Definition for Ladies Spring 2014 Issue 001 April 2014 | Page 85

an hour of vinyasa yoga. Here’s why it works: the slow deep nose breathing of the yoga
practice keeps your nervous system in fat burning mode instead of emergency blood sugar
energy mode. Yep, it goes back to the breath and the nervous system. Our bodies and why
they hold on to fat or muscle is a little more complicated than simply calories in and calories burned. Yoga can be a helpful tool to get more in tune with your complicated, beautiful nervous system so that you can work with it mindfully. Yoga is more like coaxing your
body into the results you want gently, instead of pounding it on the treadmill.

5

Consider yoga as posing practice! Yoga teaches body awareness and improves posture, and increases your ability to hold a pose for minutes at a time while staying calm
and composed. You even learn to breath well with your stomach muscles pulled in. In

yoga we call that the Uddiyana Bandha, or abdominal lock (transverse abdominis tight,