WHICH IS BETTER FOR WEIGHT LOSS: CARDIO OR YOGA?

If you’re wondering which is better for weight loss, Cardio or Yoga, you’ve come to the right place!

Below, we’re going to take a look at both workouts, examine their effects on your metabolism, musculature, and mobility, and see how they can improve your overall health and fitness.

While both are excellent for your health and deserve a place in your weekly workout schedule, by the time you reach the end of this page, you’ll see that one is clearly superior to the other.

Which is Better for Weight Loss: Cardio or Yoga?

You’re no doubt familiar with Yoga and all its many variations. There are many different types of Yoga—Hatha, Bikram, Kundalini, Ashtanga, and more—each of which involves similar poses that are performed in varying sequences and at varying speeds.

When we’re talking about “cardio”, we mean any form of low-intensity, steady-state exercise—such as jogging, running, walking, cycling, or using the elliptical machine. You can do high-intensity cardio workouts, but typically, “cardio” refers to low-intensity exercise sustained for longer periods of time (30-60 minutes).

Let’s be clear: both types of exercise are great for you!

Not only will they improve your cardiovascular endurance, but they’ll improve heart health, contribute to weight loss, boost your metabolism, and give you boost of energy that will help you keep up with your daily activities of life more easily.

But the two workouts offer a different range of benefits:

Cardio

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  Increased cardiovascular endurance – Because you’re spending so much time in low-intensity, steady-state activity, your heart and lungs develop greater endurance for prolonged periods of activity. You end up being able to sustain low-intensity exertion for longer because your cardiovascular system is more effective at delivering blood and nutrients to your muscles and organs.

• Better metabolic rate – Any activity leads to a higher metabolism, which means your body naturally burns more calories on its own. Plus, cardio also activates stored fats, helping your body to burn unwanted body fat—not just lose “water weight”.

• Good calorie-burning – A run will burn around 10-17 calories per minute. Stretch that out over 30 minutes, and you’re burning a minimum of 300 calories. Run for an hour, and you’re burning around 600 calories.

Yoga

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  Increased muscular and cardiovascular endurance – With Yoga, you’re sustaining low-intensity exercise for prolonged periods of time because you’re constantly moving between poses, your body always working. However, because of the difficulty of Yoga poses, your muscles also have to do plenty of work, not just your cardiovascular system. Yoga builds some strength but a great deal of muscular endurance.

• Better fat activation – Not only does Yoga improve your metabolic rate and increase calorie burning, but it actively targets the fat around your body. Yoga burns fewer calories per minute but it works through a lot more energy over the course of the workout—and the hours that follow. That’s right, the elevated metabolism will continue for up to 4 hours after you finish your Yoga session, particularly more dynamic, fast-paced Yoga workouts like Power Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga. And, because it’s a low-intensity exercise, a lot of the calories burned with be fat calories, leading to better fat loss overall.

• Mental benefits – Yoga doesn’t just improve your physical health—it also focuses on your mental conditioning, leading to better relaxation, less stress, and even more effective cognitive function. Thanks to the meditative techniques and breathing exercises incorporated into your daily Yoga workout, your mind will become healthier as well as your body, and you’ll be less vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and depression.

 In Conclusion

As you can see, running is the better of the two if you’re talking pure weight loss. Because of the higher-intensity nature of a run, jog, or cycling session, you burn more calories over the course of the workout, so you can see better immediate results in terms of eliminating water weight and beginning the weight loss journey.

Yoga, however, takes the “slow and steady” approach to weight loss. Though it’s not as high-intensity as running, it activates stored fats more effectively than most cardio workouts and targets your muscles to increase both endurance and strength. Because of the metabolism-boosting effects of Yoga (significantly higher than cardio), you end up losing more fat weight in the long term. Not only that, but your mind is more at ease, your body is more relaxed, there is less stress on your joints, and you feel happier at the end of your Yoga session.

Both Yoga and cardio are excellent additions to your weekly workouts if you want to lose weight. However, if you have to choose just one of the two, you are better off going with Yoga. The long-term improvements brought about by the lower-intensity exercise will pay off exponentially, helping you to ultimately be a much fitter, stronger, and more mobile person.

Which is Better for Weight Loss: Cardio or Yoga?

If you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll definitely want to give Get Yoga Lean a try!

Get Yoga Lean is our solution to achieving real, long-lasting weight loss using Yoga, but with just enough cardiovascular conditioning mixed in that you’ll feel more fit next time you try to run, jog, cycle, or swim.

Get Yoga Lean targets your metabolism, increasing your natural calorie burning to help your body shed pounds—of not just water weight, but body fat—on its own throughout the day. You’ll find that going through the Get Yoga Lean workouts will lead to serious improvements in your mobility and flexibility, as well as enhanced mental clarity and less anxiety and stress. It brings the best of Yoga right into your home, a workout program you can take anywhere you go, and do anytime.

Try Get Yoga Lean today! It’s the living proof that Yoga always wins in the debate of “which is better for weight loss, cardio or Yoga?”