I used to be a gym rat, so historically, on days like today, the morning after gorging on pasta, chocolate and rum punch at a holiday dinner party, I’d hit the Stairmaster for an hour--or more.
These days, however, you’ll find me detoxing what Santa made me retox, barefoot, sweating and deep breathing through a vigorous yoga class. Long ago, I made the switch from cardio machines and weights to doing only yoga as my sole source of exercise. And you know what? I’ve never felt or looked better.
We have all these ideas about what constitutes "proper" exercise, but one only has to look at the slim, toned and radiant yoga body to know that it's a miracle workout. The more flowing, power-based styles provide cardio, but instead of merely burning calories for the hour one does the movement, yoga takes it to the next level.
A good strong class (meaning: you aren’t dying the whole time, but you do feel like all your muscles were challenged by the end) does burn calories during the workout itself, but it also builds dense, lean muscle mass all over the body through natural resistance training. This is crucial because it fires up your metabolism all day (and night) long! So over the day, you burn far more calories than cardio alone.
Plus, as an added bonus, with yoga you get the increased detox, de-stressing, flexibility and joint health benefits that many other forms of exercise don't. So next time you wake up, like I just did, wondering how one human being could drink all that egg nog, get thee to the mat!
Here’s a holiday calorie-torcher of a sequence you can bust out whenever you’re starting to feel more like Santa than like your best elf ever. I mean...your best self.
Sorry--couldn’t resist.
Happy holidays!
Benefits:
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Stimulates proper digestion by working the belly center
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Burns calories and builds lean muscle in the lower body, increasing metabolism
Move 1: Twists of Fire
- Stand at the front of your mat, feet touching.
- Bend your knees, draw your low belly in and up, and reach your arms into the air for Fierce Pose.
- Inhale here
- Exhale as you bring your palms together, and spin your chest so you can touch right elbow to left knee. Your hips and navel remain facing forward. Don’t use your elbows to twist into your lower back--it shouldn’t twist. Instead, lightly put your elbow down, or try hovering it an inch from the knee so your obliques (side abs) have to do more work.
- keep your knees together...if one creeps forward as you twist, move it back so the kneecaps line up.
- Inhale back to center in Fierce Pose.
- Exhale the left elbow to right knee.
- Continue Twists of Fire like this for 3-5 repetitions on each side.
- Next time you touch right elbow to left knee, hold the position,then continue to the next pose.
Move 2: Twisted Lunge
- From your last Twist of Fire, turn your head to look down, lift your belly for support, step your right foot back and wide into a Twisting Lunge. NOTE: If this gets hard to hold...welcome to the club! However, if it gets impossible to hold without sacrificing alignment, place your back knee down on the mat--but keep the hips and navel lifted. No sinking! Only containing.
- Keep your gaze down as you feel into the position of your back leg and hip here. The tendency is for it to roll inward and drop. Instead, as you spin your chest to the left, gently lift your outer right hip in line with your left, and roll your right kneecap to face the floor again, not over to the left.
- Be careful not to use your powerful arms to twist your lower back. To test this, lift your elbow off the knee, and make sure your side abs are doing most of the work.
- Twist from the chest and shoulders, as your belly lifts in and up toward your chest to make more space in your spine.
Hold Twist Lunge for 5 breaths, then plant your palms on the floor, and step back to Down Dog.
Repeat this move 3-5 times, then step back into Fierce Pose. Do Twists of Fire again 5 times, this time, pause in a twist to the right, and step the left foot back into Twisted Lunge on the opposite side.
After both lunges, step both feet to the front of your mat into Fierce Lion Pose, and end your sequence in a gentle Forward Bend for a few relaxing moments.
$20 off the royal peek
