Back Fat & Yoga Exercise

When you want to move away from that unsightly back fat, you have to move your body. Yoga can be one way to move your body and burn the calories you need to start losing fat -- but you'll need to choose a challenging form of yoga to make it worth your while. Attend Vinyasa, hot, Bikram or Power yoga classes. In order to lose fat, you have to focus on fat-burning aerobic exercise. There's no such thing as spot reduction of a problem area, so the key to losing that back fat is to burn more calories than you consume. If you're just getting started, try a few key yoga classes, and then adopt a simple body-strengthening routine you can use at home.

Instructions

    • 1

      Start your mornings with a Sun Salutation sequence. The sequence, one of the most basic in yoga, incorporates a number of poses that will help strengthen all of the muscles of the body, including the back, and can be a basic practice by itself, advises Yoga Journal. To burn more calories and keep up the intensity, move through the poses quickly, taking a single breath during each pose and then moving on. To begin, stand in Mountain Pose with your feet a few inches apart, your back straight, shoulders pulled back and your arms at your sides.

    • 2

      Inhale and reach upward with both hands, and then exhale as you bend at the waist into Standing Forward Bend, moving your hands to touch the floor. This simple pose helps stretch the back side of the body, including the lower back.

    • 3

      Step the left foot backward as you exhale, bending the right leg to move into a lunge pose. The lunge is a key position for creating length in the lower back. Inhale and reach your hands up over head. Hold the pose as you exhale.

    • 4

      Move your hands down to the floor and step back with the right foot, moving into Plank pose. This pose, essentially the "up" position of a pushup, is a key core-strengthening exercise. Hold it for one breath.

    • 5

      Bend your elbows to lower yourself into Chaturanga, in which your body remains elevated a few inches above the floor, but your elbows are tucked in near your sides, and you're midway between the height of your Plank pose and the floor. If you need to, place your knees on the floor, though as you gain strength in your shoulders, arms and the trapezius muscles of your back, you'll be able to stay in the pose without resting your knees down. Hold for one breath.

    • 6

      Lower your body into Upward-Facing Dog, in which your hips, legs and hands rest on the floor, your shoulder blades press toward one another and your head remains in a neutral position, strengthening the muscles of the upper body. Hold for one breath.

    • 7

      Pop your hips upward, straightening your legs and arms and creating a bend at the waist to move into Downward-Facing Dog. Press your heels and fingers into the floor, holding for one exhale and inhale.

    • 8

      Look up and step the left foot forward, moving into a lunge position with the legs in the opposite position as the lunge you did earlier in the sequence. Raise your hands over your head and hold for one breath. Then step forward with the right foot to come back to Mountain Pose. You can now repeat the sequence as many times as you wish.