This is a question that several yoga teachers, practitioners and studio owners have at the top of their minds. Weight loss is an emotional subject for most and the usual attitude is that it remains so.
We have often heard about the mind-body connection while practicing yoga. Sure, a calm mind is an essential attribute of yoga practice and lifestyle. However, we find overweight folk in a reasonably peaceful state of mind too; content with their life to quite an extent. In Ayurveda terms, this isKapha type contentment.A cohort of yoga teachers will tell you that ‘yoga for weight loss’ is not really the business of yoga. After all, yoga is something spiritual, or in more recent times, a great physical workout that truly shapes the body and helps in shedding excess weight provided you are not obese.
Rare are the apostles who proclaim that yoga is precisely to help you lose weight and detoxify, and in the process, it could enlighten you.
Let me explain...Most of the yoga classes are oriented toward the physical, bodily movements called asanas in Sanskrit. Surely many, if not most, of the teachers around the world do teach some kind of breathing along with theasanas. It is the breathing (add Sanskrit chants and the more ‘twisty’ poses) that makes yoga practice yoga and not Pilates. We have to keep in mind that the breathing or Pranayama (lengthening of prana or vital air) is the key ingredient to successfully losing weight and attaining salvation. Numerous yogic texts affirm pranayama as the summum bonum of yoga.Pranayama is the beginning, the middle and the end of yoga. It forms the greater edifice of yoga’s teaching. In fact, Pranayama IS yoga.
The result, as the yogic texts affirm, ‘a slim body, a glowing face and shining eyes are the symptoms of a true yogi’. It is but natural that divine thoughts and actions are akin to a yogi purified by the process of Shat-Kriyas. God-realization begins when the intestinal tract is cleansed.
According to the tradition, Asanas and Pranayama are the next steps after the Shat-Kriyas are performed.
Can breathing alone shed fat? The answer is affirmative.
To understand the power of breath, we must understand ourselves not only as a physical body composed of flesh, bone, marrow and blood but also as a unique organic entity composed of various vital air or prana, that govern all life and death, and with it, happiness and sadness, success and failure, and the rest of life’s affairs. The yogic texts equally confirm that, by Pranayama alone, without the need for Shat-Kriyas as a preliminary act, one can purify the body.
To understand the process and make it acceptable, we also have to understand Prana or vital air itself. They are five major types of Prana calledApana, Prana, Samana, Udana and Vyana. These circulate the body, in their respective directions, causing things to ‘happen’ in our system. Beyond them are five sub Pranas that, in the matter of weight loss, are not relevant.
Based on yogic tradition, I have designed four types of breathing exercises that balance the five types of Pranas for reduction of phlegm, building digestive fire and shedding weight.
Sometime back, in one of my weight loss classes, I decided to hold only a breathing session instead of the standard program that includes asanas and kriyas along with the breathing. (A record of all the students’ weight, in each session, is always maintained. It is necessary for them.) We did 45 minutes of just breathing exercises. The results were visible in the next class, two days later.
They had lost between 300 and 800 grams - just with focused breathing alone! The results were indubitable.
Recently, a student, after losing a great deal of weight, became sort-of depressed, as she had reached a stage where she was not losing weight anymore. Instead, she had steadily gained about a kilo. Checking with her, she admitted to have slackened her regime by not doing her daily breathing exercises. I spoke to her about the importance of Pranayama. And... Guess what? She returned to class after two days all cheerful, delighted with her 900 grams loss!
Several times in class, I remind students that we are here for breathing exercises and not physical exercises, even if it may seem like physical asana work.
As the yogic text of Hatha Yoga Pradipika predicts:Yada tu nadishudihi syatTada cinhani bahyatatahKayasya krishata jayate nishcitam tathaWhen the nadis are purifiedThen external signs surely appearSlimness of the body and such luster indeed
Surely, it is important to breathe well, to be able to import as much air as possible. It is imperative for success. I have observed in people who cannot inhale well and fill their lungs fully, that no weight loss happens. The lungs are, simply, the turbines for success in weight loss. I have encountered many people with weak lungs. Some were smokers, some mentally impaired and others with too emotional a personality that tends to use emotions to gain validity in society and not Prana - the natural aura of a truly successful person. However, I have never turned a person with lesser breathing capacity away, unless bloody lazy; I walk them toward the path of weight loss with determination. With the help of asanas and the persistence and eagerness to learn the process of losing weight, they are successful.
There are different types of bodies too.
Most ‘really obese’ and ‘reasonably obese’ people lose weight fast,in the first three months of taking the course. Then, the body resists for a little while to give itself time to reshape and re-work its metabolism. Some who are a little overweight, about 2 to 4 extra kilos, will visibly show signs of slimming at first, but will take some time before they lose the extra weight completely. Added to this, due to its power to detoxify, a profound sense of well-being is felt.As I said in the beginning, yoga for weight loss is not just a weight loss program. It is primarily a purification process: hence, I call it ‘Yoga for Weight Loss and Detox’. Weight loss and detoxification are two sides of the same coin. As yogic texts propound, “One first has to clean the body from phlegm...”. Pranayama, besides making you lose weight, helps to dispel excess gas thus making the body lighter. Doing the four types of breathing exercises before the asanas, say, at least 15 or 30 rounds each, will make your body 20% lighter and your practice pain-free.
Lastly, one may ask about the period in which weight is lost. It isa relevant question. The course I have structured is “Slimmer in 60 Days”. It means that you will lose weight and become slim in 60 days, if followed diligently for 5-6 days a week. For the detailed process get the Yogapedia Membership where you will find the “Slimmer in 60 days” course as well as other ever-evolving topics like Yoga therapy, recipes, diet and other more esoteric discussions.
Do not forget to write to me for assistance, or better still ask questions and start topics on the Forum for everyone’s benefit.
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