Full Body Transformation! For anyone!

I just joined recently and a lot of people have been asking me how I lost my weight. I searched among the forums on the site about the way I did it, and it seems it is but scarcely mentioned. Not only that, but the way I did it is accessible for anyone who wants to try it.

I started what is called Power Yoga and that month, dropped 15 pounds faster than anything in my life had ever happened before.

I went on You Tube and found a lady that posts free Power Yoga flows for all different kinds of things-for weight loss, for overweight yogis (or people that used to exercise a lot and lost it), hip opening exercises, BOOTY BUILDING EXERCISES! And she is very knowledgeable and intelligent. She incorporated many different styles of yoga all into her very own unique flows. Her routines will have you sweating within the first 2 minutes (which was hard for me to push myself, but it's really worth it!) and they strengthen you, build muscle, burn fat, boost your metabolism, and also get you addicted quite fast and with a desire to continue! AND THEY'RE FREE!

So I am making this post because I've had to post the links repeatedly and I figured why not share this with EVERYONE!

It is a 4 part youtube series. What I did was bookmark them on my internet toolbar as 1,2,3,4 so they're easy clicks away when I want to work out. The routine is for anyone beginner to advanced. In the 3rd video she does hand stands, which is only thing I can't do in her videos, and I either fast forward past them, or just attempt them best I can, or do the other things she taught me while she's doing them until she's done and continue back to where she is.

It would be helpful to warm your body up a little before hand if you like to do that, but it's not necessary as she incorporated it all into the workout.

Go to YouTube and type in "Power Yoga" and up will come videos by a lady named SadieNardini and if you click on her name you will find all her routines. The series of 4 that I was doing was the Weight Loss Power Half Hour. You can message me for the direct links since I can't post them within this post for some reason. Or I'll try to post them in a comment.

Please try them and let everyone know what you think!
I would also recommend the "Booty Asanas" that have really helped tone by butt and back thighs.

ENJOY!

The videos are amazing, thank you so much for sharing them =D
I'll be doing that today, I'm so excited to try them out!

(and finally someone who's writing from somewhere in Europe =P)

I find myself smiling at the variety of comments. I do tend to attract some strange vibes I guess, which I find quite funny and strange at the same time. A few of you were there to leave negative comments on my last post. I'll just say thank you at this point, because I think the majority of people here are smart and see through them.

There is a difference between reading this post and trying to find loopholes and reading it and applying it to what works for you.

My diet was not and has not ever been junk food, so no, when I said MY diet hardly changed, it wasn't anything special. I do agree that I should have specified.

The people who are trying the routines, GOOD WORK seriously. That workout really does kick your ass. Thank you for coming and sharing your experiences! You can search around the internet if you want, but I've read that power yoga burns around 250-300 calories an hour. Sadie's burns closer to 350-400. For an in-home, free routine, this is EXCEPTIONAL calorie burn.

There is no way I am going to defend myself against the people who are trying to effect me in some way or another. All I will say it please, PLEASE, do not focus on what I look like. That is my job. As far as my words go, they're my words and I know what they mean when they come out of me. Obviously there are people on here that are smart enough to see the meaning, and other people with an attitude more inclined to assume things to always be negative or incorrect. That is not my problem. For things that should have beeen specified, I do apologize, but I believe all of them have been discussed (exceptionally well, might I add).

OP - if you are still having trouble doing the handstands, then practice doing them against the wall first (so you can't tip over).  Once your strength and balance increases, you will be able to do it.  I used to teach gymnastics and this is how we taught handstands. 

After seeing your pictures you have me interested in trying this out. So I am going to give it a go for the two months of summer. I will post back my progress and how it has helped me! I watched some of videos and I can't even begin to do most of that stuff. I'll post back here in two months and tell you what happened with me.

BTW thanks for posting this, wouldnt have even thought of this if not for this thread!

Solar...

 Eh, yoga is overrated for weight loss - don't get distracted. It can form part of a balanced program for overall fitness, but it's not a complete fitness solution.

 If you're interested in bodyweight exercise, downward-facing dog to upward-facing dog is called a dand or a hindu pushup. This is a bethak squat.

 A classic Kalarippayattu workout is doing 20 dands, 100 bethaks, repeat 5 times. Do that, and then get back to me about how hard this workout that goes into downward-facing dog about 20 times in total is.

 As the kathina yogi will tell you, people who think yoginis didn't do resistance training besides the bodyweight exercises in the formal yoga systems underestimate how hard and physical life in pre-industrial agrarian societies was.

 Don't take this to mean that I'm saying "don't do yoga" - what I'm saying is "don't do only yoga".

Honestly, I'm sorry, but please don't judge this specific workout unless you've tried it. Maybe you have, I don't know. I hope so before you say it's overrated, because you're not just saying YOGA is overrated, but you're posting it on THIS thread.

I understand some of you have done yoga and it didn't work for you, FINE. This is not just YOGA as you expect it to be. If you are educated in fitness, then you know that the same thing does not work for everyone. Please don't post things saying that this is overrated. It discourages others away from this post and making new efforts.

You can watch the whole workout all the way through, but that is HARDLY the same as actually doing it. You say you aren't trying to say don't do yoga, but that's not what I read. I read that you don't feel THIS yoga is good for weight loss, because after all, it's on THIS thread. It is a very intense routine, created by the top yoga instructor in New York. She is very well educated in yoga and other areas, and combines all different types of yoga, including two forms that are actually considered cardio, into this routine. This is not just sit on the floor and stretch yoga. And if you do other Power Yoga videos, like Rodney Yee for example, you will see that hers is very different and includes MUCH MUCH more intensive poses and exercises. I find other Power Yoga videos, especially Rodney Yee's, too easy and quite boring, actually.

This routine is, as Sadie says in the video, meant to boost the metabolism, burn fat, build strength, and build muscle, and she specifically tells you while you're working out when you're burning fat and when you're building muscle, and you can feel your heart beating hard the whole time while sweat is dripping from all areas of your body.

There are many users of this forum that are complete beginners and don't know where to start when trying to take up an exercise regime.  Often, like many of us probably did one time or another, they're lookin for a quick complete fitness solution.  This often leads to disappointment, a feeling of failure followed by falling off the wagon.

I don't think Melkor was rubbishing your achievements or downplaying Yoga, just advising it's not the be all and end all for someone trying to lose weight, but will help as part of a balanced exercise regime.

Again I'll say it's good you posted your experience, and the fact that its free is even better.

Melkor: Though you state this is overrated for weight-loss Grassdress' gallery shows proof it can work! I am not denying what you are saying, but her pcitures are far more solid evidence than your words...

littlesimongeroge:I think her goal was just to list what she used to lose the weight not imply this is the be all, end all of workouts.

In any case I will be the guinea pig. My starting stats are:

Male

194.6 lbs (6/22/09)

5'9"

Sedentary except for walking to school 2 days a week( 4.5m combined)

I eat a vegan diet. I eat processed foods that are vegan, I even eat Oreos! However, I do hover around my calorie limit going over a few hundred sometimes (maybe 3-4 times a week). Note: I will lose weight regardless but I will also be able to tell any additional benefits this will have or if it is just useless!

Thanks for this post Grassdress. I will report back in on August 31.

Solar...

Original Post by solareclps:

littlesimongeroge:I think her goal was just to list what she used to lose the weight not imply this is the be all, end all of workouts.

 Neither do I mate.

Read my post again and you'll see that I was actually giving an explanation of why I thought Melkor posted his opinion on Yoga.

Solar, I feel like I should say thank you?

I would wish you luck, but I feel the routine gives you all that you would need where I could offer my wishes.

Have fun!
Do come back and let us know your feelings and progress!

Yes, the OP's picture do show a lot of fat loss.

I'm curious, grassdress, before you lost weight were you eating a vegetarian diet?

In the original post, it seemed like she was saying that without changing your diet you could lose 15 pounds in a month just by doing this yoga routine. It is highly unlikely, no matter how good the routine is, that you would lose 15 pounds in a month just by adding in a yoga routine. Also, a 15 pound loss in one month is not healthy.

I am NOT saying that it's not a good workout, I'm not a yoga practitioner or a fitness expert. But, I do agree with previous posters including Melkor, that yoga is not the most efficient tool for fat loss. However, if you really like doing yoga and you will keep up with it, it's definitely better than planning to do exercise you don't like, and won't keep up with.

Also, people who do not have yoga experience should be careful when doing yoga DVD's or videos online. You can injure or strain yourself if you do poses incorrectly, it's best to find a qualified teacher who can help you align yourself correctly and learn the poses before doing yoga routins on your own.

I was eating vegetarian, yes. It is only after losing the weight that I became a raw foodist.  At the time I was doing this I ate candy and other sweets like cookies and brittle DAILY, and for lunch often had lentils or rice and salad or other veggies, usually with some bread rolls. It was an awful diet compared to how I eat now actually, and that's mainly how I know it was the exercise that caused the weight loss. I know my body very well.

I have done my best to tell the people that have asked in messages to be careful not to strain and to listen to their bodies. Thank you for mentioning that again. It is very important.

Hello everyone,

I am Elena quite new to CC , but I tried out those wokrouts and by the 10th min I couldnt go one( I am exercising regurarly doing at least 2 hours a day aerobics,jogging etc), i really feel my muscles sore in just ten min!( i am not fat or overweight, i am at a healthy weight)

Believe it or not!I think it works! Try it out and you will see! You just have to do it the right way in order to work!

Enjoy:P

p.s TNANK YOU GRASSDRESS really appreciate it!:)

keep going and dond bother

Original Post by littlesimongeorge:

Original Post by solareclps:

littlesimongeroge:I think her goal was just to list what she used to lose the weight not imply this is the be all, end all of workouts.

 Neither do I mate.

Read my post again and you'll see that I was actually giving an explanation of why I thought Melkor posted his opinion on Yoga.

 

 

 

Solar:

The explanation doesn't matter because my reason for wanting to do this particular routine is very specific! None of us think it's the be all end all, however I think this has merit for my specific goal. I never said you thought it was the best, just so you know....

Thank you grassdress.  I tried the beginner flow she has posted.  Yikes.  Even that was kinda rough.  I plan to do it once a week.  I'll keep you posted.

Hooray! Remember to share it with those who might benefit and may not otherwise find out about it!

I love yoga! Ill check these out!

Pfff... I tried the videos and they kicked my butt!
I sucked, hard, which means I'll have to do them again :)

Thank you for posting them :)

I wonder why people keep hearing things I'm not saying?

 I say "you can't do just yoga over the long term and expect results" - you hear "don't do yoga", apparently.

 First off, I think that people who only do yoga for the exercise and leave out the mental aspect are wholly missing the point of doing it.

 Second - I don't actually care what label you put on the exercises you're doing I only care whether or not it's actually useful for the goals you're trying to achieve.

  Look, my main yoga instructor was born in Kerala, India and studied Asthanga under Pathahbis Jois himself and he's of the considered opinion that most western yoga teachers have no business teaching. And he still trains weights and does other things besides yoga to improve his practice.

 Here's the thing. To have a training effect at all the exercise you do must pass something called the Minimum Essential Strain; if a training stimulus doesn't pass this threshold value it doesn't have a training effect. For a complete beginner coming off bed rest or starting from sedentary inactivity this threshold can be as low as 40% of your current capacity for the first 6-8 weeks of a training regime, but the MES value for most physical qualities are at 60-80% of your current max capacity. (Trainees at the intermediate levels need to pass 80% of MES, elite level trainees frequently need a MES of 90-95% to have a training stimuli that does more than maintain current capacity.)

 As long as your current capacity is low it's possible to pass the MES threshold using body weight exercise, but you will very quickly progress to the point where you will not pass the MES for the physical qualities that are useful for a dieter. I refer you back to rules 1 and 2 of the FAQ - everything you do will have some effect, but not all effects will be useful in relation to a weight loss goal.

 While dieting you absolutely must include some form of progressive resistance training in your exercise regimen or you're setting yourself up for long-term failure through loss of lean mass and long-term downward adjusting of your BMR. I've seen one study that tracked the BMR's of dieters for two years, and the non-strength-training group had BMR's that were significantly downregulated compared to both strength trainees with similar weight loss histories and normal-weight people who hadn't dieted to get to that weight.

 Which means that dieters who don't strength train will have a significantly  lower maintenance intake than dieters who do, and will thus have a considerably harder time maintaining post-diet. (Hunter et.al. : Resistance Training Conserves Fat-free Mass and Resting Energy Expenditure Following Weight Loss. )

 To pass the MES for strength training you need to do an exercise strenuous enough that you pass 60-80% of your 1RM, which corresponds to a resistance where you can only complete between 8 and 12 reps before momentary muscular failure.

 Any time you're doing an exercise where you can complete more than 12 repetitions of it, you're not achieving a sufficient training stimulus to preserve lean mass while dieting, and the results of that are uniformly bad for anyone wanting long-term results.

While you can potentially do things with form modifications and mechanical disadvantages that place greater strain on individual muscles, this is dangerous to you joint health and tendons over the long haul.

 So: yoga can help, for a complete beginner - for the first 6-8 weeks, potentially as long as 6 months if you started from sedentary. Past that, it's not useful.

 For that particular aspect of fitness/dieting - yoga has applications in other aspects of fitness that doesn't relate to weight loss and maintenance; the conditioning part, work capacity, balance, flexibility; all the other physical aspects where you will in fact pass the MES threshold with bodyweight exercise.

 But that doesn't change the basic issues of weight loss: exercise is only mildly useful and only as long as you control your diet:

Fat Loss Depends on Energy Deficit Only, Independently of the Method for Weight Loss
Strasser et.al.Ann Nutr Metab 2007;51:428-432 (DOI: 10.1159/000111162)

I do love yoga, but I have to agree with those that said yoga isn't really going to give you that great of weight loss results - that isn't wuite the point of (most) yoga.  I do it twice a week, mostly for flexibility - and I always leave feeling mentally and physically refreshed.  I tried these videos twice, they were fun, and I'd do them again if I was in the mood to do yoga at home - but i didn't feel like I got a workout. The classes I go to at my gym leave me sweating way more than these videos did.  And its not like LA Fitness has any group classes that are very intense - I'd say they're designed so that they are doable for about 95% of the members.

EDIT: I want to clarify that just because I don't really think that yoga can cause significant and sustained weight loss doesn't that I don't thik people should do it.  I think anyone that works out should incorporate it in their routine.