CARDIO YOGA A Yoga Cardio Blend

It’s true, a yoga session offers many benefits than one, but along with leaving you feeling rejuvenated and refreshed, you might also feel the need to get a major cardio boost. Sounds familiar right?

- Ms. Shalini Bhargava

While yoga is characteristically categorised as a “light-intensity physical activity,” a couple of poses tend meet the criteria for moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity. How about converting your favourite yoga postures into a vibrant cardio workout? Yoga has on offer a multitude of relaxing poses which may not do much in pumping your heart rate, however, yoga can be a challenging exercise, particularly if you cherry-pick the right poses and do them in an incessant flow, which will advance your heart rate and will certainly count as ‘cardio.’ The yoga-inspired cardio workout is full of some of our preferred yoga stretching and strengthening movements – but each one with a bout of body-weight cardio in between. Cardio yoga workouts like Side Plank, Boat Pose, Chair Pose, Crescent Lunge and Warrior 2 to name a few will burn calories at a much faster rate and will lend you a rapid, dynamic, feel-good stretch, all while efficiently toning up muscles all over the body.

Below mentioned are a couple of functional Yoga Poses that can be turned into an effective cardio workout:

Plank Pose:

The plank posture is known to strengthen your core, operatively tone your arms and glutes, and is already an exceptional full-body exercise on its own. To add a cardio workout, one must consider incorporating mountain climbers and plank jacks.

Plank Pose Arrangement Tips:

• Your shoulders must be stacked over your wrists
• You must consider engaging your core in order to keep your shoulders, hips, and heels in a diagonal line

Mountain Climbers: