So I’ve been interested in yoga recently as a supplemental sort of workout. I’ve read that the right style can give you the sort of physique/strength results that a normal weight workout can’t. Has anyone had any experience with yoga? If so, what style and how did you like it? Any feedback would be great.
I tried yoga to get lean, and it actually helps in stretching your body, but yoga is mostly a way of life that aims to balance, they are very lean, but not muscular at all, there is a comunity I know (my aunt is member), men and women looks very similar, defined (low bf%) but skinny. to build a body, you have to figth your body balance and natural homeostasis, forcing the grow. that goes against the balance of yoga, they will lead you to find your inner balance to stop the wishing to become larger.
what is your goal?
Thanks for the reply. My goal is twofold. First is to just get a workout that will strengthen muscles that I can’t easily hit with a conventional weight workout. The second is to make some gains in injury prevention.
The idea to give it a shot has come after reading a few articles about NFL and NCAA teams incorporating yoga in their workout regimens. I’ve heard that hot yoga is a good workout, so that’s likely the one I’ll try. Anyone know about the hot version?
[quote]buckfu wrote:
Thanks for the reply. My goal is twofold. First is to just get a workout that will strengthen muscles that I can’t easily hit with a conventional weight workout. The second is to make some gains in injury prevention.
The idea to give it a shot has come after reading a few articles about NFL and NCAA teams incorporating yoga in their workout regimens. I’ve heard that hot yoga is a good workout, so that’s likely the one I’ll try. Anyone know about the hot version?[/quote]
I think that if you aim to something that get you stronger, from east, try karate or kempo, or any of that. but yoga is mainly to get a peaceful mind. For kempo you don’t even need weights.
the injury i don’t get what you want.
Wow. just wow.
[quote]greekdawg wrote:
Wow. just wow.[/quote]
I like your motto. i am a firm believer that no matter what your weight is, you have to aim to keep proportion on every bodypart. do you live that way?
anyway, yoga has the buda as central image: have you ever seen that guy: HE IS FAT! sedentary way of life, a couch potato glorified.
It really is nothing more then glorified stretching. If your gym offers it for free with the gym, I would do it though. You get to look at a lot of hot chicks, and you are improving your flexibility-something any serious athlete should be doing-
It is hard though depending on how good your instructor is, you move really fast and balancing is a good way to burn calories. It is relaxing and I enjoyed it the couple times I have done it.
It is not a full workout, nothing beats weight training for overall weight loss, strength, injury prevention, muscle mass ext. Use it as a supplement to your real workout, and it can be fun.
[quote]juanjromero wrote:
anyway, yoga has the buda as central image: have you ever seen that guy: HE IS FAT! sedentary way of life, a couch potato glorified.
[/quote]
You’re talking about Ho Tei, not Gautama. Ho Tei is a Chinese Bodhisattva, not the historical Buddha. Gautama forbade anyone to reproduce his image and for the first 300 years, no one did. So no one knows what the Buddha really looked like. Based on his dietary training rules, I doubt he was fat - he and the early sangha relied on dana (begging for food) and did not eat past noon.
Secondly, yoga is based in Hinduism (and it’s precursors), not Buddhism.
[quote]wirewound wrote:
juanjromero wrote:
and did not eat past noon.
.[/quote]
that would be a problem to gain weight.
I heard that’s how Cutler got huge.
yoga is for yogis
wait… what?
it can add on to a good solid bodybuilding routine and be useful for injury prevention, and to stay supple etc. Yogaroots on this site blends the two together AFAIK and has some good size on him.
As far as physique development by itself, I know a bunch of "yogis’ claim that its all they need to look good and that they don;t need resistance training and shit, but they have a stilted idea of whats a good physique anyway.
Edit: the superb physique pictured above does not belong to yogaroots, but one of the most famous yoga teachers around, Iyengar. He has looked like this for the last 40 years btw.
I tried it once.
As soon as I realized it was some peaceful crap I left. The soft music CD came on and no metal so I was out.
No intensity=no go.
I’m crazy.
[quote]Alex-P wrote:
I’m crazy. [/quote]
Crazy is just living within your own standards.
[quote]juanjromero wrote:
anyway, yoga has the buda as central image: have you ever seen that guy: HE IS FAT! sedentary way of life, a couch potato glorified.
[/quote]
First off, it’s Buddha…not buda. Secondly, the fat image of Buddha is not the same as Siddh�?rtha Gautama, who is traditionally known as the Buddha. When he took up the monastic life he didn’t eat a lot since he had to go door to door begging for alms.
edit
Just noticed someone else pointed this out…oh well.
[quote]buckfu wrote:
Thanks for the reply. My goal is twofold. First is to just get a workout that will strengthen muscles that I can’t easily hit with a conventional weight workout.[/quote]
Absolutely not. Yoga is not a substitution for any type of strength training.
This is where Yoga would be most useful, as a means of enhanced stretching and recovery.
Dan John wrote about it in his Recovery Methods 101 article:
http://www.T-Nation.com/article/most_recent/recovery_methods_101
[quote]shizen wrote:
It really is nothing more then glorified stretching. If your gym offers it for free with the gym, I would do it though. You get to look at a lot of hot chicks, and you are improving your flexibility-something any serious athlete should be doing-
It is hard though depending on how good your instructor is, you move really fast and balancing is a good way to burn calories. It is relaxing and I enjoyed it the couple times I have done it.
It is not a full workout, nothing beats weight training for overall weight loss, strength, injury prevention, muscle mass ext. Use it as a supplement to your real workout, and it can be fun. [/quote]
I agree with Shizen on all points. I tried free yoga classes a few times recently at two different gyms, on days I would have otherwise done cardio. It’s worth doing, if it doesn’t interfere with your main training goals. You get a get stretching and learn some interesting stretches.
There is some strength component to it, maybe it’s strength-endurance with light loads, or use of some untrained balancing muscles. I didn’t find it easy, especially the first time, and I sweat a lot more than I’d like to admit considering the condescending thoughts I’ve had about yoga.
The instructors tend to be pretty good, at least the 3 I’ve had were better than I expected. Inflexible men daring to come to the class were not abused. 
And absolutely there are hot chicks, but you may find it hard to ogle as planned without falling on your head.
- MarkT
Wow, just wow, some of you guys need to put the kool aid down (I’m referring to those who say Yoga is meditative crap.)
There are many types of Yoga, from the meditative to the very athletic. I’ve done a lot of physical crap, including BJJ, Judo, some powerlifting, and conditioning based on HIIT (mostly from BJJ) and I have to tell you, Bikram Yoga and Power Yoga variants of Ashtanga Yoga beat my ass silly.
I haven’t tried Ashtanga Yoga yet, but I’ve seen the advanced classes. That shit is no joke; purely gymnastics stuff. You need to be absurdidly strong to do some of that shit.
Bikram Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and their “power”, athletic variants (either at room temperature or in rooms heated at 90 degrees) are an excellent way to develop strength and flexibility (both static and dynamic). However, it is not conductive for bodybuilding.
You are basically spending 90 minutes (sometimes under intentionally harsh conditions such as under the sun or in a heated room) doing, not just stretches, but intense isometric contractions and gymnastic like stances such as the plank for 30 seconds to a minute each while constantly breathing to the point of almost hyperventilation. They dehydrate you deeply.
If you want to have an idea of what’s like, sit on an incline bench and grab a dumbbell, something that allows you to do 10 reps. Curl it up to 50% of ROM and hold it there for 60 seconds. Put it down and repeat. That’s what you do with most of your limbs over and over for 90 minutes.
I don’t think I should explain why this is not conductive of bodybuilding, right?
Having said that, it’s an awesome training method for strength and flexibility, with a great carry over to things such as gymnastics or martial arts (specially grappling and wrestling.)
It would also play well with powerlifting, BUT, it is too demanding and taxing. You can really screw your training if you attempt to do Ashtanga/Bikram on an off day. I guess it would depend on your “gas thank”, on your ability to recover.
If your experience with Yoga was on the quasi-spiritual stuff you find in the Western World when you were looking for a workout, sorry to tell you you wasted your time and money (not to mention you are not that quite capable of commenting on Yoga as a method for strength training or conditioning.)