Is doing yoga a sufficient form of strength training?

Either you guys are very, very smart, or Im just inclined to think so because you guys agree with my opinion- but im going to have to go ahead and say no.

While it does take strength and muscle power to hold yourself in various poses, and fluidly transfer from one to the other, I do not believe the muscle is significantly overloaded to the point of fatigue.

Remember: when you do a set of weights, like a biceop curl, you want to do as many reps as it takes to your muscle to the point of exhaustion (you can’t do another with good form.)

However, this isn’t the main reason for the absolute truth my opinion.

Aside from building and sculpting killer muslce tone, strength training provides many other benefits, most important of which for women: increased bone denisty.

The only way to increase the density of your bones is apply stress to them, either in the form of impact or weight. When you think of bones, you want to think Form Follows Function.

This means that the more impact you apply, the stronger the bone will grow. Running strengthens your leg bones, and unless you can run on your hands***, you need to lift weights to increase the bone density in your upper half.

While I agree that yoga is a GREAT WORKOUT, Im sorry to say you have to lift weights, too. Lifting weights is my favorite thing to do in the world, but i guess a lot of people don’t like it.

To which I say, “too bad.”

***Which reminded me of the days when I used to be able to do this:

Today’s Grounded Fitness post: Distraction is….Uh….What Was i Talking About?

You guys know when it comes to everything, Im pretty opinionated.

Well, this is the topic I feel I can be swayed on, so Im giving you guys the reigns.

I pose the following question to you:

Do you feel yoga is a suffiecient form of strength training?

A lot of people are pretty passionate on the subject, so without stating my opinion first, I invite you all to convince me of your stance. Send links, testimonials, call me names, etc. Im as impressionable as a teenage girl with daddy issues.

I will share my opinion tomorrow, so gimmie your best until then.

Today’s Grounded Fitness post: Yoga, I Officially Apologize

Don’t forget about the “Celebrate Your Insecurity” contest! Winner of the Powerbar prize pack will be announced Friday, with all your entries being posted for recognition in the days following. Send them in- I know you guys have tons of crap wrong with you!

You know I meant that with love.

As long as you are working out all of your major muscle groups, atleast 2 times a week, you are good to go. How you pair them up isnt as important, but you have to make sure that you are working antagonist muscles equally. Antagonist muscles are muscles in opposing groups (usually on either side of a limb) like triceps and biceps, or quads and hamstrings. When one contracts, the other elongates and vice versa. If you get it done, cool, but I find its easier to make sure if you do them at the same time.

Its important these muscles are balanced or else you safety and range of motion may suffer. I see this most often in the core- people will work out their abs all day long, but completely ignore the lower back. This makes it difficult for momentum to travel through the core, because when it hits the weak spot, in this case, the lower back, it shifts directions, and causes pain in either the muscle or the connective tissue. Its important to keep you body balanced, so everything works together at the same level, keeping you efficient and injury free.

Abductor machines (the pads are on the outside of your thighs and you force them open) and Adductor machines (the pads are on the inside of your legs and you have to force them closed) in my opinion are the most overrated, unnecessary machines in the gym. People think they will slim your inner and outter thigh, but these arent the muscles being used to operate the machine. These machines engage your interior stabilizing muscles of you hips- so pretty much the little muscles around the joint. These muscles are just stabilizers, they have to be strong to hold your joint in place while you are performing other movements, but offer no definition, or real contractile force.
These muscles are little and are rarely worked, so you may be trying to lift too much weight. Another possibility (and why I dont like these machines) is that it is so easy to recruit other muscle groups to perform the action- which may cause your back to arch and your hips to wiggle when you try and ab/adduct. This can injure your interior stabilizers, rotators or muscles in your lower back.
These same stabilizing muscles get worked when you perform anything with your lower legs (squats, lunges, jumps, anything) so specifically setting time aside to work them isnt neccessary.
To work the inner and outter thigh, focus on one leg moves, such as one legs squats, or walking lunges. If you want to specifically isolate these muscles with weights, do some resisted abduction and adduction exercises while standing, which a weight cable attached at your ankle. make sure you keep your stabilizing leg soft, and your hips square: dont let the weight rotate your hips.
Machines that focus on one tiny area are fine, but you can make better use of your time. Full body exercises will work those muscles, plus so many more, and usually offer come cardiovascular benefits as well.

I think it would be easier to answer this with real numbers instead of abstractly- so welcome back to 9th grade math.

Kootz can do a bicep curl with an 8 pound dumbell. She fatigues (can’t do any more with proper form) after 8 reps. She keeps at it and eventually can perform 12 reps. She continues to train and can now do 15 reps until she fatigues. It is time for Kootz to increase her weight. Kootz moves onto a 10 pound dumbell and drops back to 8 reps. She should fatigue after these 8, but if not, she will move up to 12 reps wit good form. After she reaches 15 reps to fatigue with good form, she will increase the weight to 12 pounds and drop back to 8 reps.

How long will it take kootz to bench press a car?

a) she already can
b) never, unless her baby is trapped under it
c) god, i hope she doesnt have a baby
d) 2 weeks

You dont have to start at 8 reps- you can start at 10 or 12. it depends on if you are a high weight low rep, or low weight high rep kind of girl. (boy? do we have any boys, besides chris? whos taste in shoes SUCKS) Anyways, you should always work your way up in reps with new weight. but once you reach about 15-20 depending on how you train, its time to move on.