Yoga or Cardio?

Cardio, I tried yoga for the first time last week and hated it!!

Wait Yoga is Cardio isn't it?

I never thought Yoga as an anaerobic exercise, I always thought they focused on breathing and what not.... Am i wrong?

Wait Yoga is Cardio isn't it?

I never thought Yoga as an anaerobic exercise, I always thought they focused on breathing and what not.... Am i wrong?

Breathing, yes, but it does not (normally) get your heart rate into the cardio zone, so the calorie burn is a lot lower. That does not mean it doesn't have amazing benefits!! Also this generalization does not work for Hot Yoga and Power Yoga... they will really get you going!!

Unless I make it my rest day, Yoga just isn't quite enough for me. I need just a little more. But I do love it!!

Thermal stress (heat) does not increase calorie burn so hot yoga won't burn anything extra. Power Yoga sounds a bit more promising but I've never done it, so I'll have to take your word for it.

Wait Yoga is Cardio isn't it?

I never thought Yoga as an anaerobic exercise, I always thought they focused on breathing and what not.... Am i wrong?

Breathing, yes, but it does not (normally) get your heart rate into the cardio zone, so the calorie burn is a lot lower. That does not mean it doesn't have amazing benefits!! Also this generalization does not work for Hot Yoga and Power Yoga... they will really get you going!!

Unless I make it my rest day, Yoga just isn't quite enough for me. I need just a little more. But I do love it!!

Thermal stress (heat) does not increase calorie burn so hot yoga won't burn anything extra. Power Yoga sounds a bit more promising but I've never done it, so I'll have to take your word for it.

Have you ever done Hot Yoga? I do it twice a week and my heart rate is through the roof! It's quite challenging, and the heated room just makes it more challenging. Particularly the Hot vinyasa style of yoga (faster flow movement than hatha) is definitely a workout!

The "faster flow movement" would be the reason for higher calorie burn, NOT the heat. Thermal stress is not a direct indicator of calorie/fat burn. If it were everyone who lived in hot climates would be skinny.

Wait Yoga is Cardio isn't it?

I never thought Yoga as an anaerobic exercise, I always thought they focused on breathing and what not.... Am i wrong?

Breathing, yes, but it does not (normally) get your heart rate into the cardio zone, so the calorie burn is a lot lower. That does not mean it doesn't have amazing benefits!! Also this generalization does not work for Hot Yoga and Power Yoga... they will really get you going!!

Unless I make it my rest day, Yoga just isn't quite enough for me. I need just a little more. But I do love it!!

Thermal stress (heat) does not increase calorie burn so hot yoga won't burn anything extra. Power Yoga sounds a bit more promising but I've never done it, so I'll have to take your word for it.

Have you ever done Hot Yoga? I do it twice a week and my heart rate is through the roof! It's quite challenging, and the heated room just makes it more challenging. Particularly the Hot vinyasa style of yoga (faster flow movement than hatha) is definitely a workout!

The "faster flow movement" would be the reason for higher calorie burn, NOT the heat. Thermal stress is not a direct indicator of calorie/fat burn. If it were everyone who lived in hot climates would be skinny.

Hot Hatha Yoga is not the faster flow movement (I take a Hot Hatha 90 minute class and a Hot Vinyasa 60 minute class), it's more of the moving from pose to pose, however the poses are quite challenging and do elevate the heart rate. The heat allows your muscles to loosen up, enabling you to move deeper into the poses. While I agree with you, heat alone is not what is making you burn calories, but the challenge of doing the exercises in the heat makes it more difficult, and that's when the elevated heart rate comes into play. I'm telling you, the class isn't just stretches and relaxing, it's hard work and I'm definitely burning more calories than in a traditional level one hatha yoga class.

I only do yoga. I know it probably is against the grain around here, but I see huge changes in my body, and I'm losing weight, so I'm sticking with it!

I found the same.

Wait Yoga is Cardio isn't it?

I never thought Yoga as an anaerobic exercise, I always thought they focused on breathing and what not.... Am i wrong?

If you keep breathing when you lift weights are you exercising aerobically or anaerobically. Have you tried stopping breathing?

For lifting weights:
405 pound dead-lift: take big breath do a rep, big breath, rep, big breath, rep. <- Anaerobic (exercise is only maintainable for a few seconds)

135 pound dead-lift: rep breath rep breath rep breath etc for half hour <- Aerobic (exercise is maintainable for much longer periods of time)

I do both but it depends on my mood.

I tend to do yoga when I want to do SOMETHING but my joints are aching or my muscles are sore from the other things I do. That said, I do enjoy it. I think the key to yoga is finding the style you like (I've never done the gentler, more meditative types - I suspect I'd get frustrated at the lack of effort and calorie burn) but I love Power Yoga. The other thing is finding teachers you like - Tony Horton is okay, but I love Bryan Kest - he's kind of "spiritual" without getting all hippy-dippy about it. It's all personal taste. Saying you don't like Yoga is kind of silly - it's like saying, "I don't like lifting weights." So what is it you don't like? Powerlifting? Bodybuilding? Oly lifting? Circuit training? Metabolic conditioning? Kettlebells? You really need to try the various types of practice before being able to say that, in reality.

That said, when I do Power Yoga, my heart rate is always in the cardio zone at around 70% my max HR. It's about the same as when I go out for a 4mph speed walk. And I'm certainly panting, plus I get the strength and flexibility benefits. That said, everything else I do gets me up into the high 80s and 90s of my max HR so it couldn't really take the place of a cardio workout.

I'm also unconvinced of the benefits of adding heat to the mix. I mean, I just had a piping hot bath (so hot I could barely get into it) and my heart was pounding just lying in it. I wouldn't consider it a cardio workout though!

I'm also unconvinced of the benefits of adding heat to the mix. I mean, I just had a piping hot bath (so hot I could barely get into it) and my heart was pounding just lying in it. I wouldn't consider it a cardio workout though!

Just be careful with hot baths! Haha, the last time I had one instead of a shower, I ran it too hot, had to hop out very quickly at the end and the sudden change in blood pressure caused me to faint!

I've been trying to do Yoga on my rest days from 30DS...I really can't get into it, I feel ridiculous doing it. Really hoping I can learn to love it though! Lol

to me yoga is more for flexibility than burning calories, but ive only done basic yoga

I do both and love them, but for completely different reasons. I mainly do yoga for flexibility purposes (I can feel myself getting way more flexible and it rocks), as opposed to weight loss, which is what I incorporated cardio to help me do in the first place.

Me too!!

Even if I were to breath more when dead-lifting near maximal effort it wouldn't matter because the exercise isn't being maintained with oxygen, it is muscle strength oriented.

While with the lighter weight because it is very light the exercise is "easily" maintained.

Which was my point,. Whether you're training aerobically or anaerobically is NOT dependent on how you breathe during exercise, but rather on the exercise which you are doing, so suggesting, as you did in your previous post, that yoga is cardio *because* breath is part of the exercise is incorrect.

I think there can be aerobic and aneerobic aspects to yoga, depending on what type of yoga you are doing and which poses or series you execute.

I do both but it depends on my mood.

I tend to do yoga when I want to do SOMETHING but my joints are aching or my muscles are sore from the other things I do. That said, I do enjoy it. I think the key to yoga is finding the style you like (I've never done the gentler, more meditative types - I suspect I'd get frustrated at the lack of effort and calorie burn) but I love Power Yoga. The other thing is finding teachers you like - Tony Horton is okay, but I love Bryan Kest - he's kind of "spiritual" without getting all hippy-dippy about it.

I LOOOOVE Bryan Kest's DVD. I do it about 4x a week.