Which Is Better For Weight Loss, Practicing Yoga Or Going To A Gym?

The two most common exercise forms that we are all seeking whenever we want to lose weight are practicing yoga and working out.

Some people choose yoga, several others take another, and they all have their points of view to prove their points.

However, the question: “Which is better for weight loss, practicing yoga or going to a gym?” is quite concerning and still requires us a lot of thought.

We all heard that whenever you want to lose weight, you have to move your body, not only yoga, gym, Zumba, running, aerobics, kick fits and the list goes on.

We also heard that the energy you take in should be less than the energy you consume for physical activities so that all of us can lose weight. Then practicing yoga asanas or going to the gym can help you better? The answer lies below.

Aiming for weight loss is not all about any trend, but trying to figure out a better and healthier lifestyle.

Hence, to change into a totally new lifestyle means that you should be persistent to stick with the new habits for quite a time.

Therefore, before you jump right into any forms of exercises and want to add them to your daily and weekly routine, you should ask yourself these three important questions that I’ll share with you right away in the following:

1. Do you see yourself doing this kind of exercise at least two or three years down the line? If the answer is yes, you can choose this exercise to stick with during your weight loss journey.
2. Do you really enjoy this type of exercise? The only thing to reveal your true feeling about this type of exercise is to ask yourself whether you feel happy after finishing it. If you don’t, unfortunately, you may not be able to maintain doing it.
3. Are there any success stories of weight loss or transformation or a better life after people are doing this type of exercise? You may want to stick with the exercise that can truly help you to reach your goal, rather than just some promises.

So just as I said before, the one that is better for you is the one that suits you. However, workouts and yoga also have several distinct strong points and drawbacks that we can take a look at for better reference and preparation.

With yoga asanas:

1. Yoga is the exercise that helps not only to tone your body but also requires a lot of determination and training for your mind and infuses your spirit with positive thinking.
2. Besides your external appearance and physical muscle getting the benefits from yoga, your internal system also wants to thank you because yoga is good for the digestive system, circulatory system, lymph system, and so on. It not only can detox your body, and improve the cardiovascular system but also increase body flexibility, improve your posture, etc.
3. By stretching your muscles and strengthening them, Yoga only makes you lean not bulky as the workout does.
4. Yoga allows you to listen and follow the ability of your body and try to push it by forcing yourself to lift up dumbells or lifts. In yoga, the previous position is created to prepare your body to the next move. Hence, yoga seems kinder to your body and less chance of getting injuries.
5. Yoga slowly stretches our muscles and increases your body flexibility, helps to keep muscles and joints lubricated and healthy, so it eases your aches and pain not increasing it as workouts do.
6. Yoga doesn’t focus on any particular position on your body but the whole parts, so it’s hard for someone to only target to just several parts.
7. Yoga doesn’t increase your hunger after practicing so you can control your input calories better than post-workouts
8. Yoga helps you to stay balance between body and mind, reduce stress and keep the positivity so that yoga can give you a hand to reach for a better and healthier lifestyle.

With workouts:

1. Gym workouts require a lot of effort and tension, more rigorous and involve rapid movement of your body. In some careless situations, you can easily get injured. I, myself, also experienced sprain twice while training and had to leave the gym for at least one month each time for healing.
2. Workouts include many cardio activities which can help you to burn fat fast and lose weight efficiently. However, you should pay attention to mix up the cardio training with muscle training to be harmonized and avoid the cardiovascular risk from the long-term cardio.
3. Workouts tend to focus on single aspects of the physical body so that it fits your goal if you want to target on just some parts and create the shape.
4. A proper gym regime is good for gaining mass and strength, not body flexibility.
5. Gym workouts usually leave some sore body parts after the training, which may lead to some days skipping practice.
6. Workouts can make you bulk up with muscles
7. One more thing to notice that overdoing workouts may bring around the unwanted stress and tiring muscles that may make you stress out, which leads to the increase of your cortisol level and your body cannot burn off fat.

Even if we don’t care just about weight and also focus on how to make a healthier and happier life, we can find joy in any of our favorite kinds of exercise, no matter what it is.

The most important thing is how long you can follow and how persistent you are to stick to your plan until you reach your goal. When you keep moving forward, you will yield your wanted outcome in the end.