Nine reasons why weightloss through yoga is better than Exercise
The legend and yoga-guru, T.
Krishnamacharya, said yoga must be practiced slowly. He reasoned that quick moves disrupt the flow
of blood. No wonder the ancient
Patanjali Yoga Sutra says, “sthir sukham asanam” that asana is a pose which is
steady and comfortable. Authentic yoga
is not exercise. It needs to be done
with surrender and grace. There are no jerky movements in yoga. Every asana is a meditation in itself. You can stay in a pose for about 10 minutes
and be completely aware of your body, muscles, nerves and that is
meditation. Furthermore, everything you
do with complete awareness is a meditation.
So, asana is not separate from meditation. Similarly, pranayam is also not separate from
meditation. You build your awareness
with asana and then with pranayam and prepare yourself for dharana, dhyana, and
Samadhi-the goal of meditation. Thus,
asana is the first step towards meditation.
In Today’s world a lot of yoga practitioners do not really understand
the difference between asana and exercise or they just do not care. For them it is just a way to reduce weight
and they tend to sacrifice the very principles of yoga that separate them from other
exercises.
Asana
vs Exercise
1. Building Muscles
and physical strength: The goal of exercise is to keep an individual
fit by building muscles and physical strength.
The west seems to have mastered this art. We have seen amazing mass gains achieved by
legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman etc. The media glorified them and made them into
gods. The lesser known yoga legends like
T. Krishnamacharya, B. K. S Iyengar, and K. Patthabhi Jois have left their
indelible mark both in the east and west.
Unlike the bodybuilders, they seemed quite thin and yet had immense
strength and stamina. Moreover, they
were extremely flexible. Thus, yogasanas
build muscle strength but not at the expense of flexibility.
2. Repetition of
motion: When exercising repetition is the key to help
strengthen muscles. Contrary to
exercising, yoga has no place for repetition.
Yogis stretch and relax muscles.
These stretching and relaxing poses are known as asanas. The aim is to achieve steadiness and comfort
for a particular duration. These poses improve
blood circulation and bring in far more oxygen than exercising and help cleanse
organs and organ systems. Moreover, it tones
the circulatory system, lymphatic system and the cardiovascular system.
3. Lactic acid
build-up: When you perform intense exercise the body
needs energy and it extracts that energy from glucose and requires oxygen to
break it down into energy. There is lack
of oxygen when doing intense workout which leads to lactic acid build-up in the
muscles. Although temporary, this causes
muscle fatigue, cramps, nausea and general discomfort. Yoga practitioners never face this
problem. Breathing is maintained in such
a way that there is enough oxygen and the energy requirement during an asana is
very less compared to high intensity exercises.
4.
Reduced heart
rate and respiration: Yogasanas help reduce the heart rate which is
elevated during exercise. The rate of
respiration is also reduced as compared to exercise. The result is that people who perform yoga
can do more exercise with less oxygen.
They also help to improve cardiovascular health. This can reduce/eliminate heart
diseases. Consequently, it reduces blood
pressure and is a must for hypertensive patients.
5. Better joints in
old age: Exercise can cause stiffness in the joints
and can lead to rheumatic conditions like gout, arthritis etc. Yoga builds strength but with it improves flexibility. The asanas help stretch joints, cartilages, ligaments
and help them to become healthy. The joints
remain healthy throughout a practitioners life.
High intensity exercise done for a long time can lead to joint
issues. Yogasanas are designed in such a
way as to preserve the joints by gentle massage, stretching and relaxation.
6. Alleviating Depression: Both exercise and yoga help to alleviate
depression. Exercise can elevate the
blood pressure fast and make the individual feel euphoric. Dr. Michael Craig Miller, a psychiatrist at
of Harvard Medical School says that exercise can act as an antidepressant drug
for people with chronic depression but not for patients suffering with acute
depression. Yoga on the other hand can
help all types of depression. Twenty
three studies were evaluated and it was concluded that yoga did help people
with depression. These studies were done
in USA, Australia, India, Italy, Taiwan, and UK. So considerable research has been done
regarding the positive effect of yoga on depressive patients. With COVID-19 the world economy has slowed
down and cases of mental depression are increasing as more and more people are
affected by the slowing of the world economy.
This is the best time to start your yoga practice.
7.
Yoga used by
pro-athletes: Yoga has become indispensable for all. The sports professionals today recognize the
effect of yoga. Even though they are
practicing different types of sports, they do supplement their practice with
yogasanas and pranayam. Thus yoga is
also highly valued as a supplementary therapy for pro-sports individuals. The stress professional sports put on
sportsperson’s body is immense and yoga helps to reduce the ill-effects of
professional sporting events. So, yoga
has become indispensable to all.
8. Concentration: Everyone who knows about yoga understands
that it enhances concentration of mind.
Exercise is more about focusing on the building of strength and muscles
where as yoga is a holistic discipline.
Everything is focused towards the mind.
Yogis realize that mind and the body are connected and if you affect one
the other gets affected too. Thus, when
you achieve steadiness in your asana practice, you also achieve steadiness of
the mind.
9. Yoga is Slow
Poison: Yoga has been called a slow poison. The aim of yoga is the preparation for what
shall come eventually, i.e. death. Yogis
spend their lives perfecting asanas and pranayams so that they can withdraw
themselves from the world and be ready to face the ultimate truth of existence
and achieve ‘Moksha’-salavation. So,
yoga has a spiritual side too and it gives us strength to face our own deaths.
