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| Hi- I have been practicing power and hatha for 3 years. I have finally transitioned into ashtanga over the past 6 months and practice mysore. I still have trouble giving up "traditional"exercise like weight lifting even though it is making my practice difficult and makes it hard to go deeper. Ironically I am afraid of losing strength-gaining weight if I am not lifting. Does anyone know if weight lifting or cardio exercise can live nicely with ashtanga? |
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| There is no effect of Ashtanga which can adversely affect Biking or anything else, like weights. But, there is adverse effect of the WEights and Biking on Yoga Practice if you do them too much or wrongly as done by most of those who do them. Just to make the whole thing simpler, do this
-While Doing weights or bike or swimming or ANY NON-Yoga Exercise, do them with
-happy face continuously, soft neck continuously, and comfortable breathing continuously, and you will be OK>
Also, to correct you Power, Hatha and Ashtanga are NOT 3 different things. They are all Hatha Yoga. Ashtanga is a small subset of Hatha Yoga and is NOT complete.
Neel Kulkarni www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Think of any form of yoga as cross training for sports. Weight lifting, etc., are activities that have your body in predominant contraction vs. extension. Yoga, with its emphasis on elongation and alignment can help you counteract that tightening.
When you lift, go slowly. Take extension to the fullest, extremely slowly, without releasing the muscles at the end of the extension. For example, a bicep curl: Curl, and when you release, let your hand come down to completely open the elbow, shoulders safely integrated into the sockets (which you should be doing anyway). Pause a moment before curling again. Continue to avoid locking the joints, and carry this admonishment into yoga, particularly the knees.
You don't have to give anything up, but be conscious of overtraining. This is common in those needing to "feel the burn" or other such (nonsense) overcompensation. Honor resting on the 6th day of the week and moon days, because your body is going to meed it. "Hatha" (read: mish-mash) and "power" are pale comparisons of the full, well-done, well-breathed Ashtanga practice.
Welcome to a wonderful practice.
Christine |
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| Hi there, I am in complete agreement with Christine. Although...you might be surprised that once you have a consistent practice in place (or you may already), you may not feel like lifting weights anymore. I was in the same boat as you a few months ago, and eventually found that I lost an interest in weights. I had been lifting for 10 years fairly seriously (my workout partners were amateur bodybuilders and I loved outlifting the guys in the gym.) But, ashtanga soon found its place and now I rely on it not only for its physical benefits, but also for its meditative benefits. Everyone is different though, and you may find the desire to keep weightlifting in your repetoire. I myself continue to run about 30 miles a week and feel like that, with 6xashtanga per week, is enough.  |
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| Thank you for all of your advice and information. I appreciate your help. I hopefully will continue to find my way. I am still searching for the balance in which I feel most healthy and can't seem to get what is a good fit. I am afraid of gaining weight while doing yoga since I am not naturally the thin yoga body type. Although I know yoga is not about that and I enjoy my practice for other reasons, I am still afraid that I will be become unhealthy from not running of building muscle. I havent seen that yoga muscle development yet. Perhaps I am over training and very probably not lifting correctly. Thank you |
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| I worried about the same thing - I have an endo/meso bodytype and very easily gain weight if I am not in balance. Admittedly, I did gain a little weight when I first dropped weights only because I continued to eat as though I were lifting heavily 5xweek. I still eat 5-6 small meals a day (to maintain stable blood-sugar levels) but my portions are much smaller. (That's not to say I don't have my moments of, well, not eating in the best manner...*blush*).
While I definitely think ashtanga is holistic in and of itself (and this is probably true for any style of yoga), I find that personally, I cannot maintain a healthy weight without other forms of exercise. Perhaps because I don't eat like a bird. Perhaps because I have a desk job. Perhaps because my practice isn't so advanced that I am really getting the optimal physical benefits.
As for yoga development - I'm sure it's primarily a matter of body type. I will never be a "skinny" person, or have long dancer-like muscles. I'm just not built that way. I will always have muscle (among other things). I found that once I just let myself DO yoga, everything else didn't really matter. I'm not saying yoga will do this for you too, but I really worry less about my physical appearance now. I still have my issues, but my focus has shifted more on how I feel. Best of luck to you as you find your way through this process! Sorry for this long post, but just one last thought: this has been a wonderful place for me (the board, I mean). I don't always post, and a lot of my activity is reading other posts, but I find the members here to be particularly friendly and helpful. I hope posting your concerns here has found you some guidance! |
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| thank you for reading my message. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. It always helps to read that others are sharing my same questions. I will continue to search for that place of balance. Best of luck in your practice. |
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| Hi! I'm new to Ashtanga, too and found all the responses to Rebecca's post to be very interesting. I've been practicing yoga for 3 years, too, Iyengar/ Hatha for 2 + yrs, Power for the last 9 months, and just attended my first Ashtanga class the other day.
My question as a newcomer is this - will the dizzyness ever go away? In a studio that's not air conditioned, I've come close to passing out about 1 hour into class (this also happened in a recent 2 hour Power yoga class). I do take some breaks to drink water, I've come to realize that I have to move very slowly from wide legged forward bend to standing - and not to raise my hands above my head after that. But should I not do Ashtanga?
Personally, I think I'm so used to the AC that it's the heat.(at home I stand under a ceiling fan, the AC on, and practice on a tile floor - about 80 degrees) |
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| The heat vs. cool argument is a never-ending one for some reason. Yoga is best done in warm to hot circumstances. You are stretching your muscles, tendons, and ligaments INTENSELY and cool air causes them to lose their elasticity.
The answer to your question is complicated and can involve your age and any medical conditions as well as diet, especially how much water you drink. There seem to be two types of americans: the over-hydrated types who carry around a bottle of water wherever they go and drink constantly, and the dehydrated. Depending on which report you read, it's somewhere between 30 - 70% of americans that are dehydrated (which contributes to insomnia and poor digestion and low energy, etc). If you are properly hydrated and don't have heart diseases and don't have weird deficiencies in your diet, the chances are the dizzyness will go away. The body will adapt. I've seen it in ashtanga yoga and kundalini yoga. |
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| Thanks Tao. Nausea was something I used to encounter when I started practicing, but then I learned not to eat 5 mins before doing yoga  !
I'm pushing 40 and have always loved good ole' Air Conditioning, which is why I think the heat bothers me. Also, my blood pressure might be low, but I check it at home and it seems to be fine.... I'll just have to keep an eye on it... btw, I'm a "drink in the cup holder" kind of hydrator!  |
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| Hey you,
the AC thing is something uniquely American. In no other country people fight klimate as much as here in the US.
When you come from Germany as I do, it takes you up to two years, and some never adjust, to get used to the constant artifical airflow and coolness. Most Europeans have to fight with constant colds, coughs or ear infections (kids).
In the hotter states it gets so extreme that you have outdoors over 100 and indoors sometimes under 70 degrees, that is just crazy.
But heat as in hot, does not naturally enhance your ability to stretch. The only thing that warms up the muscle is working it. Heat as in a comfortable room temperature versus really cold AC surely improves the feeling of stretch, because when you're shivering you can't relax or "melt into" a pose.
Take care
Babs |
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| In direct response to the question of doing weight training in conjunction with Yoga I can only speak from my own personal experience. I've posted some if this under a different thread so I'll try not to be too redundant or long.
I've spent roughly 15 years in an out of gyms including a stint as a spokesperson/body builder. Weight training and cardio work never gave me the results mentally, spiritually OR physically that I get from yoga.
My muscles are harder, tighter, more lean and flexible than ever before and I haven't touched a weight or cardio machine in roughly four months.
And this says nothing for the amazing community of people I have found both online and in "real" life. In all those years at the gym I never made the type of friends, committed friends, I've met in the studios where I practice.
I do believe that swimming is an excellent addition to any Yoga practice but I haven't even done that for a while.
Having said this I think it's important to mention that I have a fairly vigorous yoga practice hitting the mat in some form or another virtually ever day. It may only be going through sets of Sun Salutations if that's all my schedule allows, but usually it's some form of vinyasa or Ashtanga.
I don't know what the results would be if say I were only practicing asanas three times a week. |
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| Hi, I believe that lifting would develop muscles which reduces your flexibility.
you could balance by reducing protain intakes and lift smaller loads/more reps. |
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| Starving yourself of protein would be more than counterproductive, and a 6x Ashtanga practice will provide plenty of low weight/high rep resistance training.
There is nothing wrong with building muscle. It's healthy. It looks good. It feels good. And if you lift with awareness and continue to practice - or even just stretch - you don't have to pay a price in flexibility.
Where you do pay a price, as you've begun to notice, is in recovery time. If you lift seriously, your muscles need time to heal. But if you give yourself the healing time you need, you may not be able to practice as often as you like...
Which is why so many once-devoted cross-trainers eventually end up putting down the free weights... For myself, once I reached a point where I could comfortably and safely practice with real intensity, I found that I just lost interest in lifting. The benefits of practicing are so much broader, and if there's only so much time in a day...
For what it's worth, though, I haven't lost any size in my chest, shoulders, arms, or legs. (Just my middle, about which no complaints.) But like amechan, I've found I'm much more interested in what my body can do now, and much less concerned with how it looks.
Experiment. See what works for you. Try just practicing. See how it feels. If you gain weight you don't want to, add cardio back in. If you feel weaker (unlikely!), lift until you don't. One of the joys of the practice is discovering how eagerly and graciously your body adapts to the challenges you offer it. Don't feel obliged to think in terms of "giving up" weights or cardio like a pack-a-day habit - you can always go back if that's what your body needs to feel in balance. |
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New to Ashtanga
