Will Yoga Help Me Tone Up?

Yoga focuses on slow, deliberate movement and deep breathing, making it a useful tool for relaxation, but it can also tone your muscles. Yoga increases core strength and flexibility and can stand alone as a form of regular exercise. Celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston use it to keep their bodies red-carpet ready. Ashtanga yoga, also called power or fitness yoga, is an especially good method for increasing your muscle tone, although consistent practice of any yoga style yields results.

  1. Toning

    • Instead of isolating and contracting muscles, like in weight training, yoga stretches them and works multiple groups at once. You hold poses for a certain number of breaths, sometimes repeatedly, which increases muscle endurance. Stretches serve another function in yoga: they help reduce the chance of injury. All of these processes work together to create a full-body benefit. You can tailor your yoga regimen to the parts of your body you want to tone, but keep in mind that many poses naturally flow into each other.

    Yoga v. Weight Training

    • Yoga and weight training are not mutually exclusive. These two forms of exercise simply target the body in different ways. Weight training focuses on contracting muscles to build mass. Yoga improves muscle endurance and flexibility. These two types of exercise can be done as part of a regular fitness routine, or separately if you have different goals for your body.

    Key Poses

    • Paripurna Navasana (Full Boat Pose)

      Certain poses make particularly effective toning tools. Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I) pose requires endurance; you quickly feel its effects in your arms and shoulders. The Warrior I pose also helps to tone your quadriceps and calves, creating a near full-body exercise. Plank pose builds core strength and muscle endurance. While holding this pose for multiple breaths, you tone your shoulders, back and abs. Like the Plank pose, Paripurna Navasana (Full Boat) pose strengthens your core and other muscles. By keeping your back straight and arms and legs elevated, you work your shoulders, back, legs and abs.

    Getting Started

    • It's beneficial to start in an instructor-led class so you can learn proper form. Many yoga studios offer training in various methods of yoga. University and community classes may not focus on one primary style of yoga, but incorporate poses, such as the Warrior I pose, that build strength. A consistent at-home practice helps you stay firm and toned.