getting ripped...with YOGA! page 5

[Owly]

Getting ripped and getting strong are not necessarily the same thing. Ripped is about how visible your muscle is; strong is about what you can do with it. There are a lot of very strong people out there who aren't what most people would consider ripped--your average strongman competitor comes to mind. And some ripped people aren't nearly as strong as they look.

I prefer doing both barbell work and yoga--I find they are a good combination, and yoga has definitely improved my recovery, flexibility, balance, and ability to do isometric holds. I choose barbells as my strength building. But I disagree that you can't get strong doing yoga. I have a friend who teaches who can do things like handstand scorpion poses. My lifting friends can't do those. She probably can't deadlift what I can, but that kind of bodyweight strength is still real strength (unless we want to decide that someone like Al Kavadlo isn't strong...lol). Strength in moving one's own bodyweight and strength in moving an external weight are both valid. We both really admire what the other can do.

However, the idea that "yoga tones you from the inside out" makes me giggle. I'm pretty sure heavy barbell squats are not only working my surface muscles--anyone who's done them seriously will tell you just how much of the whole body they engage. That might be less true in terms of some of the machine isolation work done by bodybuilders, but serious barbell work also involves working every muscle from the core of one's being, or at least that's my experience of it.

Anyhow, these "my exercise is better than your exercise!" pissing matches get a little old. I had a great yoga class this afternoon, which was a nice recovery from yesterday's deadlifts and will make my bench press tonight feel much, much better.

[zoebird]

I feel no need to "defend" yoga, but rather explain this process from a "yoga" point of view. it's where my experience lies, predominately (seeing as it's my career!). I agree that we are essentially saying the same things.

Also, instead of using a subjective standard like "ripped" which is as unscientific/mythic as "toned," we can use terms like 'strength gains' and "muscle size development" which of course we both described.

Likewise, I know this sequencing intimately (i practiced and taught it for years, and much of what I teach is a variation on it) and I know what certain aspects of this series of movements works specifically. A lot of it is focused on back strength (and of course, general strength). A lot of my clients -- women mostly -- develop a lot more back muscle than they used to carry there.

Now, since "ripped" is subjective, I have seen my clients and they look "ripped" for women. Even my female clients, aged 55 and older, who don't lift weights. They are getting leaner, and their muscles are developing. "ripped" for most women means "more muscle and less fat than toned."

As such, I would say that this poster -- BestBetter -- being a woman and seeing these results so quickly (since it is volume movement with an emphasis on developing the back body) is, in fact, seeing herself as "ripped."

A man, getting the same level of development and fat loss would not be considered "ripped" because "ripped" on a man implies MOAR size.

But again, it's a useless term, really. She could say "I'm finding myself far leaner and with much more muscle development on my back than I ever have before, since I started doing Baptiste Power Yoga." which is essentially what she said anyhoot.

[Alex Who_else]

Kino Yoga - Ashtanga Yoga Awareness

this stuff is pretty intense...you can however also make a simple hatha yoga pretty intensive, if you e.g include many head stand variations (moving legs too the floor and up again, to the floor and up again etc.....)....

[zoebird]

honestly, just doing shoulderstand prep is pretty intense for most people.

[Alex Who_else]

sorry :-( i am yoga teacher....just thought all you crossfit people are the really gym geniuses....the trick is just to hold each posture until it really starts hurting 2-3 min min... it activitates the very deep muscles....

[Fernaldo]

You know what activates really deep muscles: 10x10 squats at 60% 1RM. Anyways, it sounds to me like you built some muscle lifting weights and then leaned out while doing some yoga. Congrats...

[BestBetter]

I feel no need to "defend" yoga, but rather explain this process from a "yoga" point of view. it's where my experience lies, predominately (seeing as it's my career!). I agree that we are essentially saying the same things.

Also, instead of using a subjective standard like "ripped" which is as unscientific/mythic as "toned," we can use terms like 'strength gains' and "muscle size development" which of course we both described.

Likewise, I know this sequencing intimately (i practiced and taught it for years, and much of what I teach is a variation on it) and I know what certain aspects of this series of movements works specifically. A lot of it is focused on back strength (and of course, general strength). A lot of my clients -- women mostly -- develop a lot more back muscle than they used to carry there.

Now, since "ripped" is subjective, I have seen my clients and they look "ripped" for women. Even my female clients, aged 55 and older, who don't lift weights. They are getting leaner, and their muscles are developing. "ripped" for most women means "more muscle and less fat than toned."

As such, I would say that this poster -- BestBetter -- being a woman and seeing these results so quickly (since it is volume movement with an emphasis on developing the back body) is, in fact, seeing herself as "ripped."

A man, getting the same level of development and fat loss would not be considered "ripped" because "ripped" on a man implies MOAR size.

But again, it's a useless term, really. She could say "I'm finding myself far leaner and with much more muscle development on my back than I ever have before, since I started doing Baptiste Power Yoga." which is essentially what she said anyhoot.

YES! Thank you for all of your clear and concise explanations. I regret using the word 'ripped' since it seems to have caused such an uproar. If there was enough room in the title to phrase it the way you did, that would have been much better. Alas, 'ripped' is short and sweet and one must make some concessions when titling a thread.

You know what activates really deep muscles: 10x10 squats at 60% 1RM.

I really wish I could do squats. Unfortunately, I have chronic moderate-to-severe shoulder and upper back pain, which I've had since childhood, and which is only relieved with a combination of prescription opiates and muscle relaxants. I try to only take them when my pain is so severe that I can't sleep or function. Doing squats and having the weight of the barbell resting on my upper back automatically triggers this pain, which is why I have to rely on things like the leg press.

Incidentally, yoga has reduced my chronic back pain (I've been to several awesome chiropractors who all told me that my type of pain would likely not respond to any of their treatments, and in fact it didn't). Even though my pain still exists, and I still occasionally have to take muscle relaxants when it gets unbearable, it's a pretty significant improvement.

[zoebird]

That's an awesome improvement, BestBetter. I"m so glad to hear it.

What I really like about what baptiste created is that it's really great for all-around wellbeing/fitness. He took the heat from his time with bikram -- which is a pleasant thing (it has it's risks, the benefits are diminishing returns after a while) -- and then resequenced from astanga to take out the "knee pulling" possiblities and "shoulder pulling" possibilities that exist in primary series. So, you have this great, straight-forward sequence of postures that does a lot of good stability coupled with mobility work.

Truly, it's a great sequence.

[arthurb999]

Getting ripped is a function of diet more than yoga or weight training.

Personally, I use a mix of iron, yoga classes, and sprint session for my all around fitness training. Thankfully, I don't have to pick just one. And my abs are built in the kitchen

[paleo-bunny]

It's the moment on any individual muscle that is a measure of how hard it is working - hence an advanced strength-building standing pose in yoga can easily place a bigger moment on each muscle in a relatively small group of muscles cf individual moments in each muscle in a whole-body weight-lifting exercise. It's simply a case of understanding biomechanics.

Hence the effectiveness of yoga for building muscle strength with a relatively low level of injury.

Animals that maintain amazing strength, agility and flexibility do not do so through lifting weights - they achieve that through movements using purely their own body weight. Yoga-like poses can be easily observed in cats and rabbits for example.