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Originally Posted by Magnus  If it's available in your area, I heard hot yoga? was really good. Couple of my friends said it helped a lot with their weight loss. |
I love Yoga, especially the hot Vinyassa Flow style yoga. About 4 years ago I was a regular a serious yoga studio, it was warm, dark, warm and excellent teachers and cost $99.00 a month for unlimited classes. BUT I tore cartilage in my shoulder/bicep area from some of the moves. There is a wide spectrum of types of classes so people that are unfamiliar with yoga do not realize how intense some of the asanas (poses) can be. There are classes with passive type stretching, then there are classes that have you using your arms and shoulders to hold up the weight of you body. I got to the point I could do men's style pushups (chatarunges), headstands, balance my body by resting my forearms on my knees, and I was even able at age 54 to do a backbend. I thought I was on top of the world but then most likely due to my age and the fact that I took this up in my 50's I hurt my shoulder and also my back. I tried to keep going but the style I liked and really most styles of yoga have you using your upper arms a lot so I quit. A few years later when Bally's the gym I had gone to for over 25 years closed I joined a World Gym which happened to by owned by one of the gals that taught at the yoga studio, she put a small room in the back of the gym and taught the type of classes I had loved so much, so I decided to give it another try and figured I would take it easy on my left shoulder, well don't you know after about 10 classes I sprained my right rotator cuff
I then decided I would just do basic yoga stretches at home. That was the beginning of me packing on 40lbs over the last 4 years. I recommend yoga to everyone but if you are new at it, take it slow before trying all the hard stuff, especially if you are not really young. I actually still have it in the back of my mind that if I loose 40 lbs I might try it again, I really really miss it
. The other problem is if you wind up liking yoga it is hard to enjoy it unless you are in a dedicated studio where the room is dark and warm, taking it at the YMCA or through the parks and recreation dept is totally different but be prepared attending Yoga studios are really expensive.