A confession to the MFP Police

Confession: I secretly believe that daily yoga is sufficient to maintain muscle mass and actually increase strength instead of weightlifting.

There - I said it :happy:

I won't disagree with you that you could probably maintain some base level of strength, or possibly improve strength depending on your bodyweight. Same is true with any bodyweight excericise. However, if strength development and/or hypertrophy are your main angle weight lifting should be your go to as yoga and all bodyweight excercise is not scalable.

But yes, to maintain how you are with some small gains initially, yup i believe. Anything you do that challenges your body will provide an adaptation.

I have been lurking on the message boards since I joined a few weeks ago and this is, HANDS DOWN, the best thing I've read. Bravo! We are only human, and this is a map for our journey. And sometimes, the best part of the trip is when you take a little detour. Just sayin'.......

@ BeachIron. Florida eh? wow - lucky man! I can't complain, I am in Cornwall UK. A bit far to drop into your gym, but the gesture was sincere.

I do see what you mean about not all approaches you read about on MFP being valid - should have said all realistic approaches. I've read some wishful thinking approaches myself!

The body I built while powerlifting would not serve me well for the yoga I enjoy today. Both demand strength and connectivity but in very different ways but I do think there is more that unites weightlifting, yoga, calisthenics, Parkour, etc than sets them apart.

I would even go as far as to say yoga in itself is incomplete as it lacks movements that challenge the pulling side of the muscles so, while I find yoga serves me well for chest and triceps and overall core connectivity, I still work on inverted rows and the pull-up bar to work the pulling muscles. I really enjoy watching good bar callisthenics and that is a long term goal for me once I've gained a better strength:weight ratio.

Okay, Okay..I'm gonna bust your chops a little.

this seems to provide different information than your previous confession. :huh:

Thanks. That's because this quote is part of a conversation that helped me to evolve from my initial stance/post. I am open minded enough to listen, accept, evolve and progress rather than come on here with the closed view that my opinion is the only one. We've all got something to learn and something to offer and we can help each other get along.

I understand what you are saying about bodyweight not being scalable, whereas weights can be increased by increments as low as 0.25K. However, bodyweight exercises can keep the body progressing pretty much indefinitely. It's just that it takes more thought about how to intensify the movement and - as you say - it is harder to increase the intensity in smaller increments. Not impossible though.

In keeping with the essence of this thread, I would suggest that weights, bodyweight and disciplines such as yoga all have their place in strength development and adaption and not one method is the only way. I think that's part of what the OP was saying early on.

Very Well said OP. I don't follow all the rules all the time either. I am terrible at tracking. I think 2 months consistently is the longest I ever did it. I never eat back all my exercise calories and I could care less if I'm below my BMR or TDEE.. Still I am getting fitter, thinner and stronger everyday. While this process hasn't happened overnight, probably due to the fact that I'm not on point 100 percent of the time, I think I am happier by not having to sacrifice every indulgence to get fit.

As for the MFP Police, well it is what is. It can be said over and over again that some posters are mean or bullies, but those posters will deny that this behavior exists, challenge you to prove it with past topics and/or post the one topic that someone thanked them for this behavior. I guess we just have to accept it. You take the good with the bad. Maybe MFP should post a poster beware at the top of the forums so newbies will know to tread lightly. Anyway, Congrats OP on your success and I love this supportive post.

I think I just about broke all those rules. We are not meant to be perfect. Thanks for the reassurance. :happy:

oh i thought this thread might have some real mfpers who are police doing selfies or at least policeman stripper gifs. dissappoints.

Lmao. Sorry, I found that pretty funny.

Confession: I send blank FR's to see if people really will decline them.... They do :frown:

What is a blank Friend request? and why do you think they are not a good friend request?

A lot of people will not accept a blank FR. To many creepers...

I think this may be my favorite post I've seen!!

Confession: I send blank FR's to see if people really will decline them.... They do :frown:

What is a blank Friend request? and why do you think they are not a good friend request?

A lot of people will not accept a blank FR. To many creepers...

what happens if they get to be your friend? do they become like pervs or something?

Happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Accepted a blank FR and then he PM'ed me with some proposals that, uh, did not, shall we say, have anything to do with why I'm here on MFP. I blocked him o'course but yup, definitely not accepting friends without a note now.

Carry on!

This is great! I do most of the things on the list and I've had success. Lol

Maybe MFP should post a poster beware at the top of the forums so newbies will know to tread lightly. Anyway, Congrats OP on your success and I love this supportive post.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Maybe they should also add a disclaimer about the internet being full of various opinions delivered in various methods of supposed tone....oh, and pressing the handy red X at the top right if you start taking things so personally you get butthurt and continue to hold on to said butthurt. :bigsmile:

Ctrl+W

I think I love you for this post!!


Oh I want to add my confession -

I wait until the end of the day when I know I'm not going to eat anything else - then I work out how many squares of chocolate I could eat with the remaining calories I have left and sometimes .... just sometimes, I eat that chocolate goddammit! :happy:

I love it. Somedays I do this too. :-)

It was a rough day for me today (again) and I needed to hear this. Thank you so much.

lol