Get Lean, Strong, and Healthy!

By Selene Yeager

Fat-Blasting Yoga

This fat-blasting yoga-inspired workout, designed by Beth Shaw, owner of YogaFit in Redondo Beach, CA, turns up the burn with multiple repetitions of each pose. Once you complete one pose, you flow directly to the next, with no resting between sequences. Yoga, when practiced in this vigorous style, works just as well as strength-training for shedding fat. It also makes your heart stronger and boosts cardiovascular fitness, found a study from the University of California, Davis. Practice regularly to stay slim, fit, and serene.

Workout Basics
Reps and sequences: Start by quickly inhaling and exhaling through your nose for 20 breaths. Then perform each sequence the specified number of times before moving on to the next without a rest. Aim for 4 or 5 workouts a week. Each should take about 30 minutes.

Technique: To oxygenate muscles and relieve stress, do one movement per inhalation or exhalation.
 
Cooldown: Relax by lying on your back with hands on abdomen, legs extended, for 15 breaths.

Results: You should feel stronger and look slimmer in 2 to 4 weeks.

Sequence 1
Chair Flow (tones thighs and glutes)

Stand with feet hip-width apart. Extend arms straight out in front. Lower body (don't let thighs go lower than parallel to floor). Straighten legs and raise arms overhead, palms facing forward. Return to start. Do 10 to 15 reps.

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