4 Ways to Shake Up Your Inner Yogi
September 17, 2013
When you hear the term yoga do you think of soft, spa-like music, focused breathing and the need to think only peaceful thoughts? Yoga can conjure up a lot ideas and for many people it works wonders for their mind, spirit and body. For others, it just doesn’t work at all. But yoga doesn’t have to be all light tones and slow movements. These four yoga workouts will tone and flex your body while creating a strong mind and spirit connection in a seriously revved up way.
Get ZCut
As a leading fitness trainer on YouTube, Zuzka Light is known for her inspiring workouts. After massive popularity with the first ZCut Power Yoga she has created volume two, a combination of yoga moves that will push your body to a whole new level. Designed to improve balance while using body weight exercises and yoga-inspired poses to strengthen and tone your body it is a challenging routine that is totally not your traditional yoga.
Follow the Rules
Love him or hate him Bob Harper gets results. His four DVD Skinny Rules series is a powerhouse of cardio, strength and core that can all be done in a very short amount of time while offering maximum results. His latest is the Skinny Rules Yoga DVD that offers two 30-minute yoga workouts that get your heart rate up while slimming you down. Using yoga moves that give you all day energy the workout helps to improve flexibility, stamina and build lean muscle. The circuit style yoga training can be done anywhere and fit into any schedule.
Hop to It
Yoga Hop isn’t necessarily new but isn’t as well-known as Power Yoga and Bikram Yoga. Yoga Hop, which counts celeb Reese Witherspoon as a fan, is a combination of stamina-improving yoga moves done to high energy music. Each 90-minute class is a combination of rock, hip hop and pop music that focuses on changing poses every few breaths for the first hour and slowing down in the last 30 minutes. That last half hour gives students the chance to increase their flexibility after an hour of pushing themselves to better stamina and strength.
Go Faster
Rocket Yoga, a style developed in the 1980s by Larry Schultz, is deeply rooted in the more well-known Ashtanga Vinyasa style yoga but changes from there. In one 75-minute class students stretch and move their way through 142 poses. That’s right, you heard me, 142 yoga poses. What separates Rocket Yoga from traditional Ashtanga style is the lack of a slow build to more complex poses. Rocket lets you move ahead and do the headstands you want to by modifying the steps it takes to get there. You “rocket” into your future yoga self.
