Previously I have discussed the merits and drawbacks of many exercise types, including swimming, running, walking, using a gym and doing gym exercise classes. Today I take a look at Yoga.
The Positives about Yoga –
- Flexibility -The great benefit of yoga is it focuses on flexibility which most other exercise modalities ignore. Being more flexible can have many benefits from extra energy to less joint pain.
- Relaxation – Many yoga forms are more meditative than exercise which is great to destress and relax the mind. The quality/quantity of your eating is directly related to your stress levels which is the major factor in determining your body shape.
- Strength Development – Another benefit is strength increases. Many people do no resistance training which undermines the body’s functioning. Yoga moves require you to have a certain level of strength.
- Breathing – The breathing pattern you use will have a major impact on your energy levels, health, emotional state and even influences joint pain and food cravings. While I personally use a different breathing approach to most normal yoga practises the end point of my approach and the yoga way of breathing is the same common goal.
- Body Weight Penalised – As yoga is mostly body weight based any weight loss will improve your yoga. This is positive encouragement to get into shape.
- Training Group Environment – Many yoga goers are very committed and are regular exercisers. This creates a positive training environment and social peer group which encourages you to make positive progress yourself.
The negatives about Yoga –
- Low Calorie burn – For all the great benefits of yoga the calorific burn is not huge. More meditative yoga classes have a very low burn. This is fine if factored into your plan of action but if time is limited and your movement levels already low then the yoga class will be less effective for fat loss than an hour walking.
- Low level strength / Muscle development – While it is great to do some strength work yoga is a low level resistance training stimulus in most classes. The same applies to developing muscle mass / tone, you will make progress but much less than more strenuous strength regimes.
- Imbalanced Stretching Programme – While stretching is great of course, pain and posture is more related to relative stiffness from one side of the joint to the other than absolute stiffness. Most yoga classes these days have a disproportionate focus on flexing the body (stretching lower back, hamstrings) compared to the extending the body (thighs, stomach). This accentuates the stimulus of life which has most people sitting in a flexed position all day (sitting, driving, watching TV). While the full range of yoga postures covers all of the body equally the average class focuses more on the flexion side of flexibility.
Summary
I think yoga suffers from many of the issues other areas of exercise do. On one extreme people are so passionate about it they see no drawbacks and the other side people dismiss the major benefits. For most people they would benefit greatly from it as part of their exercise routine. At the same time though consideration to its place must be given if fat loss is the main goal to ensure it is contributing to progress.
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