Yoga and Bodybuilding

[Guest guest]

I have been bodybuilding off-and-on for the past

15 years, and although I don't have the genetics to

get huge (I'm naturally tall and lean), I have

developed a fairly heavy musculature from all that lifting.

In the last year or so I have been practicing yoga

(Ashtanga and Vinyasa), originally just to keep some

flexibility, although I have discovered many other benefits as

well and am getting more and more involved. I would

like to keep working with the weights as well, as I

like the "look" it has given me (yes vanity what can I

say), and I'm loving the yoga. Fortunately I have the

time to do both. My question is, does this make any

sense, or am I working at cross-purposes, perhaps

negating benefits from both practices? Thanks for any

input.

[Guest guest]

I would think that they could help each other to

a certain extent. The strength from lifting could

help with some of the aspects of Ashtanga practice,

and the flexibility could help with the lifting...

according to this page:

<br><br><a href=http://mediapeak.com/muscle_flexibility.htm

target=new>http://mediapeak.com/muscle_flexibility.htm</a> <br><br>"Many people

do not realize the impact

that periodic stretching has on the body’s fitness

level, or its ability to perform. Stretching before

weight training can actually improve your overall lift

strength, as well as your endurance." <br><br>However, I

would think that a lot of bulk might interfere with

some of the poses. I think it is important to keep in

mind that yoga is much more than an exercise regimen,

but a spiritual practice.

[Guest guest]

I would think that they could help each other to

a certain extent. The strength from lifting could

help with some of the aspects of Ashtanga practice,

and the flexibility could help with the lifting...

according to this page:

<br><br><a href=http://mediapeak.com/muscle_flexibility.htm

target=new>http://mediapeak.com/muscle_flexibility.htm</a> <br><br>"Many people

do not realize the impact

that periodic stretching has on the body’s fitness

level, or its ability to perform. Stretching before

weight training can actually improve your overall lift

strength, as well as your endurance." <br><br>However, I

would think that a lot of bulk might interfere with

some of the poses. I think it is important to keep in

mind that yoga is meant to be much more than an

exercise regimen, but a spiritual practice.

[Guest guest]

no problem. yoga is brilliant cross-training for any athletic activity. your

bodybuilding in fact will become another form of yoga if you let it.

[Guest guest]

midnight omboy,<br><br>If you just sit in

padmasana all the time, as you do, I'm dead sure you will

need cross-training to supplement your "yoga

practice".<br><br>But if you do astanga yoga (and I am sure you do

not), you may quickly discover that bodybuilding will

prevent you from achieving real progress in

astanga.<br><br>My experience is that a regular practice of astanga

yoga already makes you very strong, so that you don't

need any additional weight lifting at all. For extra

challenge, try doing the astanga series in full vinyasa -

that is challenging indeed!

[Guest guest]

i am not sure why you want to be argumentative --

why else say that you are sure i just "sit in

padmasana all the time?" i have been clear as to my

practice, and to my understanding of the word "ashtanga,"

so if you have been reading along you should have

some idea of it.<br><br>if someone's karma has led

them to bodybuilding, then it certainly can be a form

of yoga, as can walking down the street, as can

everything in one's life. bodybuilding may also build

strength, but that is no more its purpose than flexibility

is the purpose of practicing yoga. in any event the

physical strength developed through bodybuilding would be

different than that achieved through hatha yoga. certainly

practicing each would have an affect on the other. we are

each here to devise our own path -- teachers can but

suggest possibilities. personally, would rather let my

hatha yoga practice lead me to patanjali's blissful

meditative effortlessness than to an aerobic workout or

muscle building, which i find other disciplines better

at providing. in this way we trust the body's wisdom

to emerge in the posture, irrespective of the

illusory will. postures should reveal themselves if the

mind is focussed on the infinite, as ashtanga teaches.

sure beats ambitiously forcing the physical body into

injury.<br><br>weight training and its benefits may indeed be

devotional, enlightening, a means for selfless service, and

help to find a union between one's individual self and

the universal Self, in short, yoga. one may call a

specific group of exercises by any name, but if the

progenitor of a hatha yoga style states unequivocally that

he only teaches the "ashtanga" as described by

patanjali, and patanjali's writings are readily available,

then it seems appropriate to refer to that source

whenever the impulse strikes. sri k. patabhi jois'

sequence of postures is of his own design, inspired by

patanjali's work, but not dictated by it. the ashtanga --

'eight limbs' -- of raja yoga describes a beautiful

philosophy and science, that leaves the specific physical

regimen to be used completely open to invention,

interpretation and acquisition from other sources.