Not all yoga styles are slow and relaxed! Yoga sculpt is one of the styles that’s breaking the mold, being a more dynamic style of yoga that’s energizing, exciting, and more challenging.
If you haven’t heard of yoga sculpt or are not sure what it is, yoga sculpt is a workout-inspired style of yoga that’s more fast-paced, involving more movement than “traditional” yoga and even the addition of weights.
As a result, yoga sculpt is ideal for “sculpting”, i.e. muscle toning and weight loss.
It’s also ideal for people who prefer to move!
Yoga sculpt is typically performed at yoga studios but can be done at home by following virtual yoga sculpt classes, so it’s easy to get started.
Does it sound good? Keep reading for everything you need to know about yoga sculpt!
Yoga Sculpt Explained
Yoga sculpt almost explains itself: it’s a style of yoga that’s centered on sculpting the body, which includes toning up muscles and losing weight.
For that reason, it’s more fast-paced than your usual yoga class, involving different yoga poses performed with resistance (weights) and more dynamism to improve cardiovascular health, muscle strength, and mobility.
Like most yoga classes, yoga sculpt is done on a yoga mat. It can also involve common yoga props, such as yoga blocks, yoga wheels, and yoga balls.
Yoga sculpt classes can be heated (like hot yoga) and last anything up to 60 minutes as an effective duration for burning calories.
In any case, yoga sculpt is a relatively new and exciting yoga style that’s ideal for you if you like to move and are interested in toning your body through losing weight and building muscle!
The Benefits Of Yoga Sculpt
There are a host of physical and mental benefits that you can receive from doing yoga sculpt on a regular basis.
These include:
- Weight loss (burning calories)
- Muscle toning (building lean muscle)
- Increasing general strength
- Stress relief
- Improved mood
- Improved cardiovascular health (getting fitter)
- Increased mobility and flexibility
Due to these benefits, yoga sculpt is more fitness-based.
Alongside weights (dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, etc.), yoga sculpt involves “pulses”—similar to barre and Pilates—with less rest and faster transitions between yoga poses.
Does Yoga Sculpt Tone Muscles?
It’s more than possible to tone up your muscles doing yoga sculpt. This is because yoga sculpt involves more resistance than “traditional” yoga, often using weights such as dumbbells and kettlebells.
For beginners, weights are optional in yoga sculpt classes. So, don’t feel like you will be forced to start lifting weights within your first few weeks.
Despite that, yoga sculpt is still challenging without weights, providing a full body workout that will leave you sweaty, energized, and, in some cases, shaking!
But even though yoga sculpt helps to tone your body, this won’t result in growing large, bodybuilder-style muscles – simply because it doesn’t involve heavy weight lifting. Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter of preference.
Does Yoga Sculpt Burn More Calories?
Absolutely. Yoga sculpt is generally more physical than most other yoga styles, meaning that it’s possible to burn more calories to aid weight loss.
While yoga sculpt involves many common yoga poses, these poses are performed dynamically, often with little to no rest.
Yoga sculpt also involves weights, adding resistance to otherwise weightless yoga pose holds and yoga flows.
Of course, the more effort you put into yoga sculpt, the more calories it is possible to burn per class.
Similarly, for people who are considered overweight, it’s possible to burn even more calories due to the increase in difficulty.
Yoga Sculpt Exercises
Due to its combination of yoga poses (asanas) and common bodyweight exercises, yoga sculpt offers plenty of variation that can make yoga sculpt routines more exciting and challenging.
If you are planning on attending your first yoga sculpt class, you can expect all the most popular yoga poses—such as downward facing dog, cobra pose, high plank pose, and warrior poses—performed with additional movement, such as reps and pulses.
Weights will be used (optional) at various points of the routine, sometimes combining a yoga pose and a traditional resistance exercise – for example, mountain pose and bicep curls or warrior pose 1 and shoulder presses.
Yoga Sculpt Vs Power Yoga
Yoga sculpt is often compared with power yoga, another popular class-based yoga style that’s known for being physically challenging in ways that can boost strength, help weight loss, and tone muscles.
The key difference between yoga sculpt and power yoga, however, is that yoga sculpt is a more modern yoga style that’s more dynamic, fast-paced, and open-ended.
So while power yoga remains grounded in yoga poses (asanas), performed with intensity, yoga sculpt can include bodyweight exercises, ab exercises, HIIT-style exercises, and resistance exercises with weights.
Should You Do Yoga Sculpt?
If you’re on the fence about whether or not you should try yoga sculpt, it’s worth considering whether you prefer exercises that involve movement or static positions held for time.
The reason for this is that in yoga sculpt you are almost constantly moving (even in yoga poses) while in most other “traditional” yoga styles you are often holding a yoga pose for a set amount of time before transitioning into the next pose.
Another factor is whether or not you are interested in losing weight and toning muscle (with weights) to “sculpt” your body. Needless to say, yoga sculpt is ideal for this purpose!
No matter what you prefer, however, it’s possible to try yoga sculpt virtually (and for free) by following an online yoga sculpt class.
This will help you to get an idea of yoga sculpt and whether or not you would like to do it at a yoga studio as part of a class.
Conclusion
Yoga sculpt is a relatively new and exciting yoga style that incorporates bodyweight exercises and weights for a more fast-paced style of yoga that can sculpt your body – i.e. lose weight and tone muscles.
As a result, yoga sculpt combines yoga poses and fitness exercises to provide more of a full-body workout.
The positive effect yoga had on me was indescribable. Every aspect of my life improved, from social to mental, physical to emotional.
I want my website to help more people get into the world of yoga and teach them how to be present for themselves - even if that’s just for a few minutes a day.
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