Calling All Yoga Lovers, practicioners and newbies!

Nat_Attack26

At the beginning of the year, I bought the 'Slim Calm Sexy' Diet & Yoga package from Women's Health Magazine. For months, the books and DVD just sat around in my room. Ya see, I learned to meditate 3 years ago and often did it, never realizing how benifitcial Yoga could be along with it. (I suppose I was a bit skeptical. Even though I've lived a very spiritual & metaphysical outlook for years.) Anyways- about 2 1/2 weeks ago, I decided to pop in the DVD & do the fat burning sun salutations. It didn't go so well at first. I became impatient & began to question if a thick girl like me could even be built to do Yoga. Plus, it was a huge change of routine for me. (I've always been a weight lifter.) But even though I felt frustrated, I decided to just start with the books instead. Familiarize myself with moves and actually READ what Yoga is all about while trying to overcome my 'It's just how all the skinny girls get flexible" outlook.

I studied for days, just putting together routines on my own. Researcing routines for different things. The coolest thing about my books though was that there were plenty of pre-made routines for many different issues I would face DAILY. Stress, Low-metabolism, anxiety. Even insomnia. (My BIGGEST issue of all was lack of restful sleep.)

In these past 2 1/2 weeks, I've seen a great & magnificent change in myself. In so many different aspects. I sleep good. I'm becoming more and more flexible. My stress levels are no longer peak high. My everyday mood is pleasant. I'm not snappy or overwhelmed at my significant other when we have those little bickering disagreements. The greatest thing thus far though, my passion for life & my outlook has become more positive than I've ever strived for. I'm watching what I eat without having to push myself to do so. And all in all, I feel Yoga is another step for me towards a healthier and happier life.

I still love my weight lifting though! I've taken time away from my usual 'hit the gym hard' routines, to be able to focus on exactly what Yoga could do for me. I'm lost inches in my thighs, arms and waist since I've started. And I do at least an hour routine once every single day. Sometimes twice.

What I'm most interested to see though is how it's going to coinside with my usual workout routine at the gym. I'm wondering if I can factor together lifting weights AND Yoga.
Has anyone ever done this?

Also, I wonder if I keep up with just Yoga.. is it possible to drop pounds? And gain more strength and muscle as it is with regular cardio and weights?

I want and would love to hear any success stories, thoughts, opinions and experiences with Yoga!

Thanks yall!

cafeaulait7

Yoga is wonderful, and you can get quite fit. There are different styles to make it faster or more powerful, etc. What I love about it is that it does seem to have a neurological component, where it works on the mind and mood more than I expected when I started.

As far as strength goes, you can probably definitely keep on building it with just yoga, but you might have to get into the more advanced poses. There are some amazing strength feats in yoga; look up some of these guys doing the poses to their fullest!

I do lift weights and do yoga, though. I lift upper body and lower body twice a week each. I do my long, gentle yoga on other days. I do certain yoga moves for strength added in with my split. An easy example to picture would be planks on upper body training days.

I finish the lifting session with stretching from yoga (and dance). An example there is pigeon with the intense quad stretch after lifting for quads and hip flexors. I think it's a great cool down, too.

Good luck!

Nat_Attack26

Yoga is wonderful, and you can get quite fit. There are different styles to make it faster or more powerful, etc. What I love about it is that it does seem to have a neurological component, where it works on the mind and mood more than I expected when I started.

As far as strength goes, you can probably definitely keep on building it with just yoga, but you might have to get into the more advanced poses. There are some amazing strength feats in yoga; look up some of these guys doing the poses to their fullest!

I do lift weights and do yoga, though. I lift upper body and lower body twice a week each. I do my long, gentle yoga on other days. I do certain yoga moves for strength added in with my split. An easy example to picture would be planks on upper body training days.

I finish the lifting session with stretching from yoga (and dance). An example there is pigeon with the intense quad stretch after lifting for quads and hip flexors. I think it's a great cool down, too.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for the advice! I'm really looking forward to lifting with it now. I do dance also And the pigeon pose is one of my favorite moves! How long have you been a yogie?

cafeaulait7

Oh my gosh, probably 15 years by now, lol. But I don't do most of the balance poses that impress me so much. I got a nerve disease that totally screwed up my balance (it's gotten much better) and they are just too hard! But I do tree. And cosmic dancer, etc I love me some tree!

The first thing some of my new yogi friends ask me about is about how's my crow, usually! I'm like.... um, my tree's OK

Naener

I have never noticed any weight loss from yoga alone, bare in mind that i only have experience with Hatha Yoga... im sure some of the more intensive forms like Bikram would kick anyones behind into gear....

regardless of the weightloss, yoga is AMAZING for over all health and wellness. I dont know of anything else that gets rid of my aches, pains and stress!

nurse_pauline

I have been practicing yoga for 10+ yrs. I love it!!! I also take combat classes at my gym, lift heavy wgts three times a wk,( currently in the middle of new rules of lifting for life) and would run 3-4 times a week. I haven't found that yoga has hindered my lifts in anyway. Quite the opposite. My balance is so much better and my focus is great now. Yoga keeps me grounded, and I couldn't function well without it. I am sure you can lose by dialing in your diet. I also think you could build some muscle, body weight exercises are the best!!! You would, of course, need to eat enough protein to build that muscle. I feel that there is a place is yoga in anyone fitness routine that wants to practice. Listen to your body and what you need/can handle. Your body will let you know if it is too much!!

yoginimary

There's a yoga group on mfp open to all:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1484-generic-yoga-group

Personally, I don't lift weights. Never got into it. But if you like it, you should continue.

I don't think you need to do advanced poses to build strength. Just hold whatever poses you can longer. For example, just lift your arms in the air - and see how long you can hold that. Since you meditate as well: notice if your brain or your arms get tired first.

lookgreatfast

I did bikram yoga 11 yrs ago and felt the best in my life...however now I don't have access to that. What can I start for weight loss, sleep, relaxation, stress reduction?

GoBigDaddy822

I have never tried that but I always do my sunday morning yoga! I love it

kanuckkim74

I love yoga of all kinds and do it as often as I can. I have seen a difference in my flexibility, balance and in my overall body appearance. Bob Harper's Yoga for the Warrior is awesome for a cardio style workout as well.

Hearts_2015

bump to learn more always!:flowerforyou:

guidothecat

I only do hatha yoga but I find that it helps me ALOT with flexibility and the mindfulness. The guys at work notice (with my mood) if I don't get my daily yoga in. :laugh: And as I have gotten older, it helps keeps me limber :blushing:

And I like tree, one of the more restful/mind balancing poses for me (I am not up to crow due to the fibromyalgia) Some poses just do not work for me.

I think it is a great addition to any fitness routine. It really helps with the stress level and sleeping for me. Gets the kinks and stress out of my back/shoulders, where most of us hold on to it?

I have been doing hatha yoga for about 5 years now. It seems to work for me. I am not a weight lifter, probably will never be due to my medical stuff, but yoga can build some muscles IMO (probably not for the OP since you already lift?) Some moves are quite challenging, even though they look easy. I have not noticed any weight reduction with the hatha yoga, but there are other more physical challenging forms out there.

odonogc

I lost all my weight just doing yoga, but I didn't have a ton to lose.

I don't have big muscles, but I'm pretty well defined. It takes a lot of strength to hold side plank, plank, backbends, etc.

Yoga gives me everything I need.

yogicarl

Hello Natasha and welcome to Yoga!

I have tried a wide variety of things including rock climbing, heavy weight lifting, dancing, tai chi, swimming etc. and looking back, the one thing that has always been there whether alongside or the one thing I did when everything else fell away, has been yoga. The one thing that I always come back to.

You wonder if yoga will help you to lose weight and maintain strength and my answer has often got me into deep water on other threads. I would ask people to at least respect my views before storming in and ruining what is becoming a really useful and supportive thread here.

My view is tempered by my question, "strength for what?" If it's to keep lifting heavier and heavier weights to break your own personal best, or someone else's, then no - yoga is not sufficient to build that kind of strength, but that is focussing down on one aspect of fitness. Yoga will help to maintain the strength you already have and build an impressive amount of strength as you build the ability to stay focussed in the postures and progress to harder more intense postures and sequences.

Will it help you lose fat? Possibly; most likely not, unless you are eating at a calorie deficit and everything that goes with healthy weight loss. What yoga has done - for me - has been to remind me that I am what I put into my body. If I fill it with junk, I feel full of junk. If I respect myself with food, I gain self respect. So yes, yoga can help you to lose weight as it can help you to gain more self esteem and to make right choices.

I agree with you that yoga helps you to sleep much better, which is essential to any fitness ambition whether it be to get stronger, lose weight, build stamina etc.

If you still love your weightlifting I would say - carry on lifting weights. Weightlifting in good form will build the raw strength which will help you hold those demanding yoga poses for longer while you find ways to fine tune your yoga so it is more efficient and uses less brute strength to perform the same task. In the other direction, yoga will enhance the sense of balance, efficiency of breath and power and help to concentrate more of the central nervous system to enlist more muscle fibres as you practise your lifts. I think it is widely accepted that an untrained body uses a much smaller percentage of muscle fibres when performing a lift or strong pose because they are simply not being "fired up" by the central nervous system. The isometrics and energetics in yoga will help with this and you will see an increase in strength without having to build much in muscle mass because you are simply tapping more potential strength that was there all along; you (we all) are stronger than we imagine.

Your quote: "In these past 2 1/2 weeks, I've seen a great & magnificent change in myself. In so many different aspects. I sleep good. I'm becoming more and more flexible. My stress levels are no longer peak high. My everyday mood is pleasant. I'm not snappy or overwhelmed at my significant other when we have those little bickering disagreements. The greatest thing thus far though, my passion for life & my outlook has become more positive than I've ever strived for. I'm watching what I eat without having to push myself to do so. And all in all, I feel Yoga is another step for me towards a healthier and happier life." I left this in because, after all my waffling, your words here are reasons enough to do yoga if there were no other reasons.

Your quote: "What I'm most interested to see though is how it's going to coinside with my usual workout routine at the gym. I'm wondering if I can factor together lifting weights AND Yoga. Has anyone ever done this?

In answer to the above quote, I have factored heavy weight lifting and yoga together in the past, using yoga as a way to stretch and relax muscles after a lifting session, but what happened was as I became more and more drawn into yoga and the yoga took more of my time and energy, I was becoming less focussed and had less energy for both and I had to make a decision. I chose yoga. If you were to focus your energies on lifting and use yoga as a way to relax and recover, that would work and for all the reasons you gave above. What I do now is a combination of bodyweight exercises: chin-ups, inverted rowing, and kettlebell sessions - because I feel that yoga lacks enough stimulation for back and bicep strength (until you get into the really advanced stuff maybe) - and because callisthenics and yoga feel to me to be better related and easier to bring together into one session.

I have enjoyed lifting heavy but there came a crunch time for me where I had to go down one or other route and I am so glad I chose yoga for all the reasons I have posted here and more I haven't gone into and for all the reasons you mentioned in your original post.

Namaste,
Carl

CollieFit

Have practiced Ashtanga Vinyasa for neigh on 20+ years (with some breaks here or there). Recently discovered Bikram yoga which I enjoy. Have also dipped into other forms over the years, some Iyengar and I spent a month in a Shivananda Ashram in India.

IMHO proper yoga is not well learned without a decent instructor outside of a group setting by just watching a DVD. It's ok but it's not ideal as you get no feedback on your asanas and what is the point of holding the postures wrong or not getting your breathing right?

I've had years of doing nothing other than yoga, I've also combined it with swimming, cycling, running, weight lifting etc. It just depends on what your priorities are.

maryjaquiss

Not sure I can help with your questions, but wanted to share the love for yoga I have just started practising Ashtanga yoga - I have tried it on and off in the past and loved it, but always felt that I "should" be doing something else, at the gym, running, whatever. I still run but I do just love the feeling I get from yoga, when you just push that stretch a little bit further than last time or really find an asana that works for you! This time round, I'm going to do what I love (running, riding and yoga) and stick to it rather than mess around with what other people tell me to do :happy:

pkw58

I really enjoy all the standing poses of yoga - I have had classes and utilized the Wii Fit Yoga. I do Sun Salutations to start my day and then do Barre3, which incorporates yoga. I do a lot of walking, some running.

I enjoy classes, but just don't have time for them at this stage of my consulting career and music ministry and family needs. I so see yoga as a lifetime part of my fitness routine (just like walking) and as time frees up, I will add more.

Nat_Attack26

These are all really great replies. Thanks everyone. It's so awesome to hear how positive Yoga has been for others lives! It makes me all the more excited to get more and more into it.

I've considered taking some bikram classes and ashtanga vinyasa as well! I've actually done some looking around locally and the classes are so inexpensive! I just have to find the right time to schedule a class or two in a week along with my home routines.

Everyday I look forward to my down time to be able to pratice some poses and focus on my breathing. I feel one of the most coolest and least expected benefit I've also noticed would be the fact it's helped with my asthma. I was a smoker for nearly 10 years off and on. Which I know was a terrible habit for being asthmatic. I finally quit cold turkey over a month ago. Since experiencing Yoga, I've noticed my breathing is better than what it was after I quit cigarettes.


THANKS AGAIN!

sterlingwolf

I have been practicing yoga off and on for nearly 15 years. I love the inner peace I find during and after a routine. It's great for toning muscles and easing stress/anxiety. So glad there are so many other practitioners out here!

AppleBottomYogi

I'm a new yogi but I am SO hooked!

It has made a remarkable change in my life and outlook as well.
I love hearing stories like yours OP because it is confirmation for me that the positive changes I am seeing in myself anf my life aren't just in my mind but is actually from my change in lifestyle and I totally credit yoga for that.

I'm actually looking for a 'home' studio and a teacher I can study under.
One day if I sty as dedicated as I am now I'd love to look into going to Yoga Teacher school to get even deeper into this beaitiful practice.

One day I may teach I love it so much!

Best of luck to you all in your journey's!

mdeyhle

can someone help me out? i wonder how to add yoga to my exercises, since my fitbit flex can't really track it. i do hot power/vinyasa yoga, and it is darn strenuous. how do those of you that also practice this form of yoga add it to your exercises here on my fitness pal? thanks!