Cat and Cow Pose (Chakravakasana)

• Instructions

Start on all fours with knees under hips and wrists under shoulders. As you inhale, drop your belly to the floor, allowing your lower back to arch deeply and your shoulder blades to slide down your back. Exhale and lower the tailbone, rounding the lower, middle, and upper back before finally lowering your head. Breathe deeply and slowly, and use all your breath to move. Try starting with five reps, and adding more if that feels good.

• Benefits

The cat-Cow pose increases flexibility in the neck, shoulders, and spine. This move also stretches your hips, back, abdomen, and chest muscles. Strengthen your spine. During this stretch, activate your tailbone and relieve tension in your neck and upper back.

Downwards dog yoga (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

• Instructions

Step closer to the ball of your foot and lift your hips, then release your heels toward the mat. It is perfect for helping to ease the pain in your back after a long day at the office.

• Benefits

The downward dog activates muscles throughout your body, particularly in the back body, including, heels, calves, hamstrings, glutes, hips, and lower back.

Looking to work up a sweat and burn excess body fat while finding your inner zen? Try this 10-minute fat-burning yoga workout…

Think yoga is all about sitting around and chanting ‘om’? Think again. Yogis across the globe tend to have light and agile bodies because yoga, especially the dynamic sequences we bring you in this workout, can increase the heart rate while also working the muscles deeply. That’s one of the best ways to burn fat while toning muscle.

This 10 minute fat-burning yoga workout is designed to guide you into higher and more challenging variations to ensure you’re never ‘slacking off’. This section is about hard work – but remember – it’s only 10 minutes!

Related: What is yoga? Benefits & basic principles for beginners

How to do this 10-minute fat-burning yoga workout:

Before starting this 10-minute fat-burning yoga workout, be sure to warm up your body thoroughly with our full-body yoga warm up. Next, do five rounds of this basic Sun salutation A sequence. Then, try to work through the following sequence. Put maximum energy into two rounds of this circuit without stopping…

10-minute fat-burning yoga workout

• (Warm-up)
• (Sun Salutation A)
• Twisting plank – Do 10 alternating legs.
• Downward-facing dog splits – Do five to 10 on each side.
• Dynamic boat – Do 10 in and out
• Locust – Do three to five times
• Bow – Do three to five times.
• Pigeon – Hold for five to 10 breaths.
• Happy baby – Hold for 10 to 20 breaths.
• Savasana pose (relaxation)

Below, we’ve included detailed instructions and handy images for each yoga pose and exercise to help you master this 10 minute fat-burning yoga workout…