Niall’s Weblog

I started taking Yoga classes at the SF Krav Maga centre a few months ago and have been doing it pretty regularly since - usually I do two hours a week, in addition to other training. I must admit that for some time I had a negative attitude toward yoga - the association with New Age wishy-washy mumbo-jumbo for one thing, and also that it wasn’t clear to me what yoga actually did for you, what its benefits were.

I mean, you compare yoga with boxing - its pretty obvious what you are getting out of training in boxing. Some serious cardiovascular conditioning and practical fighting techniques. But what is yoga all about? A few stretches and poses and stuff - talking a load of New Age rubbish while barely breaking a sweat - just the pretense of physical fitness? That was my initial bias. However I have since revised my opinion about yoga.

I should mention that I don’t know what kind of yoga my instructor subscribes to, I must ask her. I’ve read that there are many different things which claim to be yoga. In fact I’ve read that what westerners know as “yoga” is a subset of a much larger Indian tradition. So I preface this with a clear admission that “your mileage may vary”.

The yoga class I attend focuses on two areas: core strength and flexibility. Personally I have had quite poor shoulder flexibility for a long time and the desire to improve my flexibility was one of my main motivators for trying yoga in the first place. The yoga core exercises are very intense - in fact more intense than any other abdominal exercise I’ve ever done. Think of ab bicycles but considerably more difficult. Of course core strength is very important, especially to prevent back problems and not least in any kind of fighting situation where you want to protect the internal organs to avoid getting knocked out by a shot to the body.

So what benefits have I noticed from doing yoga then? My flexibility has increased considerably, although I still have plenty of room for improvement. My core strength is pretty good - definitely much better with the addition of the yoga training. Furthermore I think I have a generally increased connection with my body and my balance is better. The breathing exercises have helped with my pacing in cardio activities.

Overall I think yoga is an excellent adjunct to more intense activity. It certainly is relaxing, increases core strength and improves flexibility. There may be other benefits along the lines of reduced stress, increased energy levels, and so on - but those are much more difficult to quantify and are clearly highly subjective. I would recommend a bit of yoga as an excellent addition to a training regime although I would hesitate to practice yoga exclusively.

Tags: Martial-Arts, yoga

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.