what are your thoughts on yoga and its fitness benefits?

im trying to start exercising two hours a day and would like to mix it up a bit... didnt know if yoga was a good idea?

I like yoga a lot, but I don't see it contributing to weight loss at all. There's some very light strength training, but not enough to see a difference.

If you're planning on long workouts, it's probably a good idea to do an hour of cardio and strength training, and then go to a yoga class for the last hour. You can relax a lot, and it's great for post-workout stretching.

I find yoga does a lot for my health, and for weight loss.

It really helps you develop a positive relationship with your body, and you become much better at listening to your body - which really results in significantly healthier eating and other habits, with a lot less pain or drama.

I also have become much stronger from my yoga practice. The muscles in my arms in my progress pics are purely from yoga.

This! I incorporate yoga into my routine for physical well-being. I don't know if it provides a great calorie burn, but it does have a positive effect on weightloss for me. It has helped me improve my strength and range of motion after a shoulder injury earlier this year, too.

There is a huge difference between yoga classes and styles. Some are very light impact and some are intense. I've been going to some pretty strenuous yoga classes for the past few months and I've noticed an incredible difference in my strength and flexibility.

I'm a massive fan of yoga, I practice four/five days per week. I think everyone can benefit greatly from yoga from feeling better about their body as they become stronger and more flexible, toning your muscles, reducing stress. Practicing any type of yoga will build strength, but some types may not raise your heart rate enough to make them the only form of exercise you need to include in your weight loss regime. My avatar picture for instance, I would never have thought I would be able to do this pose let alone hold it for any length of time but, now I can because my arms are much stronger. It depends on the type of yoga you select and how frequently you practice. For instance, my classes vary, a few of the classes are power flow's and leave me dripping sweat on my mat. Keep in mind to choose a beginner yoga class and I suggest a vinyasa or flow yoga class for weight loss.

I've been wanting to get back into yoga for a while now. i think Yoga is great, you become conscious of parts of your body you didn't even know you had.
In my class there were 18 year old football players and 60 year old grandmothers, pregnant women, and 300lb+ people. and we were all doing yoga and even though most people couldn't do the move just right, our teacher always had us perform the move to the best of our ability.
Even though it wasn't cardio... i was dripping with sweat, and I never sweat, even running of a treadmill didn't make me sweat like yoga did. Muscles shake, you wanna hold your breath to keep your balance, but you must breath and feel your body. the Meditation we had after every class was so wonderful. Often i would fall asleep during it. lol I think about 25% of the class would pass out on our mats.

Even so, after every class I felt so limber and full of energy that I always wanted to like run around the campus for a few minutes to burn off that energy. If it did anything for weight loss or not, I didn't care because I knew it was doing something good for me. But my instructor told us about all different kinds of yoga... from Yoga in a hot room, to disco yoga. there are countless forms of yoga out there. You might find something you'll enjoy.

Yeah I can see you doing the crow in your av.

I %^%&ing CAN'T DO THE CROW

LOL, me neither I could, for about 2 weeks, and then, for unknown reasons, I couldn't again.

I seen this pose done and decided this was a pose I would love to be able to perform. I practiced for about twenty minutes each day for five days and I had it down however, holding the pose was another story and a bit frustrating, this is a work in progress- the longest I have been able to hold crow is around 15 seconds.

I recently popped a blood vessel in my eye during class! Haha! Who the heck would have thought of that? My yoga teachers tell me this isn't unheard of and I must focus on relaxing my face during strenuous poses. Thankfully it wasn't painful! How long have you been practicing yoga now? My next goal pose is king pigeon. A great tip for crow is to practice with a pillow because to often we hold back for fear of face planting....ouch! This demonstration helped me greatly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVJIUwhDeu8

I've been practicing yoga since August. I think I've done pretty well considering that I was born with no natural flexibility and horrible balance. I was able to hold the crow for about 5 seconds once before falling flat on my face.
I'm working on the shoulder stand right now.

I love my shoulderstand. Nothing else releases my upper back like shoulderstand.