned and fit, and have become synonymous with a healthy and spiritually secular lifestyle. Yoga is not a religion, but a set of lifestyle practices that help you to be more objective, calmer, and more peaceful. Poses, when combined with mindful breathwork and other healthy eating habits, can become a journey toward self-transformation in both body and mind.

In Hatha Yoga, most yoga poses for weight loss focus on sun salutations which consist of a series of poses designed to warm up, stretch, and move the spine in different directions. It is best to practice on an empty stomach and drink water during practice. You want to make sure your cell phone is turned off so that you can fully focus on your practice and not disturb the other students. The practice begins by setting an intention, usually chanting om, that connects the group to a wider universal consciousness.

The first pose is the mountain pose, which consists of simply standing in attention with an emphasis on alignment, engagement, and conscious breathing through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. The next poses are usually forward push-ups, followed by the plank pose, which is basically a push-up that helps build upper body strength and warm up the body. Practice then shifts to an upward dog, which is an intense backbend on the ground. The next pose is a downward facing dog, which is designed to stretch the hamstrings, lengthen the spine, and strengthen the arms. The bearish dog is followed by jumping or jumping in a forward bend and then returning to the standing posture and to begin this series of poses that flow from one posture to the next. After about 15 minutes of sun salutations, you’ll feel hot and sweat will start to trickle down your body, so you know you’re getting stronger and more toned. Depending on how quickly you transition from one pose to the next, it will affect how many calories your yoga poses will burn for weight loss.