What is your opinion on Yoga?

You'll see better and faster results with resistance training "lifting heavy" than you would with yoga.

A large component of it is a spiritual thing. And your experience will be heavily influenced by the quality of your instructor and how well you connect with them. It's not my cup of tea personally, but I can understand why some people love it.

you can tone a bit, ive been doing nothing but yoga and i see a difference in my muscle tone. ive been doing sadie nardini's videos on you tube and i really like it so far (its only been two weeks) good luck

I really love yoga. I got into it a while back and have been considering starting up again. Problem is that I don't have a lot of free time so I don't want to waste workout time if it isn't good for toning. Is it worth the time or should I just stick with lifting weights and doing squats, etc???

Yoga can definitely build strength and muscle, but you do need to do it more than once a week to achieve this. Also look at the different types of yoga and see which one fits your goals the best.

Yoga is a fantastic, well balanced form of exercise! I find it to be fantastic. It's great for building strength and flexibility, and it helps maintain balance and peace of mind. Honestly, it's possibly to lose weight, strengthen muscle, and balance out your life with yoga alone. Take Rodney Yee, for instance (pictured below). Did you know he's never lifted a weight in his life? Yet look at those muscles on him! Wowie! If it weren't for the fact that even power yoga doesn't increase my heart rate that much, I'd just do yoga all the time! I find that yoga and a cardio program are all I need. But I get bored easy, so I do lift as well. But I still do yoga every morning! It's done more to reshape my body than all my other exercise combined!

Oh and dropkick anyone who tells you it's "relaxing." Unless you've been doing it for years to the point where it's easy for you, it will not be relaxing.

I found it relaxing the very first time!

I love yoga. I find it really relaxing (sorry to the poster above lol) and it just really stretches everything out. I don't use it as a sole workout plan for strength or anything, and I don't do anything "spiritual" with it, I just like the way it slowly flows from one pose to the next and leaves me feeling more serene when i'm done. I find that my asthma doesn't act up as much when I do it on a regular basis, too. I don't do yoga dvds or anything like that, I just do my own vinyasa in the living room and flow into whatever pose seems like it would feel good...i.e. start out with sun salutations, flow into warrior, etc. I like to end with a tree pose to open up the hips, especially lately because i've been doing a lot of cardio that is hard on the legs...I find that if I do a short yoga session in the morning it leaves me feeling really refreshed when i'm done.

<<<<This is what can be achieved from yoga.

I do hot power yoga at a studio 3-4x per week and it is my primary workout. Occasionally, I may walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes more as stress reliever then a workout. Yoga has helped lower my BF to 20% without losing any lean muscle.

I think the last few "meditation" minutes of Yoga are definately relaxing.... however I have taken Yoga from a few different instructors and I have sweat with them all. Granted, I do not feel like it is the best workout, but I definately work and utilize muscles I normally do not in my weight-lifting or pilates classes.

Perhaps the relaxing part is that its not as fast paced as others.... but I agree it does have its place.

It depends on the type of yoga and what benefits you want to see in your body. I love yoga because it keeps me flexible, keeps my joints and muscles relaxed to the right tension and assists with me dealing with stress. I am not looking to be a rock hard fitness model so it works for me. Yoga, walking, running, spinning and a little light weight work is all I need.

Yoga is great for flexibility and toning muscles...but it does take a while to see results. I enjoy it because it calms my mind and relaxes me...I also run 3-6 miles every other day and doing yoga to stretch and relax my muscles has been great.

I love it. It can be a pretty intense exercise, but it's generally not for building lots of muscle or burning lots of fat... So I pair it with running and strength training. I find it both challenging and calming, and great for flexibility and stamina.

I haven't done it long enough to speak to the effectiveness of Yoga for toning or strength.

What I DO love it for is a post-cardio or post-strength workout. I find if I do something intense (Zumba, circuit training, etc) and that's it, I'm much more sore for longer. When I do the same workout but follow it up with 20-30 mins of Yoga, I feel SOOO much better after and I recover faster. It's also definitely increasing my flexibility and posture.

Necessary evil. My body doesn't like all that stretching.

I agree with the others who commented that it is a fine use of time if integrated into a full week of work-out plan that includes strength building, cardio and some just plain "FUN" -- I have time to participate in two 1 hour sessions at my gym each week, out of the total 5-6 hours a week 1 spend at the gym. I agree that it's perfect for flexibility, peace in mind, breathing, etc.

I've also found it to be more enjoyable once I gained the "strengh" to really push the workout part of it by being able to hold poses for longer and look for more sensation in my legs and during pushups etc. It can be a good muscle workout if you have the strength to really hold the poses and use the muscles in arms and legs.

If you have really scarce time in the gym, I'd think strength building would be the priority, and the best way to see results in your everyday life. If you know enough of yoga, you can fiqure out a short 20-30 minute routine you could do at home to get your favorite and more restorative poses in almost daily.