A Skeptics Guide to Yoga

I have several friends who remain skeptical of the benefits of Yoga. “Yoga doesn’t burn calories like running does and won’t build muscle like going to the gym, so why would you do Yoga as a workout?” is the argument that they use. These statements are both true, Yoga may not burn as many calories as a high cardio workout or bulk you up like lifting weights. You are not likely to win a body building competition just by practicing Yoga, but it is still a challenging workout.

The thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that true Yoga is not as much about fitness as it is about self-improvement. I feel like the general impression of Yoga is that it’s an over-commercialized fitness fad that people do to get out of going to the gym but still feel like they have worked out. It seems to be lumped in with things like Pilates or P-90X that are specifically marketed as weight-loss, muscle building workout routines; when in fact in my opinion Yoga would be better compared with something like Tai Chi.

The major benefits of Yoga come not directly from practicing the poses, but from adopting all of what Yoga has to offer. Here are a few of the benefits that I have personally experienced:

Flexibility
Yoga is great for increasing your flexibility, here are a few of the health benefits that are associated with increasing your flexibility

• Improved Circulation, increased blood flow to your muscles
• Improved range of motion providing better balance
• Relieves stress, relaxes tense muscles, calms the body 
• Injury prevention, conditioning the muscles, tendons and joints, faster recover
• Improved posture
• Aids in digestion and improves metabolism
• Enables your body to perform more with less energy

Stress
Yoga is a form of meditation, meditation is great at relieving stress. The amount of actual meditation that you do throughout your practice will depend on your teachers and on the studio and style of Yoga that you practice. Whether your practice includes sitting meditation or not, you are—perhaps unknowingly—meditating every time you get on your mat. Meditation is quiet focus, something that is required for balance. The more you focus and quiet your mind, the better you will be able to hold the pose. Also, for anyone who has experienced Savasana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savasana) you know how meditative Yoga can be. Any time you think maybe I will skip my Yoga class today, all you need to do is remember how good Savasana will feel and it’s easy to convince yourself to attend!

Breathing
It seems a little funny to express the benefits of breathing, however so many people take it for granted. We are all born knowing how to breath, we do it subconsciously our entire lives, but few people actually pay attention to it. Breathing fills our blood with oxygen and removes CO₂ from our bodies. By focusing on our breathing we can allow our bodies to become aware of the effects the breath has on the body, and experience the sensation of living. Conscious breathing can help us reduce stress and improve our body awareness.

Weight Loss
As I mentioned above, Yoga is not a high calorie burning cardio workout, so how can it help with weight loss? Yoga is extremely difficult to do if you have a bad diet. Anyone who has ever had pizza and then went to a Yoga class will likely agree with me here! In fact the healthier you eat, the easier and more enjoyable Yoga becomes and so in a strange paradoxical way Yoga convinces your body to eat better in order to more fully enjoy Yoga. It is amazing how quickly this happens, Yoga is great at making you aware of your body and when you have eaten something that your body doesn’t like you will know right away. Your body will feel lethargic, you will lose flexibility, twists will feel uncomfortable in your stomach, the list goes on. 

The benefits listed above also improve your overall health, which helps your body process food better, which helps your metabolism become more efficient which all help in weight loss. There is some debate around whether Yoga actually slows your metabolism down. This is sometimes used as an excuse to not practice Yoga for weight loss; however even if it does slow your metabolism down, your new diet does not require a fast acting modern metabolism that is forced to over work due to the processed food we commonly eat. A fast metabolism is not necessarily a good thing anyways, the faster your metabolism, the faster your cells breakdown and need to be replenished which is a huge factor in how quickly you age.

These are just some of the major benefits that I have personally experienced through a regular Yoga practice. All of these things combined have helped me feel better, eat better, live better. Yoga may not directly condition you to climb a mountain, or to squat twice your weight, but speaking as someone who has done both of these things, the first time I held a handstand for over a minute felt just as good and has only increased my desire to climb more mountains and lift more weights!

I would love to hear your own experiences, please share in the comments!

Peace
Jesse