How Many Calories Can You Burn by Stretching?
If you want to burn a large number of calories, then you shouldn’t engage in stretching alone. If you weigh 68kg (150 pounds), the average calories lost by stretching is just 2.7 calories every minute. So you can burn just 27 calories if you stretch for 10 minutes. You can increase the number of calories burned by combining stretching with other intense routines, such as physical warmups and several types of yoga, such as power yoga.
Your fitness trainer will suggest intense warmups, such as dynamic stretching, light aerobic activity, and sport-related movements. If you combine these activities with stretching, you could lose over 41 calories in 10 minutes.
Engaging in highly-physical yoga like power yoga [2] may have the same effects on your calories as engaging in a dynamic warm-up. That is, they both burn over 36-71 calories in 10 minutes and 216-427 calories in a 60-minute yoga class. Therefore, if you want to get the best effects from a stretching activity, you must combine it with other intense activities.