How yoga gets you fit
You're so strong. What else do you do besides yoga?”
If only I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that! There is a general conception that yoga will make you flexible, limber, and lean, but it can’t possibly help you maintain your overall fitness as well as other types of workouts do. I’m here to prove otherwise! Let’s start by taking a look at what “fitness” means.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “fit” as “sound physically and mentally.” Sounds like the results of yoga to me! The American College of Sports Medicine identifies three different types of fitness that are key to maintaining good health: cardiovascular, muscle strength and tone, and flexibility.
This is the style of fitness that most people think of first, and it’s what you get from doing heart-pumping, heavy-breathing, fast-moving actions. Cardiovascular exercise works your heart, lungs, and blood vessels, increasing stamina and decreasing your risk for heart disease and maybe some types of cancer.
Whether you can achieve a great cardio session with yoga depends on the type of yoga practiced. Vinyasa and power yoga create constant movement that fires up your body, gets the sweat pouring, and delivers a heart-thumping good time! The “flow” element and the challenging long holds in standing, balancing, and twisting postures that are common to these styles of yoga increase your heart rate.
Another huge element of cardiovascular health is how well you can breathe. Moving without fatigue depends on maximal oxygen uptake—in other words, how well oxygen enters your lungs. The fitter you are, the better you transport oxygen. The entire yoga practice—no matter what style you practice—revolves around connecting movement with breath. Ujjayi breath (see “Victorious Breath”) involves inhaling and exhaling through the nostrils with the mouth softly closed. The goal is to keep the breath fluid and calm—whether it’s during seated meditation or 10 sun salutations into your session. The more you practice yoga, the better your breath control becomes, which ultimately improves your cardiovascular health.
Prominent yoga teacher John Schumacher performed a study at the age of 52 to prove that yoga does indeed make you fit. Schumacher underwent physiological testing at a lab in Gaithersburg, Maryland, while he performed a variety of fitness tests that measured heart and exercise recovery rates. His doctor told him he had less than a 1 percent chance of suffering a cardiac event. This from a man whose only form of physical activity was yoga and breathwork!
This refers to the actual strength and endurance of your muscles. Doctors agree that as we age, we lose muscle mass as well as bone density. It’s part of life, but yoga is a great counteractive tool. It not only helps to build muscular strength with the repetition of postures, but it is also a load-bearing exercise that increases bone density. Plus, every pound of muscle you have burns between 25 and 50 calories a day without you even unrolling your mat, so don’t be afraid to eat your spinach and practice your chaturangas!
One major appeal of yoga is that you don’t need dumbbells, gym machines, or any other fancy equipment to achieve awesome muscle tone—you just need a nonskid surface. Practicing yoga is like driving a car with a manual transmission—you understand and control your vehicle better. You don’t need a machine to make the shifting decisions for you because yoga teaches you how to align your body and mind. Now that’s strong.
It wouldn’t take a lawyer to prove that yoga makes you limber. Yoga clearly improves flexibility in our bodies as well as in our perspectives. In a British study from researchers at the University of York, people—primarily middle-age women—reported that they had improved back function and flexibility after doing 12 weeks of yoga, compared with those receiving regular care from the British National Health Service. As we age, our bodies grow tighter and shorter. This lessening of mobility is one of the major causes of chronic pain and injury. Lower-back pain is often caused by tight hip flexors or hamstring muscles putting tension on the lower back. The rounded, heavy shoulders resulting from poor posture fatigue the neck muscles and tighten the jaw. (Anyone who works long hours at a desk will know exactly what I’m talking about!) A regular yoga practice strengthens and elongates the muscles, allowing for a balanced existence.
Yoga is the ultimate fitness routine because it builds cardio strength with flow; develops muscular tone with long, strong holds; and creates flexibility with almost every pose. It’s also completely customizable: You can dive into power and vinyasa classes to kick-start your heart rate and sweat like you’re in a sauna. Or look to Iyengar yoga for intense holds. Try a yin practice, which focuses on opening and releasing tension with long holds in restorative postures. There’s something for everyone at every level.
Will yoga make you fit? You bet. And that’s not all.
Anyone who’s lost weight on a diet only to regain it knows that the world of weight loss is almost as frustrating as watching edited reruns of Sex and the City.
Why is it so tough to get rid of that stubborn muffin top, or even those last 5 pounds? Before you ask the blanket question, “Why can’t I lose weight?” consider what else is happening in your life. Are you stressed out from work? Too busy to get to the gym? Constantly reaching for comfort foods instead of healthy options (and then feeling guilty about it)? We’ve all been there. But you don’t have to ride this diet roller coaster forever. Once again, yoga comes to the rescue!
A 2005 study done by the National Cancer Institute looked at two groups of 15,500 healthy middle-age men and women. Over the same period of time, those who practiced yoga lost about 5 pounds, while those who didn’t practice gained 14 pounds.
A regular yoga practice can help you evaluate the source of the imbalance that might be at the root of your weight problem. As you get more comfortable with aligning your mind and body, you’ll feel calm and centered—and you’ll find it easier than ever to make positive, healthy choices and to shed any extra pounds for good. In addition to a new mind-set, yoga also offers a host of physical benefits that help you lose weight: It relaxes muscles that are tight from inactivity, tension, and stress. It builds muscle strength, increases your range of motion, and can be a great cardio workout, as well.
All styles of yoga lengthen, tone, and strengthen your muscles, but you gotta burn calories in order to lose weight! A vinyasa-style practice—in which movement and breath are linked in the postures—builds a lot of heat, which burns a lot of calories. Ashtanga and power yoga deliver similar results, but take care, because these styles are intense and may prove too daunting for a beginner, possibly ruining your yoga experience altogether.
No matter whether you’re a beginner or a more advanced practitioner, start slow. Make sure you understand the postures before you throw yourself into a whirlwind of movements and unfamiliar stances. This approach follows the principle of ahimsa—nonviolence to the body. The best way to lose weight and get in shape is by making sensible and loving choices for your body, step by step. Think of it this way: If you threw yourself cannonball-style into a swimming pool without learning to swim first, you’d quickly realize that wearing those dorky floats was a good idea after all! Swallow your pride and remember that anything worth having takes time.
One of the biggest factors in weight gain is, plain and simple, stress. The basic science is that stress releases cortisol, a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. When your stress level is normal, cortisol aids in glucose metabolism; regulates blood pressure; and maintains blood sugar, immune function, and the inflammatory response, which is the “fight-or-flight” response to a perceived threat. However, when your body chronically experiences a high level of stress, cortisol secretion kicks into high gear and suppresses thyroid function, decreases bone density and muscle mass over time, and lowers immunity. Worst of all, it increases abdominal fat. Yup, you heard me—stress creates belly fat.
Cortisol stimulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism, which increases your appetite. Chronic stress can lead to chronically elevated cortisol levels, leaving you with a bigger appetite and the need to work out harder to burn off what you ate. Researchers have also shown that cortisol tends to deposit more fat in the abdominal area than anywhere else. Studies of women with excess fat in their abdomens showed that they had higher cortisol levels and more stressful lifestyles than women whose fat was stored in their hips.
Now, before you get stressed-out about being stressed-out, stop and breathe! Take a minute to ask yourself: Where is this stress coming from, and how is it affecting my behavior? A stressful lifestyle can lead to many unhealthy habits, not the least of which are binge eating, smoking, drinking, and grabbing junk food instead of a healthy meal. These are all crutches that you can and should replace with the best support system of all—yoga!
Yoga should be called the bad-habit buster. Many unhealthy habits nurtured by stress find the nearest exit after even just a few weeks of practicing. According to a 2011 study, British university workers reported an improvement in well-being and resilience to stress after participating in six hour-long yoga classes over the course of 6 weeks. The participants in the yoga group also scored higher on clear-mindedness, energy, and confidence than those who did not practice yoga. The calming, meditative effects of yoga help you relax, focus, and control your stress. So take a deep breath, unroll your mat (even just for 15 minutes), and get ready to let stress go and invite health in.