When I began Yoga back in 1992 it was because of a running injury. People decide to take Yoga up for different reasons. Stiffness, stress, back pain or maybe because it looks cool. My reason was one of desperation. I had an injury for a year and a half and was very frustrated. I couldn’t race. I rode a stationary bike, ran in the pool, got massage, used orthotics, stretched, on and on. It wasn’t until I started Yoga that I finally got on top of my injury. At that time I was training heavily. I ran around 60 – 80 miles a week, and was doing the full Ashtanga Yoga sequence almost every day. Some days I did it twice! Each time took about an hour and a half. Eventually I began to teach, but I also learned other exercise techniques. Body weight strength exercises, medicine balls, kettlebells, joint mobility exercises, internal martial arts, gymnastic rings and nutritional stuff. Anyway, here is what I learned about Yoga.

Yoga has its place. Like any form of exercise (and make no mistake the asanas (Yoga postures) were originally designed as physical exercise back in India many, many years ago) it has its plus and minuses. It’s great for relaxing your mind. It really does make you more flexible in your muscles and tendons. It is a wonderful way to develop breathing muscles. A for sure way to help you “pay attention.” A good way to recover from a workout, or warm up for one.  It even helps build a base kind of strength and stamina. One thing it doesn’t do though…is give you that Yoga “toned” body that some ads claim. Madonna didn’t get that way from Yoga my friends. She got that way because she danced her a%$ off for years!

The problems you have to face with Yoga are:

The static muscle contractions. This means you hold a pose for a while tensing certain muscles. For example, if you are stretching your hamstrings the quad muscles are held tight.  This teaches you a different way to harden your muscles as opposed to other types of exercise.  It is quite different from the type of hard contractions you will need to do a full Burpee for instance. It can get in the way of lifting weights too. How do you get around this? The best way is to shorten your Yoga time. Doing the full monty twice a day, like I once did, is not the best way. 20-30 minutes is best. Maybe 4 times a week. I learned this the hard way when I took up Kettlebells and had to re learn how to “tense” my muscles for that kind of work/exercise.

Overstretching of ligaments. Some Yoga positions are not a good idea to hold for any length of time. Some put quite a stretch on your ligaments. Knee ligaments for example. Ligaments are tough tissue that act as “bands” to help hold a joint in place. They respond best to more rapid, controlled, short stretches. Such as you might get with jumping rope. When ligaments are held in overstretched positions for a long stretch they tend to lose their tightness. Once that happens they do not go back to their original length. What is bad about that? Your joint become loose and that’s not a good thing.

Doesn’t build “mobility.” Flexibility is very misunderstood. Flexibility means your muscles and tendons are holding a static stretch. Putting your leg up on a chair to stretch your hamstring and leaving it there is an example. Staic flexibility  is good to have but it is not the whole picture. Once you start moving around mobility comes into play. This means your joints have to have the strength to move through all the positions you put them through. Take a full Burpee as an example. When you lower into your squat, jump back, then jump forward again, ou need the strength to do so. A more common example would be bending over to pick a heavy box up off the floor. I found out for myself that Yoga training never built the strength I needed to do this stuff very well. I was sometimes surprised at how weak I felt when picking something up or moving furniture. Don’t worry though. Tai Chi or Qui Kong help with this area AND there are many, many great joint mobility exercises and programs to help you out here. We hope to have Z health (A great program) featured on our show someday.

Nowadays Yoga has found its place in my life. I sometimes use it in the evening to wind down.  It almost always helps me recover from harder workouts. It does a great job in helping to loosen up a tight back , hamstrings hips, shoulders, and calves. The breathing helps to calm things down. Taking “rest” (as is the tradition) at the end of the practice feels great. My mind is calmer. Just realize that Yoga, like anything, has its place. In any exercise program you are constantly giving a little something to get a little something. A well though out program balances all of that out. Use Yoga for its purpose and you will be better off.

Best,

Robert