Yoga, Weight Loss and 'Professional' Yoga Attire?
It is an absolute MYTH when people say that Yoga is NOT a good fitness regime that can help one lose weight. A new student who joined this course, who tried her best to adhere to what was taught, weighed herself on Tuesday and discovered that she had lost 7kgs in merely 2 weeks.
So to everyone who said that Yoga is a "slow" exercise that makes weight loss impossible, think again. What Yoga does is to regulate the praana (or chi) within the subtle body that helps unblock any blockage that prevent a healthy flow of life force that results in clogging up the body system.
Our Sandhya Maarga Yoga system offers a course called the 'SM Yoga for Weight Loss', teaching specific asanas (postures) that help one trim the body size, burn fat efficiently and tone the skin. While we also use common asanas recorded in the history of Yoga, we also teach many asanas that are unique to our system of Yoga that many have experienced and drawn benefits from.
However, one simply cannot expect to turn up for Yoga class once a week without going home to practice at least 5-10 minutes a day, and not practice the health exercises or tips given to you during class, and still lose weight. If you are serious in losing weight to enjoy better health and confidence, then one must adhere to the rules steadfastly. This is what we call discipline.
I must also clarify that any healthy weight loss programme will not aim to transform one to become a stick figure. Weight management is important in the sense that if one is overweight, one tends to feel sluggish, lacks confidence and is also vulnerable to many other diseases. It must also be highlighted that everyone's standard of beauty and the idea of what constitutes as "THIN" are very subjective. The practice of Yoga will help one free oneself from being bound by the thoughts of others and become more attuned to one's body and one's Self, so that one feels good within without being influenced by external factors.
Furthermore, we are also very traditional practitioners of Yoga. The idea of what Yoga really is has changed over the many years and I must say that I personally am not in favour of many of the changes. However, that is also solely my humble opinion and one can practice whatever they want at their own comfort. Nonetheless, I will once again stress that Yoga is not about wearing sexy sports bra to class and pulling yourself into extreme postures.
We encourage all our instructors and practitioners to wear loose and comfortable white clothing. First, such attire allows the practitioner to be at ease as one does not feel inhibited by the extra layer of cloth. Why white then, people ask? I personally am in favour of white because each colour is associated with a particular vibrational frequency and the colour white helps one regulate the flow of praana (chi) better.
We have had many people questioning our choice of clothing or rather, what they call "uniform".
"Why so unprofessional? Why isn't the instructor wearing a Yoga top and tights to teach?"
"You guys are offering Yoga for Weight Loss but are wearing baggy shirt and pants. This doesn't make the instructor look fit at all. It's so different from the Yoga instructors in the gym. They look so fit. Since this is a Weight Loss course, the instructor should wear proper clothing."
What is "proper" and what isn't? Until recent years, Yoga was always practised with a fully-covered body for the women without those Yoga apparels that you buy in the department stores today. In fact, when we practice Yoga in India, we wear clothing that is even more loose than our current uniform; a dress that covers our knees with a comfortable pair of pants.
Again, we do not teach commercialised GYM Yoga. We adhere to the traditional principles of Yoga and are geared towards using Yoga for therapeutic purposes rather than offering a mere 'fitness' session. So no, we are not here to transform you to become a stick figure. We are here to aid you to lose excess fat in your body that does not serve your health, which will in turn make you feel good about yourself, not only in body, but also in mind.
Nonetheless, if one follows the tips given out by the instructors and practice the asanas at home, you will definitely meet your goal so long it is realistic. We will not market the SM Yoga for Weight Loss programme by using skinny models in a Yoga bra and tights because weight management should be realistic and healthy. One need not be malnourished to lose weight so that they can look like the girl on the magazine cover. Mind you, most models (if not all) do not even look like how they appear on these covers, how would you?
Love and light,
Genevieve
I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteYes! YOU ARE RIGHT! What is up with people's obsession of having a body that's totally flat these days? Why are people so obsessed with becoming skin and bones? What is wrong with some curves??? And what's up with the obsession of the yoga pants or yoga bra? People have come up with bikini yoga too! Yoga didn't originate from the west but its commercialization seems to push out the idea that it is. How ignorant!!
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