Hard Yoga = Circuit training?

modernfemme

Okay, so here is my issue. And I thank everyone in advance for reading this and offering some light on the subject.

My main workouts are brisk walks and yoga.

Here is where it gets interesting. I do a million different types of yoga. And by million I mean 4 main ones.

One is of course Hatha, no problem there.

The second is kundalini yoga with the breath of fire, which I consider to be power yoga as far as calculating my calories go.

The third is kundalini yoga, but dancing and no-impact aerobics. If I work out for 30 minutes, I tend to split it into 15 power yoga, 15 low impact aerobics for the sake of trying to calculate accurate calories burned.

And last but not least, I do this circuit training type of "fat free" yoga which includes a ton of intense, difficult poses using the breath of fire, strengthening your core, stomach, working out your thighs, etc. All target specific parts of your body. My best guess for this is Circuit training, general, but is 20 minutes of that kind of yoga really the same as 20 minutes of circuit training? My heart rate is up for sure and it's such a struggle for my muscles to hold those kind of positions but I almost feel like I don't deserve the actual 20 minutes of circuit training. (I know, weird right?) So if I do 20 minutes of yoga, I say I did 15 minutes of circuit training. Am I even close?

Ahhhh!! Any ideas? Is there any device out there that could tell me how many calories I burn doing insane exercises like these? I enjoy them so much but I definitely want to be sure I'm somewhere in the ball park, as I definitely eat my exercise calories.

Thanks to all who got through that

binary_jester

Wow...good question. I don't know if a HRM would be effective. All I know is when I did P90X yoga...it kicked my *kitten*. I kept thinking, "This is frigging yoga." I was sore the next day in places I didn't know I had muscles.

sjd2010

You need to get an HRM (heart rate monitor). I have a Garmen 305 and I love it and I wear it during my yoga. Do your research before buying one though. Good luck.:flowerforyou:

roylawrence87

Im with binary_jester on that one. Sorry.

Azdak

There is no device that is going to give you an accurate count for these activities, so I would not make any big investment in an HRM--at least not for these exercises.

The exercises fall into a "gray area" in terms of physiologic classification--they are not specifically strength, nor flexibility, nor aerobic, but might contain elements of all three.

Part of me says don't count it at all, since the direct calorie burn is probably modest at best-- and in this case "eating your exercise calories" is not all that important. However, if it comprises a significant portion of your workout routine, that might not be the best choice.

I would multiply your body weight (in kg) by 3 and multiply that by the fraction of an hour you spend working out at those exercises. That should be enough to account somewhat for the activity without overdoing it.

modernfemme

thanks so much for everyone's helpful responses!