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Interesting- The benefits you mention are primarily physiological. I would argue that if building strength, clarity, and focus is someone's main goal then this

Interesting- The benefits you mention are primarily physiological. I would argue that if building strength, clarity, and focus is someone's main goal then this could be just as easily achieved by regular routine exercise like a calisthenics or bodyweight program with a healthy diet to boot. At least this way you can realise the benefits much quicker than a year or two. I can't speak to the rewarding 'zen' nature of Yoga. After close to a decade of full-time weightlifting though, perhaps it has conditioned me into treating it as a sort of routine, mental therapy.

blueprint 5y ago
most yoga does plenty of things not accessed by 99.9% of bodyweight and calisthenics
- tayo42 5y ago
  Agree with this. After my first in person vinyasa class I was sore in surprising places.
- andrepd 5y ago
  That's a pretty strong claim. Actually that's kind of an absurd claim since yoga is calisthenics. Can you be more specific as to what you mean?
  - throw0101a 5y ago
    > yoga is calisthenics While yoga-as-meditation seems to have a long in India: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga#History Yoga-as-exercise was a much more recent phenomenon started by Westerners: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_as_exercise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_as_exercise > Goldberg is the author of The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West. Her book traces the modern Western practice of yoga to a Russian woman named Indra Devi, who was born in 1899 with the birth name Eugenia Peterson. * https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/01/411202468/those-yoga-poses-may-not-be-ancient-after-all-and-maybe-thats-ok https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/01/4112024... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra_Devi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra_Devi Regardless, if it gets people off the couch, then to a certain extent who cares which is "better": the perfect is the enemy of the good.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - stayfrosty420 5y ago
      Did you read your sources? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga lol
    - andrepd 5y ago
      Sure, but we're talking about physical health here. The religious/spiritual/mental thing is separate. You can also meditate while you lift, no? :)
      - playing_colours 5y ago
        There are many kinds of meditation. You can try being mindful while lifting iron, so at least you can practice mindfulness mediation.
        loopz 5y ago
        The same way you can do yoga and think about lifting weights!
  - blueprint 5y ago
    okay my mistake in using that word but the point stands... have you ever done any of the yogas?
mmaunder 5y ago
Oof. Watch out for anything with 'zen' in it. There's a lot of bull around yoga classes and yoga people. If you just do yoga, breathe and focus on the breath, you are meditating. Simple as that. The rest is just branding and bullshit, to be avoided. As someone who used to lift and absolutely loved it, I wanted to try to explain the difference between lifting and yoga. Lifting is awesome and I used to absolutely love it. I also found it somewhat meditative. It was my unwind time. I miss it. What I didn't get from lifting is the diversity that yoga brings in terms of strengthening far more muscles, while also giving you flexibility. I'm trying to think of a pose I can give you, but I worry that if you just dive in and try it you could injure yourself. The good yoga routines will start you off very slowly with breath, then some light stretching, then sun salutations, and then into the harder poses. It is those harder poses that give you this kind of "diversity of strength" I'm describing. An example of a pose that isn't that hard to do, but strengthens muscles that lifting rarely works is half moon pose: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardha_chandrasana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardha_chandrasana Yoga is usually a flow, and a well designed flow will alternate between exerting muscles and then stretching those same muscles that you were exerting while exerting the ones you were stretching. That way you get strength and flexibility. I don't have a gym near me anymore (I live on a small island) but I suspect that the combination of yoga and a killer lifting routine could do unbelievable things for your strength, flexibility and overall aesthetics, while helping you lift way heavier while avoiding injury. Just a thought. Best of luck!!
- andrepd 5y ago
  Can you give me an example of muscles that yoga exercises that a good strength training routine won't?
  - mmaunder 5y ago
    So it depends on your physiology, but a lot of people develop asymmetrically (carrying kids on one side, etc) or have a skeletal issue like scoliosis that causes that. Lifting - and by lifting I mean the big important movements like squats, deadlifts, OHP and benchpresses - works both sides of your body at the same time. Yoga breaks it up into one side at a time, which I've found has caused my body to become a lot more symmetrical. Yoga also includes a lot of strength movements that also improve flexibility, which lifting does not. Hard to get into a debate about this because lifting does an amazing job of exercising just about everything. It just does it in a very different way with, I've found, higher risk of injury.

blueprint 5y ago

most yoga does plenty of things not accessed by 99.9% of bodyweight and calisthenics

tayo42 5y ago
Agree with this. After my first in person vinyasa class I was sore in surprising places.
andrepd 5y ago
That's a pretty strong claim. Actually that's kind of an absurd claim since yoga is calisthenics. Can you be more specific as to what you mean?
- throw0101a 5y ago
  > yoga is calisthenics While yoga-as-meditation seems to have a long in India: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga#History Yoga-as-exercise was a much more recent phenomenon started by Westerners: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_as_exercise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_as_exercise > Goldberg is the author of The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West. Her book traces the modern Western practice of yoga to a Russian woman named Indra Devi, who was born in 1899 with the birth name Eugenia Peterson. * https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/01/411202468/those-yoga-poses-may-not-be-ancient-after-all-and-maybe-thats-ok https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/01/4112024... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra_Devi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra_Devi Regardless, if it gets people off the couch, then to a certain extent who cares which is "better": the perfect is the enemy of the good.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - stayfrosty420 5y ago
    Did you read your sources? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga lol
  - andrepd 5y ago
    Sure, but we're talking about physical health here. The religious/spiritual/mental thing is separate. You can also meditate while you lift, no? :)
    - playing_colours 5y ago
      There are many kinds of meditation. You can try being mindful while lifting iron, so at least you can practice mindfulness mediation.
      - loopz 5y ago
        The same way you can do yoga and think about lifting weights!
- blueprint 5y ago
  okay my mistake in using that word but the point stands... have you ever done any of the yogas?

mmaunder 5y ago

Oof. Watch out for anything with 'zen' in it. There's a lot of bull around yoga classes and yoga people. If you just do yoga, breathe and focus on the breath, you are meditating. Simple as that. The rest is just branding and bullshit, to be avoided. As someone who used to lift and absolutely loved it, I wanted to try to explain the difference between lifting and yoga. Lifting is awesome and I used to absolutely love it. I also found it somewhat meditative. It was my unwind time. I miss it. What I didn't get from lifting is the diversity that yoga brings in terms of strengthening far more muscles, while also giving you flexibility. I'm trying to think of a pose I can give you, but I worry that if you just dive in and try it you could injure yourself. The good yoga routines will start you off very slowly with breath, then some light stretching, then sun salutations, and then into the harder poses. It is those harder poses that give you this kind of "diversity of strength" I'm describing. An example of a pose that isn't that hard to do, but strengthens muscles that lifting rarely works is half moon pose: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardha_chandrasana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardha_chandrasana Yoga is usually a flow, and a well designed flow will alternate between exerting muscles and then stretching those same muscles that you were exerting while exerting the ones you were stretching. That way you get strength and flexibility. I don't have a gym near me anymore (I live on a small island) but I suspect that the combination of yoga and a killer lifting routine could do unbelievable things for your strength, flexibility and overall aesthetics, while helping you lift way heavier while avoiding injury. Just a thought. Best of luck!!

andrepd 5y ago
Can you give me an example of muscles that yoga exercises that a good strength training routine won't?
- mmaunder 5y ago
  So it depends on your physiology, but a lot of people develop asymmetrically (carrying kids on one side, etc) or have a skeletal issue like scoliosis that causes that. Lifting - and by lifting I mean the big important movements like squats, deadlifts, OHP and benchpresses - works both sides of your body at the same time. Yoga breaks it up into one side at a time, which I've found has caused my body to become a lot more symmetrical. Yoga also includes a lot of strength movements that also improve flexibility, which lifting does not. Hard to get into a debate about this because lifting does an amazing job of exercising just about everything. It just does it in a very different way with, I've found, higher risk of injury.