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Funny how people become obsessed with specific movements, specific exercise styles, etc. I’ve done it all including becoming obsessed with Mark Rippetoe and the

Funny how people become obsessed with specific movements, specific exercise styles, etc. I’ve done it all including becoming obsessed with Mark Rippetoe and the derivatives, cardio like running and mountain biking, swimming 2km a day (80 lengths) etc. The one thing that has absolutely transformed my life is yoga. No more back pain, insane strength I never had, no more injuries from eg lifting a 100 lbs propane tank at an awkward angle onto a truck, and unbelievable mental clarity and focus. I do it daily for 30 mins. Never been to a class. I got into it via the 3 week yoga retreat program on the Beachbody app. Been doing it for about 4 years now. Takes about a year or two to fully realize the benefits.

colechristensen 5y ago
One thing I think yoga does particularly better than many other activities is target really broad sets of muscles. I don’t do it much but after a few initial classes it was so strange for muscles i didn’t know existed to be sore.
- deviation 5y ago
  Stabilisers! People take them for granted. Typical strength training is usually lack-lustre in building these. This benefit is not unique to yoga, though.
  - vkk8 5y ago
    Depends on how you do it, I guess. Squatting low weights or just body weight indeed doesn't involve stabilisers very much. But try squatting 2x your bodyweight on the bar and you find that it takes everything you've got to keep the body stable. (Note: don't actually try to squat 2x your bodyweight unless you have some years of experience in squatting and know what you are doing)
    - janekm 5y ago
      That's... kind of the point. Building your stabilisers with heavy weights only can be risky (especially if ego comes into play). Implementing accessory exercises to build stability / balance / flexibility alongside your heavy lifts is a great insurance policy for beginners. (whether Yoga is the greatest source of those is another topic, especially when considering the many different forms of Yoga many of which have a not very evidence based origin)
- mmaunder 5y ago
  Yes this is what I've found. In particular, I've found that it strengthens the smaller muscles, tendons and ligaments that often get injured. It has also realigned my body into a more balanced state. I know that last sentence sounds like some kind of zen BS, but what I mean is, my muscles are now developing in a balanced way, my spine is straight and I have symmetric strength.
songzme 5y ago
I want to try Yoga after seeing this. could I just find any youtube instructors and follow along, or is it important to find "the right ones"? How would you approach starting out (must be online, wife won't let me leave the house because of covid)?
- timr 5y ago
  There are a lot of different styles and intensity levels. The appropriate one for you is a combination of personal preference and your level of physical fitness. For an absolute beginner, where I have no idea what level of fitness you have or what injuries you may be working with, I would recommend Iyengar. It is relatively gentle, and emphasizes careful development. A lot of people like Vinyasa, which can range from slow and gentle to as aerobic as running. I like Ashtanga, which is about doing the same set of poses every time, but doing them correctly. I wouldn't recommend it for absolute beginners, however. Obviously, don't run out and do crazy stuff like headstands or intense backbends or balancing poses unless you have experience. But also be aware that even "normal" yoga can have positions that are risky for people when done incorrectly -- for example, men typically have tight hamstrings and hips, and compensate in forward folds by bending over from the lower back. This can be dangerous if you don't have a strong back (and it's never a good idea). It is helpful to have 1:1 instruction if you don't know the form. If you want someone who I know is a good instructor and willing to teach via video, please backchannel me and I can recommend.
  - songzme 5y ago
    very helpful thank you.
- chaboud 5y ago
  You can just start out where lots of folks start out: Do the basics by following along with videos from established and accessible instructors (e.g. Rodney Yee, Seane Corn). These are folks from the DVD era that are still active. Pleasantly, Yoga is a relatively established practice with minimal churn/disruption to the state of the art. Yoga is great for core strength, getting rid of back soreness, and gently improving flexibility. You'll also learn about your own body and develop greater self awareness when moving. Just take care that, though the risk is lower, you can still injure yourself by overdoing it. Listen to your body along the way.
Existenceblinks 5y ago
I'm a little bit surprised that yoga beats swimming for you. I play whole lots of sport, never done yoga. I found swimming is the best for me. But I can see yoga is safer than swimming butterfly (but it builds muscle!), and tendon stretched more, and doesn't require a swimming pool! May be I should try yoga seriously
- mmaunder 5y ago
  I'm glad you posted. I used to absolutely LOVE swimming and I swore by it. I still do it from time to time - mostly in the sea now. I'm lucky enough to live on the beach. I got into triathlons and would come out of the water ahead of the pack and then get my ass handed to me on the cycle and run. :-) Swimming is the one thing that fixed chronic back pain for me which I acquired from rollerblading half pipe in my late teens and repeatedly falling on my ass in the transition from pretty high up. It trashed my lower back. Swimming fixed that - as long as I kept swimming. And the trouble is that I've moved around a lot and I've had periods of a year or more without a pool. And inevitably my back issues would come back. Also with swimming, if I tried to do anything else that required using my full posterior chain (like deadlifts) I'd injure myself. I was fit and pain free, but I couldn't really push it when doing heavy lifting work. Yoga, for me, has some major advantages over swimming. Firstly I can do it absolutely anywhere. I got this incredibly thin travel mat that you can stuff into a small backpack and I take that to hotels with me. As long as I can stand up straight and spread my arms wide, that's all the space I need. So I'm able to do it no matter where I'm living or traveling to. Secondly, it has massively improved my ability to lift heavy random stuff at awkward angles without getting injured, and with more strength than before. Nothing else has done that for me including lifting, swimming, etc. Since you sound interested, I'd like to offer a few more tips: Avoid classes. The social aspect of yoga can be a bit weird. You'll find people who think they breathe through their eyelids. Others that want to hug you a lot. There's the subtle pressure associated with the various biz models around classes. There is a hierarchy you'll discover. You'll also find that hot yoga is brilliant in it's business model because you can't do it at home - you have to go to a hot yoga class. Which is seriously limiting if you travel. I've mentioned the beachbody 3 week yoga retreat here which is what I use. But I'm sure there are a bunch of other apps and resources that are great, so find something that gets you from zero to yoga and then just keep doing a routine that works for you. I have two routines that I do using the beachbody app. One is 20 mins and one is 30 mins. The 20 is called "flow on the go" and it's super fast and flowy. The 30 minute routine starts off slower and is more meditative. Depends what mood I'm in or I'll just randomly pick on. I'd also recommend that you don't do yoga if you've been drinking heavily the night before. For some reason when I was starting out, I'd get injured doing that. Just a mild injury. I can only surmise that it's because my body was in an inflamed state from the hangover. THC/CBD the night before is totally fine and I find it actually makes yoga quite enjoyable the next morning. YMMV. I still mountain bike, stand up paddleboard, hike, occassionally do short runs while I'm hiking. But yoga makes all of that far more enjoyable, has reduced my injury rate and improved my balance, flexibility and strength. Don't get sucked into the whole zen, mindfulness, meditation circle, speaking slowly in droning tones bull. Yoga is amazing. It's the cults and cultists that make it expensive, inconvenient, weird and just kind of awful. With yoga you get meditation free. As long as you're breathing and focusing on the breath while doing the movements, doing a flow or holding a pose, you're already meditating. The rest is just window dressing. Best of luck.
deleted 5y ago
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londgine 5y ago
there are 2 types of yoga that I found. one focusing on strength and flexibility, like you talked about. and one that feels like meditation, with a pagan ritual to the sun. when looking for a yoga program, how can I specify the former?
- sjf 5y ago
  Look for a yoga class with power, core, ashtanga or vinyasa in the name. Avoid hatha.
  - blueprint 5y ago
    bikram aka hot 26 is the sh too
    - monetus 5y ago
      The movie about the creator of that was pretty disturbing - I read that his former lawyer now owns the brand
      - blueprint 5y ago
        yeah but if you watched that movie you saw he carbon copied the series from his Indian master and others referred to it as a 'magical' sequence
  - mmaunder 5y ago
    I'd actually encourage everyone here to avoid classes. There has been quite a bit of controversy around instructors exploiting students for money or otherwise. The culture is a bit zany. And there's pressure to become an instructor which requires spending more money. But primarily, classes are inconvenient. Do it on your own and you can just roll out of bed and straight onto the mat, and 30 mins later you're done and set up for the day.
    - mtalantikite 5y ago
deviation 5y ago
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
  - 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.
ogma 5y ago
Yoga isn't a replacement for squats. I don't know why you feel compelled to compare the two. Elite athletes use squats of different varieties to achieve maximal speed, strength, and explosiveness, something that you're not going to get from yoga as much as I also would recommend it.
gricardo99 5y ago
Funny how people become obsessed with specific movements, specific exercise styles, etc. In the posted video, the researchers study all kinds of exercises and environments, and the effects on the brain. Squats, because you’re going with and against gravity, had particular benefits on the brain because of the decreased/increased blood flow to the brain during each squat cycle. They were particularly interested in optimizing the physical adaptation from exercise.
robomartin 5y ago
You mentioned Rippetoe (Starting Strength). Did you leave it because you found flaws/issues with the program or you simply chose to switch to yoga. I am about to start lifting again after being away for a couple of years. Back then I was training at a Starting Strength certified gym. I also did a seminar with Mark. For me this was an eye opener. Up until I was introduced to his book I failed at anything having to do with lifting. I actually did yoga at a studio a couple of decades ago. I think they called it hot yoga or something like that. It was hard work. I definitely enjoyed it. I am puzzled about the potential combination of Starting Strength style training with a supplement of the right kind of yoga.
- jbm 5y ago
  People on the fitness Reddit have it out for Rip since they feel his beginner's program is not suitable for intermediate and advanced lifters. I used it for about 6 months and I followed a couple of other programs (5/3/1 was the longest at nearly an year and a half). The emphasis on squat / deadlift / press / bench has all paid off years later and the only time I really learn a new movement is when I'm doing an isolation exercise. I DO think the attitude Rip has towards movements like rows, Romanian deadlifts and machines (especially cable machines) was bad for my mindset, but I learned a lot by having my field of vision narrowed; I find a lot of the other criticisms of him to be irrelevant to his beginner-focused exercise program.
- justrudd 5y ago
  I’ll give you my 2 cents about Starting Strength. And please remember this is a sample size of n = 1. Other people (including yourself) will obviously have very different outcomes. TL;DR - starting strength got me to the strongest I’ve ever been. It got me stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m 45 now and started when I was 32. I went from 180ish pounds to 230ish pounds in 19 months. I went from squatting the bar (45 lbs) to squatting a bit over 500 (502.5 was my personal best). Deadlift went from 135lbs to 612lbs (I bought those half pound and 1 pound change plates to carry with me to the gym just so I could say I was always adding weight to the bar). So I think I was strong. I wasn’t competing in powerlifting strong (although I did compete. And in my age group I could usually at least place), but I was strong. I was also completely out of shape :) If you follow Starting Strength as written - the training and the diet - you will get strong, and unless you’re blessed with an amazing metabolism, you’ll get “fat”. At my strongest, I was obese according to my BMI. I couldn’t walk up 3 flights of stairs without getting winded. To the Starting Strength crowd (back then; maybe it’s changed), the only cardio you needed was enough lung capacity to maintain bracing for a set of 5. Anything more than that would “kill your gains”. So stick with Starting Strength? Absolutely if you’re getting back into it. Beginner gains are awesome. But don’t follow the program to a T. Do real cardio (not just more squats. not just high intensity. Do the slow and steady stuff as well). Do mobility work (yoga is good). Do corrective work (also known as pre-hab. I find Indian clubs and maces are phenomenal for shoulder health). And realize that if you talk to a true zealot of the Starting Strength world, they will tell you aren’t following the program and all the other stuff you’re doing is “killing your gains”.
taeric 5y ago
I'd wager that folks just get obsessed with what worked for them. Really, even more acutely, they become obsessed with what they are currently doing. I can't tout any of the claims I see online about exercise helping, well, anything. I do like my bike rides, though. And, the odds are stupid high that one of the first things you will learn about me, will include the type of ride I prefer.
- dspillett 5y ago
  > I'd wager that folks just get obsessed with what worked for them. Really, even more acutely, they become obsessed with what they are currently doing. I can buy that. Running is my big thing (also HEMA), which surprised many not least myself when I realised I _liked_ it a few years ago![†]. It helps me keep healthy in body, it helps me burn off nervous energy, sometimes it is social[‡], sometimes it helps me get away[*]. [†] after losing some weight I tried various gym things to get what was left into better shape, we have heart problems in the family line and I wanted to reduce my chance of “being next”, fell into a pattern of dynamic movements to warm up, row a bit, move some weights around, then treadmill to finish, and a friend (who also runs) encouraged me to try running off the mill. [‡] I find there is a certain camaraderie in trail events, and similarly at parkruns (a movement that has probably done significant good to overall fitness, in the UK at least) [*] a long weekend herfing myself around the Dales while training for an event earlier this year was the most relaxed I'd felt for a prolonged time in quite a while
- vkk8 5y ago
  Indeed. And I'd wager that what works on them is not even constant, but varies with time, experience, body composition, etc. If you start from zero, doing anything a little bit improves your body, but it's also very easy to overdo it and break your body. If you then switch the activity, your body is already much stronger and better prepared for a new activity and is not as likely to break. Maybe the lesson is that variation is the key? Do all sorts of physical activities and switch them occasionally?
helloiloveyou23 5y ago
> Never been to a class. While you can certainly do yoga at home I would highly recommend trying a class. In particular I would recommend Mysore style classes. This type of class isn't lead by a teacher that you have to follow along. Instead all students do yoga on their own and the teacher is dedicated to correcting and helping students. A good experienced teacher can make a lot of valuable corrections and can help you get into positions that you can't do alone (yet).
bamboozled 5y ago
Funny because I did yoga for years and I've never felt better since doing olympic weight lifting and other forms of strength training.
- emptyfile 5y ago
  Same. I find yoga and most stretching to be a waste of time. You can do mobility work with strength exercises. Nothing transformed my life more then serious strength training. Everything from sitting behind a desk to running uphill is a hundred times easier. I'm sure you can achieve the same strength with yoga, but it seems to me its very inefficient. You can do strength training 2-3 times a week for an hour and it just works.
  - stormdennis 5y ago
    I've no skin in the game but 30 mins a day of yoga and 2-3 hours a week of weights aren't hugely different.
    - andrepd 5y ago
      Well one builds muscle and the other not so much ;)
    - bamboozled 5y ago
      They have really different outcomes though. There's absolutely no way you can stress the nervous system and build muscle and bone density as efficiently as with lifting weights. Calisthenics, which is what Yoga is, body weight exercises, can never achieve the same results. You can come close in a lot of ways, one legged squats etc, but ultimately, you cannot work your back and your core as effectively as with a 1.5x body weight dead lift.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - andy_ppp 5y ago
jokethrowaway 5y ago
I started with beachbody as a teenager (a mix of weights, calisthenics, yoga) and it was fun and dandy. Soon enough I found myself progressing to gymnastic and yoga. I never really experienced particular benefits of yoga, even after years of doing it, but that's probably because I was never completely untrained as a teenager. It's basically mostly flexibility focused gymnastic with extra lore. Pilates is similar. Personally I just didn't get strong with yoga, albeit retaining some decent strength and I eventually transitioned to just gymnastic (focusing on rings in particular). I got pretty strong in terms of techniques I could do, but not in terms of amount of weight I could move. Then I got injured, spent 10 years doing random sport activity (circus training, climbing, weight lifting) and staying relatively weak. The only way I got stronger was when 3 factors aligned: - Progressive overload - Sleep - Not being stressed / depressed - Caloric surplus with high protein intake After I peaked at linear progression in terms of strength, periodization became a good way to squeeze some more strength and I'm still there (probably for life). Starting strength was admittedly the first that worked for me in order to get stronger, but I failed it a good 3 times before over 10 years (mainly because of diet / sleep / stress). In my experience it's hard to get progressive overload without weights or without a good calisthenics coach. Sleep and diet are also incredibly hard to get right because the rest of your life gets in the way. Claiming that yoga alone will make you strong depends on your definition of strength. If you have back pain (probably because of muscular weakness), probably any kind of full body exercise will fix that. Also, is someone doing handstand pushups at 70kg stronger or weaker than someone over head pressing 70kg at 90kg? That's a very personal choice. I'd say weight lifting is great to increase strength in specific movements, calisthenics is great for moving all around. Different kind of freedoms and equally important. I would recommend this kind of programming for someone looking to get stronger and then adapting it to whatever exercising style you like: https://youtu.be/1CM7wI3k7KI https://youtu.be/1CM7wI3k7KI
andrepd 5y ago
Well for what's worth I never felt as good as since I started strength training 3x a week. I'm stronger, daily activities are easier, and I look better.
NDizzle 5y ago
Yep, and I’m not doing real yoga. I’ve been doing DDP Yoga, yes the wrestler, for 3 years now. Same results as you. I also lift often and I’m almost ready to add jiu-jitsu to the mix. This winter I’ll be ready to begin.
XIVMagnus 5y ago
Sounds like you fixed your hip flexors, because thats been my issue lately. Besides having some back problems from sports + lifting, getting strength back in my hip flexors has been relieving my backpain the most. I kinda did the same thing with Mark Rippetoe's starting strength / guides on lifts. Which led me into powerlifting for maybe 1 year. Honestly its all great but I ultimately agree that yoga should be a fundamental for people. I've done MMA for years and moved into pure BJJ now, doing yoga and sports is a very underestimated benefit.
- randomopining 5y ago
  What are the best ways to fix hip flexors? I've always had bad hip flexor activation even while running pretty fast for 800m.
  - XIVMagnus 5y ago
    What's been working for me is a series of exercises and stretches. I think what's working is the actual exercise rather than the stretch. I'll use bands while performing leg lateral raises and also lifting my knee to my chest (with bands as well). This way I'm actually forced to use my hip flexor muscles. Funny enough from my experience tight hip flexors are usually weak hip flexors that caused other parts of your body to compensate, which then causes you pain. Stretch wise, I do the standard pigeon pose, piriformis stretch, and butterfly stretch.
throw1234651234 5y ago
I am a professional weight lifter. I gave up all my specific training to do yoga. 5 minutes of warrior 3 and a couple of reps of rocking off of knees in crane pose, and I am able to compete at a 615 deadlift for 10 without all the CNS fatigue of actually training for it. I also stopped running - the benefits of Yoga are sine parallela. It's truly an ancient art. No wonder Alexander never conquered them and Oppenheimer read the Bagavad Gita. *this post is a work of fiction. However, this is the level of magic the parent is ascribing to something that's not a bad general mobility routine. Taking a nap at the end of the session is nice too. Namaste.
01100011 5y ago
Devil is in the details. There are great exercises in "Yoga". There are terrible exercises as well (for certain body types and fitness goals). There are ways to do poses right, and dozens of ways of doing them wrong. Subtleties matter a lot. Decades of doing Yoga poses to help my restless legs and bad back left me in constant pain(except for some temporary relief from stretching). I finally stopped all that, did the "McGill big 3"(*) a few times a week, and at 46 I'm feeling better than I have in years. I have respect for Yoga. Friends have had great luck with it, but for me, my body and my goals it isn't a good fit. I also did the Rippetoe thing, and have a copy of Starting Strength if anyone wants it. Deadlifts were absolutely amazing for my lower back, until they weren't. I guess I could try again post-McGill, but I think strength training for me just wore out my joints while leaving me tired and required a lot more time than what I can accomplish with basic equipment at home(kudos to anyone who has a power rack at home though). * Along with biking, hiking and a light strength training program. I've done that for years as well though. The difference was stopping stretching beyond some brief, limited shoulder mobility work.*
sharadov 5y ago
I think each has its benefit and you need all three Cardio - Keep your heart health up and for endurance Weights - Strength training Yoga - A neurologist I was talking to mentioned yoga, because it builds balance, something that as you get older gets worse, especially in older people where most injuries are because of falls. Besides that I just like doing yoga after weights to stretch.

colechristensen 5y ago

One thing I think yoga does particularly better than many other activities is target really broad sets of muscles. I don’t do it much but after a few initial classes it was so strange for muscles i didn’t know existed to be sore.

deviation 5y ago
Stabilisers! People take them for granted. Typical strength training is usually lack-lustre in building these. This benefit is not unique to yoga, though.
- vkk8 5y ago
  Depends on how you do it, I guess. Squatting low weights or just body weight indeed doesn't involve stabilisers very much. But try squatting 2x your bodyweight on the bar and you find that it takes everything you've got to keep the body stable. (Note: don't actually try to squat 2x your bodyweight unless you have some years of experience in squatting and know what you are doing)
  - janekm 5y ago
    That's... kind of the point. Building your stabilisers with heavy weights only can be risky (especially if ego comes into play). Implementing accessory exercises to build stability / balance / flexibility alongside your heavy lifts is a great insurance policy for beginners. (whether Yoga is the greatest source of those is another topic, especially when considering the many different forms of Yoga many of which have a not very evidence based origin)
mmaunder 5y ago
Yes this is what I've found. In particular, I've found that it strengthens the smaller muscles, tendons and ligaments that often get injured. It has also realigned my body into a more balanced state. I know that last sentence sounds like some kind of zen BS, but what I mean is, my muscles are now developing in a balanced way, my spine is straight and I have symmetric strength.

songzme 5y ago

I want to try Yoga after seeing this. could I just find any youtube instructors and follow along, or is it important to find "the right ones"? How would you approach starting out (must be online, wife won't let me leave the house because of covid)?

timr 5y ago
There are a lot of different styles and intensity levels. The appropriate one for you is a combination of personal preference and your level of physical fitness. For an absolute beginner, where I have no idea what level of fitness you have or what injuries you may be working with, I would recommend Iyengar. It is relatively gentle, and emphasizes careful development. A lot of people like Vinyasa, which can range from slow and gentle to as aerobic as running. I like Ashtanga, which is about doing the same set of poses every time, but doing them correctly. I wouldn't recommend it for absolute beginners, however. Obviously, don't run out and do crazy stuff like headstands or intense backbends or balancing poses unless you have experience. But also be aware that even "normal" yoga can have positions that are risky for people when done incorrectly -- for example, men typically have tight hamstrings and hips, and compensate in forward folds by bending over from the lower back. This can be dangerous if you don't have a strong back (and it's never a good idea). It is helpful to have 1:1 instruction if you don't know the form. If you want someone who I know is a good instructor and willing to teach via video, please backchannel me and I can recommend.
- songzme 5y ago
  very helpful thank you.
chaboud 5y ago
You can just start out where lots of folks start out: Do the basics by following along with videos from established and accessible instructors (e.g. Rodney Yee, Seane Corn). These are folks from the DVD era that are still active. Pleasantly, Yoga is a relatively established practice with minimal churn/disruption to the state of the art. Yoga is great for core strength, getting rid of back soreness, and gently improving flexibility. You'll also learn about your own body and develop greater self awareness when moving. Just take care that, though the risk is lower, you can still injure yourself by overdoing it. Listen to your body along the way.

Existenceblinks 5y ago

I'm a little bit surprised that yoga beats swimming for you. I play whole lots of sport, never done yoga. I found swimming is the best for me. But I can see yoga is safer than swimming butterfly (but it builds muscle!), and tendon stretched more, and doesn't require a swimming pool! May be I should try yoga seriously

mmaunder 5y ago
I'm glad you posted. I used to absolutely LOVE swimming and I swore by it. I still do it from time to time - mostly in the sea now. I'm lucky enough to live on the beach. I got into triathlons and would come out of the water ahead of the pack and then get my ass handed to me on the cycle and run. :-) Swimming is the one thing that fixed chronic back pain for me which I acquired from rollerblading half pipe in my late teens and repeatedly falling on my ass in the transition from pretty high up. It trashed my lower back. Swimming fixed that - as long as I kept swimming. And the trouble is that I've moved around a lot and I've had periods of a year or more without a pool. And inevitably my back issues would come back. Also with swimming, if I tried to do anything else that required using my full posterior chain (like deadlifts) I'd injure myself. I was fit and pain free, but I couldn't really push it when doing heavy lifting work. Yoga, for me, has some major advantages over swimming. Firstly I can do it absolutely anywhere. I got this incredibly thin travel mat that you can stuff into a small backpack and I take that to hotels with me. As long as I can stand up straight and spread my arms wide, that's all the space I need. So I'm able to do it no matter where I'm living or traveling to. Secondly, it has massively improved my ability to lift heavy random stuff at awkward angles without getting injured, and with more strength than before. Nothing else has done that for me including lifting, swimming, etc. Since you sound interested, I'd like to offer a few more tips: Avoid classes. The social aspect of yoga can be a bit weird. You'll find people who think they breathe through their eyelids. Others that want to hug you a lot. There's the subtle pressure associated with the various biz models around classes. There is a hierarchy you'll discover. You'll also find that hot yoga is brilliant in it's business model because you can't do it at home - you have to go to a hot yoga class. Which is seriously limiting if you travel. I've mentioned the beachbody 3 week yoga retreat here which is what I use. But I'm sure there are a bunch of other apps and resources that are great, so find something that gets you from zero to yoga and then just keep doing a routine that works for you. I have two routines that I do using the beachbody app. One is 20 mins and one is 30 mins. The 20 is called "flow on the go" and it's super fast and flowy. The 30 minute routine starts off slower and is more meditative. Depends what mood I'm in or I'll just randomly pick on. I'd also recommend that you don't do yoga if you've been drinking heavily the night before. For some reason when I was starting out, I'd get injured doing that. Just a mild injury. I can only surmise that it's because my body was in an inflamed state from the hangover. THC/CBD the night before is totally fine and I find it actually makes yoga quite enjoyable the next morning. YMMV. I still mountain bike, stand up paddleboard, hike, occassionally do short runs while I'm hiking. But yoga makes all of that far more enjoyable, has reduced my injury rate and improved my balance, flexibility and strength. Don't get sucked into the whole zen, mindfulness, meditation circle, speaking slowly in droning tones bull. Yoga is amazing. It's the cults and cultists that make it expensive, inconvenient, weird and just kind of awful. With yoga you get meditation free. As long as you're breathing and focusing on the breath while doing the movements, doing a flow or holding a pose, you're already meditating. The rest is just window dressing. Best of luck.

deleted 5y ago

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londgine 5y ago

there are 2 types of yoga that I found. one focusing on strength and flexibility, like you talked about. and one that feels like meditation, with a pagan ritual to the sun. when looking for a yoga program, how can I specify the former?

sjf 5y ago
Look for a yoga class with power, core, ashtanga or vinyasa in the name. Avoid hatha.
- blueprint 5y ago
  bikram aka hot 26 is the sh too
  - monetus 5y ago
    The movie about the creator of that was pretty disturbing - I read that his former lawyer now owns the brand
    - blueprint 5y ago
      yeah but if you watched that movie you saw he carbon copied the series from his Indian master and others referred to it as a 'magical' sequence
- mmaunder 5y ago
  I'd actually encourage everyone here to avoid classes. There has been quite a bit of controversy around instructors exploiting students for money or otherwise. The culture is a bit zany. And there's pressure to become an instructor which requires spending more money. But primarily, classes are inconvenient. Do it on your own and you can just roll out of bed and straight onto the mat, and 30 mins later you're done and set up for the day.
  - mtalantikite 5y ago

deviation 5y ago

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
- 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.

ogma 5y ago

Yoga isn't a replacement for squats. I don't know why you feel compelled to compare the two. Elite athletes use squats of different varieties to achieve maximal speed, strength, and explosiveness, something that you're not going to get from yoga as much as I also would recommend it.

gricardo99 5y ago

Funny how people become obsessed with specific movements, specific exercise styles, etc. In the posted video, the researchers study all kinds of exercises and environments, and the effects on the brain. Squats, because you’re going with and against gravity, had particular benefits on the brain because of the decreased/increased blood flow to the brain during each squat cycle. They were particularly interested in optimizing the physical adaptation from exercise.

robomartin 5y ago

You mentioned Rippetoe (Starting Strength). Did you leave it because you found flaws/issues with the program or you simply chose to switch to yoga. I am about to start lifting again after being away for a couple of years. Back then I was training at a Starting Strength certified gym. I also did a seminar with Mark. For me this was an eye opener. Up until I was introduced to his book I failed at anything having to do with lifting. I actually did yoga at a studio a couple of decades ago. I think they called it hot yoga or something like that. It was hard work. I definitely enjoyed it. I am puzzled about the potential combination of Starting Strength style training with a supplement of the right kind of yoga.

jbm 5y ago
People on the fitness Reddit have it out for Rip since they feel his beginner's program is not suitable for intermediate and advanced lifters. I used it for about 6 months and I followed a couple of other programs (5/3/1 was the longest at nearly an year and a half). The emphasis on squat / deadlift / press / bench has all paid off years later and the only time I really learn a new movement is when I'm doing an isolation exercise. I DO think the attitude Rip has towards movements like rows, Romanian deadlifts and machines (especially cable machines) was bad for my mindset, but I learned a lot by having my field of vision narrowed; I find a lot of the other criticisms of him to be irrelevant to his beginner-focused exercise program.
justrudd 5y ago
I’ll give you my 2 cents about Starting Strength. And please remember this is a sample size of n = 1. Other people (including yourself) will obviously have very different outcomes. TL;DR - starting strength got me to the strongest I’ve ever been. It got me stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m 45 now and started when I was 32. I went from 180ish pounds to 230ish pounds in 19 months. I went from squatting the bar (45 lbs) to squatting a bit over 500 (502.5 was my personal best). Deadlift went from 135lbs to 612lbs (I bought those half pound and 1 pound change plates to carry with me to the gym just so I could say I was always adding weight to the bar). So I think I was strong. I wasn’t competing in powerlifting strong (although I did compete. And in my age group I could usually at least place), but I was strong. I was also completely out of shape :) If you follow Starting Strength as written - the training and the diet - you will get strong, and unless you’re blessed with an amazing metabolism, you’ll get “fat”. At my strongest, I was obese according to my BMI. I couldn’t walk up 3 flights of stairs without getting winded. To the Starting Strength crowd (back then; maybe it’s changed), the only cardio you needed was enough lung capacity to maintain bracing for a set of 5. Anything more than that would “kill your gains”. So stick with Starting Strength? Absolutely if you’re getting back into it. Beginner gains are awesome. But don’t follow the program to a T. Do real cardio (not just more squats. not just high intensity. Do the slow and steady stuff as well). Do mobility work (yoga is good). Do corrective work (also known as pre-hab. I find Indian clubs and maces are phenomenal for shoulder health). And realize that if you talk to a true zealot of the Starting Strength world, they will tell you aren’t following the program and all the other stuff you’re doing is “killing your gains”.

taeric 5y ago

I'd wager that folks just get obsessed with what worked for them. Really, even more acutely, they become obsessed with what they are currently doing. I can't tout any of the claims I see online about exercise helping, well, anything. I do like my bike rides, though. And, the odds are stupid high that one of the first things you will learn about me, will include the type of ride I prefer.

dspillett 5y ago
> I'd wager that folks just get obsessed with what worked for them. Really, even more acutely, they become obsessed with what they are currently doing. I can buy that. Running is my big thing (also HEMA), which surprised many not least myself when I realised I _liked_ it a few years ago![†]. It helps me keep healthy in body, it helps me burn off nervous energy, sometimes it is social[‡], sometimes it helps me get away[*]. [†] after losing some weight I tried various gym things to get what was left into better shape, we have heart problems in the family line and I wanted to reduce my chance of “being next”, fell into a pattern of dynamic movements to warm up, row a bit, move some weights around, then treadmill to finish, and a friend (who also runs) encouraged me to try running off the mill. [‡] I find there is a certain camaraderie in trail events, and similarly at parkruns (a movement that has probably done significant good to overall fitness, in the UK at least) [*] a long weekend herfing myself around the Dales while training for an event earlier this year was the most relaxed I'd felt for a prolonged time in quite a while
vkk8 5y ago
Indeed. And I'd wager that what works on them is not even constant, but varies with time, experience, body composition, etc. If you start from zero, doing anything a little bit improves your body, but it's also very easy to overdo it and break your body. If you then switch the activity, your body is already much stronger and better prepared for a new activity and is not as likely to break. Maybe the lesson is that variation is the key? Do all sorts of physical activities and switch them occasionally?

helloiloveyou23 5y ago

> Never been to a class. While you can certainly do yoga at home I would highly recommend trying a class. In particular I would recommend Mysore style classes. This type of class isn't lead by a teacher that you have to follow along. Instead all students do yoga on their own and the teacher is dedicated to correcting and helping students. A good experienced teacher can make a lot of valuable corrections and can help you get into positions that you can't do alone (yet).

bamboozled 5y ago

Funny because I did yoga for years and I've never felt better since doing olympic weight lifting and other forms of strength training.

emptyfile 5y ago
Same. I find yoga and most stretching to be a waste of time. You can do mobility work with strength exercises. Nothing transformed my life more then serious strength training. Everything from sitting behind a desk to running uphill is a hundred times easier. I'm sure you can achieve the same strength with yoga, but it seems to me its very inefficient. You can do strength training 2-3 times a week for an hour and it just works.
- stormdennis 5y ago
  I've no skin in the game but 30 mins a day of yoga and 2-3 hours a week of weights aren't hugely different.
  - andrepd 5y ago
    Well one builds muscle and the other not so much ;)
  - bamboozled 5y ago
    They have really different outcomes though. There's absolutely no way you can stress the nervous system and build muscle and bone density as efficiently as with lifting weights. Calisthenics, which is what Yoga is, body weight exercises, can never achieve the same results. You can come close in a lot of ways, one legged squats etc, but ultimately, you cannot work your back and your core as effectively as with a 1.5x body weight dead lift.
    - deleted 5y ago
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    - andy_ppp 5y ago

jokethrowaway 5y ago

I started with beachbody as a teenager (a mix of weights, calisthenics, yoga) and it was fun and dandy. Soon enough I found myself progressing to gymnastic and yoga. I never really experienced particular benefits of yoga, even after years of doing it, but that's probably because I was never completely untrained as a teenager. It's basically mostly flexibility focused gymnastic with extra lore. Pilates is similar. Personally I just didn't get strong with yoga, albeit retaining some decent strength and I eventually transitioned to just gymnastic (focusing on rings in particular). I got pretty strong in terms of techniques I could do, but not in terms of amount of weight I could move. Then I got injured, spent 10 years doing random sport activity (circus training, climbing, weight lifting) and staying relatively weak. The only way I got stronger was when 3 factors aligned: - Progressive overload - Sleep - Not being stressed / depressed - Caloric surplus with high protein intake After I peaked at linear progression in terms of strength, periodization became a good way to squeeze some more strength and I'm still there (probably for life). Starting strength was admittedly the first that worked for me in order to get stronger, but I failed it a good 3 times before over 10 years (mainly because of diet / sleep / stress). In my experience it's hard to get progressive overload without weights or without a good calisthenics coach. Sleep and diet are also incredibly hard to get right because the rest of your life gets in the way. Claiming that yoga alone will make you strong depends on your definition of strength. If you have back pain (probably because of muscular weakness), probably any kind of full body exercise will fix that. Also, is someone doing handstand pushups at 70kg stronger or weaker than someone over head pressing 70kg at 90kg? That's a very personal choice. I'd say weight lifting is great to increase strength in specific movements, calisthenics is great for moving all around. Different kind of freedoms and equally important. I would recommend this kind of programming for someone looking to get stronger and then adapting it to whatever exercising style you like: https://youtu.be/1CM7wI3k7KI https://youtu.be/1CM7wI3k7KI

andrepd 5y ago

Well for what's worth I never felt as good as since I started strength training 3x a week. I'm stronger, daily activities are easier, and I look better.

NDizzle 5y ago

Yep, and I’m not doing real yoga. I’ve been doing DDP Yoga, yes the wrestler, for 3 years now. Same results as you. I also lift often and I’m almost ready to add jiu-jitsu to the mix. This winter I’ll be ready to begin.

XIVMagnus 5y ago

Sounds like you fixed your hip flexors, because thats been my issue lately. Besides having some back problems from sports + lifting, getting strength back in my hip flexors has been relieving my backpain the most. I kinda did the same thing with Mark Rippetoe's starting strength / guides on lifts. Which led me into powerlifting for maybe 1 year. Honestly its all great but I ultimately agree that yoga should be a fundamental for people. I've done MMA for years and moved into pure BJJ now, doing yoga and sports is a very underestimated benefit.

randomopining 5y ago
What are the best ways to fix hip flexors? I've always had bad hip flexor activation even while running pretty fast for 800m.
- XIVMagnus 5y ago
  What's been working for me is a series of exercises and stretches. I think what's working is the actual exercise rather than the stretch. I'll use bands while performing leg lateral raises and also lifting my knee to my chest (with bands as well). This way I'm actually forced to use my hip flexor muscles. Funny enough from my experience tight hip flexors are usually weak hip flexors that caused other parts of your body to compensate, which then causes you pain. Stretch wise, I do the standard pigeon pose, piriformis stretch, and butterfly stretch.

throw1234651234 5y ago

I am a professional weight lifter. I gave up all my specific training to do yoga. 5 minutes of warrior 3 and a couple of reps of rocking off of knees in crane pose, and I am able to compete at a 615 deadlift for 10 without all the CNS fatigue of actually training for it. I also stopped running - the benefits of Yoga are sine parallela. It's truly an ancient art. No wonder Alexander never conquered them and Oppenheimer read the Bagavad Gita. *this post is a work of fiction. However, this is the level of magic the parent is ascribing to something that's not a bad general mobility routine. Taking a nap at the end of the session is nice too. Namaste.

01100011 5y ago

Devil is in the details. There are great exercises in "Yoga". There are terrible exercises as well (for certain body types and fitness goals). There are ways to do poses right, and dozens of ways of doing them wrong. Subtleties matter a lot. Decades of doing Yoga poses to help my restless legs and bad back left me in constant pain(except for some temporary relief from stretching). I finally stopped all that, did the "McGill big 3"(*) a few times a week, and at 46 I'm feeling better than I have in years. I have respect for Yoga. Friends have had great luck with it, but for me, my body and my goals it isn't a good fit. I also did the Rippetoe thing, and have a copy of Starting Strength if anyone wants it. Deadlifts were absolutely amazing for my lower back, until they weren't. I guess I could try again post-McGill, but I think strength training for me just wore out my joints while leaving me tired and required a lot more time than what I can accomplish with basic equipment at home(kudos to anyone who has a power rack at home though). * Along with biking, hiking and a light strength training program. I've done that for years as well though. The difference was stopping stretching beyond some brief, limited shoulder mobility work.*

sharadov 5y ago

I think each has its benefit and you need all three Cardio - Keep your heart health up and for endurance Weights - Strength training Yoga - A neurologist I was talking to mentioned yoga, because it builds balance, something that as you get older gets worse, especially in older people where most injuries are because of falls. Besides that I just like doing yoga after weights to stretch.