Yoga Can Give You Strength, Balance, Flexibility. Isn't That Enough?

[Guest guest]

By Schneider

Tuesday, November 4, 2008; Washington Post, Page HE03

Yoga may have a soft and peaceful reputation, but the theme at Willow Street

Yoga on a recent Monday evening was fear. A large theme, to be sure, but in

this case it was focused on issues such as: If I collapse from a handstand,

what happens to my face?

The students in Batya Metalitz's advanced class were no strangers to the

handstand or other difficult poses, but she still encouraged them to

acknowledge that some of the things she would ask them to do in the two-hour

session would be unnerving.

" I want you to be okay being in that fear. Fear will encourage you to engage

those muscles, " Metalitz told the group.

With yoga, tai chi and other Eastern practices moving more fully into the

mainstream, the question comes up: What do they actually do? Is yoga just a

nice stretch, or will it make you stronger? What about cardiovascular

health? How does it stack up to the activities more commonly associated (in

the West) with aerobic endurance, such as running or biking?

As with most forms of exercise, the answer is, it depends -- on what goals

you set and on how you organize your training. Watching the students in

Metalitz's class, there was little doubt that yoga practiced at such an

advanced level involved serious strength. It also takes a pretty

single-minded commitment. For anyone not ready to go that route, the

relevant issue is whether there is value in a less intense relationship with

these disciplines, referred to as " mindful exercise " because of their mental

and sometimes spiritual aspect.

My own sense, buttressed in talks with Willow Street owner Suzie Hurley and

others, is that regular participation in yoga, regardless of the style or

level, is going to produce at least two surefire benefits: It will identify

and help strengthen weak points in your body, and it will help reawaken

muscles that tend to be underused in even active people.

Whether the issue is strength or flexibility, your body's weaknesses become

obvious when you start working through yoga poses, even seemingly simple

ones. And the further you go, the clearer it becomes what muscle or joint is

holding things up.

Clearly, you can't stand on your head unless a whole bunch of things are

working right, but even a simple backbend can be revealing. During one of

Hurley's less advanced sessions, I could feel the effect of a problem I have

been nursing in my right shoulder. Although different styles of yoga have

different emphases, proper alignment is a central tenet (if for no other

reason than to prevent injury). One particular pose was done standing and

involved curling the back while the hips remained perpendicular to the

floor. That can be a challenge, given that the tendency, when someone says

" backbend, " is to throw your hips forward and start arching the legs.

When this pose is done properly, the rhomboideus and trapezius pull you

backward while the hips stay still -- beneficial for me, since the issue in

my shoulder involves problems getting those upper back muscles to move my

shoulder blade in the proper way.

Which brings us to the other benefit of yoga: learning to use the right

muscles at the right time. This might sound like something the brain takes

care of without a lot of conscious planning on our part, but not

necessarily. An overly sedentary life leads, unwittingly, to bad habits: We

unlearn how to do things that ought to be natural: standing, sitting,

walking, moving properly. The wrong muscles get used, the train of motion

gets out of rhythm and problems ensue.

Yoga, as well as such disciplines as Pilates that require similar precision,

forces you to concentrate on which muscles are engaged for each posture or

exercise, and leads to more awareness of how we move in daily life.

That's why Hurley developed a sequence for one of her classes she calls

" juice the rhomboids. " The language is not quite part of the Sanskrit

tradition, but it's a sentiment Hurley said is important. Those muscles of

the upper back are among the more ignored, even among people who exercise

regularly. Her approach modifies the plank pose -- a static position that

looks like the start of a pushup, toes on the floor, arms straight -- to

include a slight up-and-down motion in the upper back.

Working through the body's weak points, retraining muscles, building

flexibility, teaching balance: All these flow from yoga practice, even if

it's limited to the less intense styles, said Ralph La Forge, an exercise

physiologist at Duke University Medical Center's Division of Endocrinology.

There are other widely accepted psychological and physiological benefits as

well: Yoga's emphasis on controlled breathing and its meditative aspect, for

example, can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress.

What's missing?

" It is not intense cardio, " Hurley said of her studio's anusara style, a

more recent offshoot of the methods developed in the past few decades by

B.K.S. Iyengar.

Hurley says she still goes for regular " vigorous " walks and swims to mix up

her workouts and supplement her yoga.

Different styles of yoga will involve comparatively more or less motion.

Some of the more dynamic, like ashtanga and vinyasa, provide " a hell of a

workout, " La Forge said. But in general, he said, yoga won't produce the

same elevated heart rate or intense energy expenditure as more-standard

aerobics.

And although yoga does develop underlying fitness (particularly important as

we age), La Forge said there can be limits when it comes to strength

training.

The styles that involve holding poses for a longer time build static

strength, for example, as opposed to other sorts of exercise that require

muscles to move weight through a range of motion or that build endurance by

repeating motions under weight. In general, the gains in strength from yoga

are limited by the type of resistance being used: namely, your body weight.

By definition, you'll become as strong as you need to be to hold yourself in

a particular pose.

That can be plenty strong, as the students in Willow Street's advanced class

demonstrated. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish, as Hurley

noted. If you decide yoga is your focus, be sure to find a studio that

progresses from beginner to advanced levels; otherwise, you're limiting

yourself from the start.

If you feel you want more or different -- whether it is a more intense style

of aerobics, strength training for a particular sport or something else --

then consider yoga as a supplement.

A little can go a long way.

[Guest guest]

>

>

> By Schneider

> Tuesday, November 4, 2008; Washington Post, Page HE03

>

> Yoga may have a soft and peaceful reputation, but the theme at

Willow Street

> Yoga on a recent Monday evening was fear. A large theme, to be

[snip]

Thank you for that article! I have always believed that yoga would be

an excellent counterpart to my endurance training, specifically to

help loosen up my hips and hamstrings, but had never gotten past a few

classes on a sporadic basis.

Then I was dragged to a Bikram's Yoga class, and for the last 7 weeks,

I've been hooked. Its hard, its hot, its NOT cheap, but like any good

lifestyle habit, it does make me feel good and is just a bit addictive.

Bikram's is a modified and " franchised " version of Hatha created by

one man. Because of that, he sets the rules of how each studio is

allowed to operate, and like a good franchise, deviation from the

rules is not allowed. I like that - consistency is key from

instructor to instructor and studio to studio. But, you might like

more freeform teachers who change up every class - in that case,

Bikram ain't for you. :-) http://www.bikramyoga.com

Enjoy and be flexible!

, in Albuquerque