Yoga Discoveries

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Sarah

In May I was a yoga fanatic and then . . . life interrupted. Most of my summer was spent traveling back and forth from Orange County to Seattle and back to Orange County for work. I flew nearly 18,000 miles in three months repeating a sub-2000 mile roundtrip.

I missed yoga. That said, I found myself spending my limited exercise time on less-fun and less-body-friendly activities – hello dreadmill – thinking I was maximizing my calorie burn. You see, even though I felt I was getting more toned and I was losing weight practicing yoga (and in fairness, playing tennis 2+ times per week), Sparkpeople.com and similar websites told me I was burning a lowly 200 calories per hour. Less than 1/2 a Starbucks scone. So I kept skipping yoga in favor of known, but less enjoyable, calorie burners.

Finally, Monday I got it together and headed to a 10 am yoga class. I thought it would be a good toning supplement to tennis and the dreadmill. I also decided to attempt to discover the real burn of hot hatha. With my big ol Polar watch strapped to my wrist and chest strap tucked under my sports bra I headed off. I recorded the calorie burn from both my walk to/from the yoga studio (about 1 mile) and the 1-hour class. The result? . . . .wait for it . . .

A Hell yeah! inspiring 739 calories. 587 calories from the class and 152 from the one-mile speed walk to/from my office and class. This beats tennis class by more than 200 calories for the exact same amount of time.

So guess where I’m headed today?

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15 Responses

  1. Lauren, on January 26, 2011 at 12:54 am said:

    I have just signed up for a yoga class, as a way to tone up – but if it really does burn that many calories then – bonus!!!

  2. Ameena, on January 21, 2011 at 6:38 am said:

    I think my comments are going to spam???

  3. Ameena, on January 21, 2011 at 6:37 am said:

    I did 4 days of yoga this week versus 4 days the entire last 3 months…I remembered how much I love it! But yeah, the calorie burn? Not so good!

  4. Monet, on January 20, 2011 at 9:10 pm said:

    I need to start going to yoga again…I’m just scared that I’m going to make a fool out of myself. I’ve not practiced for so long! I must say that you are inspiring me…I will let you know how it goes (if it happens!)

    • oc2seattle, on January 21, 2011 at 10:28 am said:

      You are so not going to make a fool out of yourself! It’s yoga – not synchronized swimming! Just pretend to yourself that you’ve never done yoga before, then you’ll be stoked no matter how well you did 😉

  5. Janice, on January 20, 2011 at 12:43 pm said:

    Look how that balances out the treats! i need to do more yoga.

  6. Gina, on January 20, 2011 at 12:33 pm said:

    Dang! Those vinyasas sort of sneak up on you (and apparently add up!) Which yoga studio do you go to? My favorites are Mountain Flow Yoga and Be Luminous:) I start teacher training at Be Luminous this month (eek!)

    • oc2seattle, on January 20, 2011 at 12:39 pm said:

      Urban Yoga Spa so I can walk to and from work. Good luck with teacher training! I’ll have to check out one of your classes when you start teaching 🙂

  7. Liz, on January 20, 2011 at 11:18 am said:

    I adore my power yoga classes…with all those vinyassas and a 99 degree room, I’m sure I burned more than 200 calories this morning…at least I hope so 🙂

  8. Cajun Chef Ryan, on January 20, 2011 at 10:37 am said:

    I need to do more yoga too!

    • oc2seattle, on January 20, 2011 at 10:53 am said:

      I usually end up getting foiled in my attempts by 4:30 calls from clients – I’m just not going to answer the phone past 4:20 and see if that works 😉

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