Yoga for Fitness
Yoga is all the rage for its combined physical and
mental benefits, as well as the fact that so many of us
look downright sexy in those groovy yoga pants and bare,
recently pedicured feet.
If you haven't taken Yoga before, you may be surprised to
learn that there are several varieties of the discipline,
some requiring higher levels of physical fitness than
others. Expect to try a couple of classes before committing
to anything, avoid extremes in the beginning and always talk
with the instructor first to learn if a Yoga class is geared
to beginners.
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Hatha Yoga is the most commonly practiced form, and it's
ideal for beginners, focusing as it does on slow stretching
and simple poses. Like all fitness trends, more intense
forms of Yoga are the ones you hearing people talking about—Iyangar,
Vinyasa, Tantric and Hot Yoga are in vogue with the same
people who were all about Pilates a couple of years ago. If
you're looking to increase your strength, balance and
flexibility in a calm atmosphere, look for a generic,
beginners' Yoga class instead of going with one of the trendier
forms: you'll find it satisfying and you'll be less likely to
suffer strains.
Some Yoga classes focus on spiritual work
with a lessened emphasis on fitness. There may be meditation
and chanting. Yoga at the gym or health club will probably be
fitness oriented, but if you study at an ashram or another
place dedicated to Yoga, you may find the classes more
comprehensive.
If you're looking for a more challenging workout and want to
shake things up a bit, you may want to try Iyangar Yoga, which
can be fluid and fast paced. Iyangar is not for the
out-of-shape: you'd be surprised at the muscles you can pull if
you just jump into an already-moving Iyangar class. While Hatha
Yoga doesn't generally use props, Iyangar uses some of the same
bands and bricks as Pilates.
There are as many types of Yoga as there are people who teach
it. Hot Yoga is especially popular because it's fun to do Yoga
in a 95 degree room full of sweating students. Okay, that
doesn't sound like fun, but people love it because it combines
a Yoga workout full of stretching and bending with a room
heated to bring waxy flexibility to even fairly stiff muscles
and joints. Hot Yoga isn't for everyone—if you have health
issues like heart trouble, if you're pregnant or out of shape,
you shouldn't attempt Hot Yoga. But if you're in good health
and especially if you live in the cold North and want a warm
winter workout, Hot Yoga is the way to go.
There are various ways of becoming certified to teach Yoga, so
before you join a class, find out about the instructor's
educational background. You want a teacher who's been doing
Yoga for a long time, and it never hurts if that person also
has a degree in something like exercise physiology. Yoga is a
specialist sport: your gym shouldn't be training Yoga
instructors in 3 or even 6 months: Yoga takes years. And once
you've ascertained that your instructor does indeed know her or
his stuff, you will still want to look for the hallmarks of a
good instructor. Instructors should be happy to answer
questions, should provide demonstrations and feedback during
class, and should never push you into doing things you aren't
ready for. Because Yoga is about stretching and gaining
flexibility, people who are in a hurry to get fit may feel
impatient. That impatience can lead to injury if you stretch
too far, bounce in your stretching or attempt poses that hurt.
Don't expect to be able to do it all at first: over time,
you'll get stronger and will be able to hold poses longer and
take on new challenges in the form of more extreme poses. |
