Doing Yoga for Fitness: Is It Enough?

Last week, good friend of the blog and Starr Struck Radio podcast Bobby Scott wrote a piece on his blog entitled "Yoga for Fitness?" in which he, in his capacity as a trainer and coach, explained why he doesn't think that doing just yoga is enough to keep you physically fit. 

He made some very valid points in his post (which you can read here), the most compelling of which state that yoga doesn't provide enough strength training, speed/power training, and heart rate training.

While I agree that some types of yoga do not provide enough--or any--of these types of "training," I do want to offer a different perspective and some thoughts on why this might not be accurate when speaking of yoga as a whole, or in particular, when speaking about vinyasa yoga. 

But first, let me say that this is not a takedown piece or meant to be a criticism of my dear friend Bobby's post. I think that from a trainer's perspective, and when compared to something like CrossFit, yoga is SO different that it would definitely appear that it doesn't stack up. And I do agree that when speaking of physical fitness and/or conditioning as a whole, it's always great to mix things up and supplement your primary form of movement with other types of training. 

That being said, before I share my thoughts on why, for some (and nothing is one size fits all!), yoga might be enough of a workout to keep you physically fit and calm, mindful, + grounded, you need to know about a study performed at the University of California at Davis:

In this study, researchers had students perform 8 weeks of yoga and then tested their muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and lung function. During these 8 weeks, the student took 4 yoga classes per week; Each class consisted of 10 minutes of pranayama or breathing exercises, 15 minutes warm-up, 50 minutes of physical asana practice, and 10 minutes of savasana or relaxation/meditation. 

At the end of this study, they found that on average, the students' muscular strength had increased by 31%, their muscular endurance by 57%, their flexibility up to 188%, and their VO2max, which measures cardiorespiratory fitness, by 7%.

What does this mean? To me, it means that we have scientific proof that yoga does increase your physical fitness levels. Here are a few more things that I'd like to note about this topic, from my experience as both a yoga teacher and practitioner:  
 
1. Yoga for Strength Training: When a new student takes up yoga and starts practicing on a regular basis, one of the first things to shift is their level of physical strength. I have witnessed many a student go from being unable to do chaturanga (the yogic version of a push-up) or hold plank pose for more than a second to being able to do both of these poses with ease.

Just last night, I watched a student who used to be unable to lower herself to the ground without flopping and collapsing come into an arm balance where she held her body weight up with just her core and arms. Although there may be some muscular groups that aren't emphasized in yogic strength training--as Bobby mentions, there aren't many resisted pulling movements--I would argue that yoga is such a full-body practice that you do get a great increase in overall body strength, and that's what's most important. 

And the core strengthening! No one can tell me that yogis (those who practice 3-5 times per week, long-term) don't have some of the strongest cores out there. There's a reason that 90-year-old lifelong yogis (like sweet Bette, pictured above) can still do arm balances like this, and I would argue that a big reason for that is strength. 

2. Yoga for Speed/Power Training: There isn't a lot of speed/power training in the majority of yoga classes, I'll give Bobby that. However, in the more athletic types of practices such as vinyasa, ashtanga, and power yoga,  when you get into the more advanced classes, you can get quite a bit of power training. 

In these classes, there's lots of jumping forward and back, there are quicker flows, there could be rocking + rolling forward and back on the mat and then exploding into asanas at the top of the mat, as well as movements like jumping into handstand or back from handstand into chaturanga. The power created in yoga is a bit more subtle and less in-your-face than the power in a CrossFit class, but I would argue that the deep core power that is required for some of the advanced asanas and transitions does a great job of building an ability to move in a controlled, powerful way. 

3. Yoga for Cardiovascular Training: In yoga, we do a lot of deep breathing. Like, a lot. We also work on breathing deeply while moving through physically challenging poses + exercises, and learn how to breathe into the diaphragm and expand the lungs and ribcage.

Researchers have different ideas about why yoga increases your cardiovascular fitness, but the research  shows that it does; Some say that Sun Salutations increase the heart rate enough to be cardiovascular training and others say that the emphasis on breathing allows the body to take in more oxygen and thus oxygenate the blood more thoroughly, which leads to increase stamina and endurance. 

Personally, I went from being a runner and doing weight training as my primary form of physical activity to being a yogi. When I made this big transition, I didn't notice any negative changes or decreases in my physical state of being and/or fitness levels. I know many people who made similar transitions, and I think that they would agree--if anything, I became stronger from the inside out, which was a great new feeling for me.  

When I do physical activities that require stamina or strength (such as hiking 12 miles at 16,000 feet or loading and unloading a moving truck), I'm aways thrilled to find that I can do these things as if I had been actually training for them, and I credit yoga for this. 

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I believe you can do yoga as your primary form of physical fitness. Do I recommend mixing it up with some weight training, running/walking, or swimming? Yes, I do. But I also think that if you just want to do yoga all day errr day because you love it, I think you're going to stay nice and fit, as long as you do it regularly (4-5 times per week) and take classes that are more movement-based (or at least ensure that some of the classes that you take are movement-based). 

What do you think? What has your personal experience with yoga + fitness taught you? Every person is different and every body is different, so as usual, I think that only you can decide what's best for you...but I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

{Btw, here are my sources: Is Yoga Enough to Keep You Fit? + Can Vinyasa Flow Yoga Make You Fit? Image Source: Daily Mail}