Answer To Your Fitness Questions" />What Yoga Does For The Mind
June 8, 2007
Have you ever wondered just what yoga does for the mind, body and spirit in the way of flexibility, balance, muscular endurance, and aerobic capacity? Yoga has showed up in the fitness field for approximately 7 years now and it has caught on like wildfire. The classes are full of men and women, athlete and non-athlete, injured and healthy, and old and young finding out for themselves just how good it does make them feel. Even though it is supposedly the new thing, it really is an old thing that has been around for over 5000 years. Or something like that. As of 2005 well over 11 million Americans are involved in some form of yoga regularly. Because we are seeing the results of so many of these practitioners testify of the many benefits, ACE sponsored a study done at the
In the study they used 34 healthy women with an average age of 33, they were also sedentary and had no exercise program for at least six months before they started the study. Divided into two different control groups, one being a yoga-based group, and the other a non-yoga based group they ran them through tests that evaluated their strength, balance, flexibility, and their aerobic capacity to establish a baseline. After which they had the yoga group participate in a 55 minutes yoga class three times a week for eight weeks. The 55 minutes sessions included warm-ups of Sun Salutations, 35 minutes of asanas (poses) and five minutes of final relaxation and breathing.
The results found in these control groups were very interesting. “The average flexibility of the yoga group improved by 13 percent to 35 percent and the gains were significantly greater than the non-yoga group” “The muscular strength gains were also seen by the yoga group. The yoga group performed an average of six more push-ups and 14 more curl-ups following the study period” .Concerning balance the yoga group saw a 17-second increase in one-legged stand time, plus a strengthening of the muscle in the ankles and legs that were in direct correlation to the improved balance time. There were no significant gains in the aerobic capacity because you really have to be working in the training zone for a specific time in order to improve your aerobic capacity.
The bottom line concerning Yoga and its benefits is that it isn’t an answer for an aerobic workout, and it will increase strength but you can get stronger faster by lifting weights. Having said that, Yoga is still an excellent addition to any fitness program because it addresses those areas of fitness that is so often forgotten, the flexibility, the balance, and the body awareness. We as Americans have tried to morph it into the cure-all exercise for everything when it just wasn’t intended to be all that.
An interesting side note is they found in that same study that Hatha yoga burns 144 calories in 50 minute practice, equivalent to a slow walk versus power yoga which burns 237 calories in the same time period. Always keep in mind; however, the more aerobic you make yoga the less you will realize improvements in the other areas that we tend to skip in our fitness program! Source: Ace Fitness Matters Sept/Oct 2005
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