A couple of weekends ago I was in Barcelona and went to a sunrise Yoga class on the beach. It was great fun, with the sun shining and the sea calmly lapping upon the pier. I enjoyed the session and will go back when I am next in Barcelona.
While I have always loved stretching, I never really got into yoga classes. For a short while I was doing one on one sessions with Angus who ran Battersea Yoga and then joined in his classes. Many of my clients do yoga of course and I can see both the upside of it and the downside.
The Pros of Yoga
As I talk about each week, most people barely do any exercise, men rarely stretch (while women do less resistance training). So, any modality that gets someone doing something they need to be doing is great.
Yoga really works on balance, I have written previously about how the ability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds goes from 95% to 40% as people age from 55 to 70 years, and this is correlated with overall life expectancy. There is so much one legged work in yoga it will be impossible to not make improvements.
Yoga has a nice enough strength component, you may not win a bodybuilding competition doing Yoga but there is still a fair bit of strength required for holding your body weight and the postures. It works the toe muscles nicely which is important in balance and general ankle health.
There is a good amount of focus on breathing patterns which is helpful for most people who breathe too quickly, especially when they are using a more stressed based rhythm. Focusing on, and improving this is really beneficial and most yoga classes will target this to some degree.
In a world of stress and chaos then the relaxation that yoga can bring is very powerful and easily can justify the time and effort you put into it.
The Downside To Yoga
Much of the downside to yoga is from doing it in a typical class over the actual practice of Yoga. A class makes it affordable and accessible to many people, but it comes at the cost of personalisation. A one on one Yoga session would get around many of these issues below.
Classes overly focus on flexion exercises, which is how we spend our entire lives. Think about it, you sit down to watch TV, to drive your car, eat dinner, and most people sit at work. You probably sleep slightly curled up too, so most people are spending 20+ hours a day curled up to some degree (in flexion). The average Yoga class focuses heavily on hamstring, toe touch, downward dogs which are all further flexion exercise. A smaller percentage of the sessions is spent in extension movements such as prone cobra, or my fave, the Sphynx.
Nothing has done more for belly breathing than yoga but sadly this has come at the expense of 3D breathing. The idea of breathing from your belly as commonly taught in yoga, is to allow the diaphragm muscle to come downwards, therefore expanding our rib cage and making using all of the lungs. For this to happen though, your rib cage must be loose enough to expand in all directions, which few of us are able to access. I showed you an exercise to expand your rib cage a couple of months ago.
Every class suffers from the problem of how to progress a person longer term, what level do you set for the participants, and how do they get better. Every class is set to a certain level and eventually people will plateau. To improve certain postures, or your breathing patterns, you will need to do a specific practice or exercise that your body needs, this is just not practical to implement within a group, especially a larger group. This debate links into a little about why you are doing it, if it is to clear your mind then this does not apply, but if it is to improve movement function or reduce injuries then it does need to be progressed.
I used to train a few members of an Indian family, while I was training the daughters, the grandmother would be doing yoga on her own, including the yoga breathing exercises. She did so many different types of breathing, from one nostril only to quick inhales. This was so much different to the typical class where you only see a focus upon ‘taking deep breaths’. As a student of Butekyo breathing, where we focus on taking in less air, this is often the worst thing to tell people to do.
Yoga is good for sorting out some injuries, but it also can cause them, this is not unexpected where people turn up already battered and then get competitive and stretch their muscles too far. It is hard enough working one on one and stopping people hurting themselves, so any class runs into these problems. If cross fit was only taught one on one, with a low ego approach, I’d bet the injury rate would be drastically lower. However, yoga can worsen some pains, this is especially true if your pains are worsened by a specific movement or general flexion based movements. One of the problems of lesser used extension based movements, is they are much easier to hurt yourself doing them.
What Does This Mean For You?
The few downsides of Yoga can fairly easily be worked around, one on one or smaller group work will solve much of these. The lack of extension work you can easily add in around your class, likewise, you can do different breathing practices or 3D breathing mechanics work quickly on your own.
I will be going again when I’m next in Barcelona, check out the Sunrise Yoga – Barcelona here>>, but while in London, I will stick to my stretching programme to keep me injury free ahead of my upcoming Hyrox events.
Photos – Me enjoying the Bhodi’s Yoga class on the beach with Capo the dog, the pairs yoga was great fun.
Need Support Getting In Shape?
Changing your body on your own without support or an effective system usually ends in failure sadly. To avoid this outcome you can become one of my coaching clients either online or in person. I provide Holistic, Healthy & Sustainable Body Transformations. Contact me to discuss your goals further or see below for more details and the options available to you based on your location / preferences:
Worldwide (Online) –
For transformations, coaching and support wherever you are in the world read more here>>>>
London (Battersea) – If looking for Personal Training Battersea please contact me. I am available for sessions in homes, private gyms or Personal Training Battersea Park. To see my locations please visit my Battersea Personal Trainer page>>
London (Oval / Kennington) – For Personal Training in Oval & Kennington please contact me. I am available for sessions in homes, private gyms or parks.
**************
Read My Book – The Grand Unified Theory of Weight Loss – My latest book is available in print, kindle/ebook and audio formats. You can read more about it and see where it is available here>>>
Follow Me – You can get more great advice, tips, hacks and more by following me on one of my social media channels. Follow Me>>>
Instagram>> You Tube>> Facebook>> Twitter>> Tik Tok>> My Weekly Newsletter>>
**************