Everyone knows we're supposed to do some kind of strength training to keep the metabolism high. When people think strength training, usually the first thing to come to mind is lifting weights. What if someone told you that yoga is also strength training?
Want these arms? Do your yoga! (Note how her arms look a lot like Madonna's. She's a yogi too.)
Yep. Yoga (especially power yoga) is a form of strength training. However, which one you do depends on what your goals are.
If you want to build bulk in the muscles, it's more practical to weight lift. The more you keep lifting progessively heavier, the bigger and stronger you will get.
However this means you must overload yourself to keep growing. You have to keep lifting heavier as you adapt.
Yoga is a more balanced way to strength train.
Regular yoga can help decrease the risk of injury and help you become more functionally fit, meaning getting better at the things you do every day (walk, sit, bend, etc). Yoga also tones the entire body. Lifting weights usually involves one muscle at a time.
Yoga tones with eccentric contraction, meaning the muscles stretch as they contract and work, which results in a longer look. Weight training is concentric, meaning as the muscle works, it gets shorter. (that's why some people who lift weights look bulgy)
Yoga also helps with endurance because you have to hold poses for lengths of time and repeat them.
In the article I got this from, Rodney Yee, a well known Power Yogi gives more information. For that article, click here.
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