Well known for its ability to bring down your stress levels, promote flexibility and build and tone lean muscle, yoga is less known for its equally powerful ability to speed up weight loss. You may not have heard yoga mentioned in this context, but it can be a great way to burn off calories.

Traditional yoga is not an extremely active pursuit. While it conditions and tones your muscles, you're not likely to work up a sweat during a yoga session. However, the fact that your muscles are being given a workout means your body is utilizing calories more effectively. This means that a regimen of aerobic exercise in tandem with yoga will produce better results than if you were not doing yoga alongside of aerobic exercise.

An important component of yoga is discipline of mind and body, which will help you stay committed to your exercise program and healthy eating habits. It enhances the relationship between the mind and body, giving you the motivation to take better care of yourself. Those who want to lose weight often suffer from the difficulty of getting motivated in the first place, so yoga can be very beneficial here.

If you plan on using yoga by itself to help you drop some pounds, there are some new variations on the traditional practice of yoga that might be quite helpful. These yoga styles can provide the advantages of both yoga and aerobic exercise in one package. Following are some of the most popular.

Vinyasa – Vinyasa yoga is focused on changing from one asana (pose) to another while simultaneously doing yogic breathing. The Sun Salutation is a typical position, but there are many others besides. Vinyasa yoga is often practiced in a heated room to encourage sweating.

Ashtanga – Ashtanga is a complex style of yoga that includes six different series of poses. These increase gradually in complexity, so you should start at the beginning and learn as you go.

Power yoga – This is an Americanized version of yoga. It combines faster, more active movements with traditional yoga breathing techniques. It will give you many of the benefits of a cardiovascular workout such as increasing heart rate and working up a sweat, much more so than traditional styles of yoga.

There is less of a conventional workout in these forms of yoga than say, an aerobics class, but they give you the best of both worlds. And for those who don't have the time to participate in two separate workout programs, they can be a great option.

On the surface, aerobics and yoga have few similarities. But traditional yoga can enhance the effects of more intense workouts, and these newly popular styles of yoga can give you the best of both worlds. If other workout routines have left you disappointed, adding or switching to yoga might be the answer you're looking for