What is fitness yoga. Fitness or yoga – which is better?

Fitness yoga is based on two types of physical influence on the body, such as yoga and fitness. At the same time, only a few asanas and pranayamas are taken from yoga, and some exercises with strength load are borrowed from fitness. The main feature of this type, in comparison with the classical direction, was that Fitness yoga does not include spiritual practice and meditation. The work goes only towards physical training of the body, excluding the spiritual aspect.

For those who practice Fitness Yoga, the practical part of the class is very useful. There is no immersion in meditation and deep theory. The emphasis is on developing practical skills to improve health.

The positive effect is manifested in the physical condition of a person.

1. Strengthening tendons and all muscles. Regular exercise can help you get rid of cellulite and sagging tissue. After several sessions, you can feel a uniform tightening of muscles throughout the body. This eliminates unnecessary stress on individual muscles, as happens during a workout in the gym.
2. Body flexibility develops. The joints are cleansed, osteochondrosis disappears, and the back straightens. The entire body is noticeably rejuvenated. There is a release of internal tension. The physical abilities of the body return, as in youth.
3. Restores joint flexibility and stretching. Mastering or accepting the “bridge” position is no longer a problem.
4. Aging is replaced by a rejuvenating effect. Asanas in combination with breathing exercises enhance the regeneration process within the entire body. A person who is interested in yoga is able to resist viruses and infections. Immunity increases.
5. The mood in life improves. The person becomes energetic and positive. Mental processes begin to occur faster, and fatigue is not felt. The desire to work does not disappear during the day and you can manage to do much more than usual.
6. Self-control becomes an integral part of life. Energy protection increases. As a result, there comes calm and immunity to negativity from other people or events.

Who is it suitable for?

Fitness yoga can be mastered by beginners and those who already have significant sports experience. Classes can be easily adjusted to individual levels of stress, therefore reducing the risk of injury or discomfort.

This direction will be useful for people leading a sedentary lifestyle. For those who sit at their desk all day. And also if a person has health restrictions regarding dynamic or strength exercises.

With constant practice, your appearance, well-being and mood significantly improve. The body becomes more flexible, resilient, and physical activity increases.

Exercises for Beginners

It is better to start training with a warm-up and finish the set of exercises with a cool-down. This will make it easier for joints and ligaments to move on to subsequent loads.

As a warm-up you can do:

• (or “Box”), when a person lies on his stomach and bends his knees; then he pulls them towards himself, holding them with his palms; legs should point up to the ceiling or touch the head with sufficient flexibility; you don’t need to overdo it, but do the exercise to the best of your physical capabilities;
• , to do this you need to stand up and bend your leg at the knee joint, focusing on the groin area; squeeze your palms together with force; This pose develops a sense of balance, endurance and good coordination of movements.

A set of exercises in Fitness Yoga consists of main and secondary poses, as in the classical direction.

The main ones can be considered posture,. These are simple asanas that are accessible to everyone who does not have significant physical training.

1. To perform Chair Pose, you need to stand up and then sit down as if on a chair, bending your knees at right angles. Feet should remain level with your hips, knees open, and arms pointing toward the ceiling.
2. In Warrior Pose, you begin in a standing position. Then place one foot forward, pressing it firmly to the mat. Straighten your back. Pull your hands up. Maintain balance in the pose for a minute.
3. For Boat Pose, you need to lie on the mat and raise your body slightly, bending at the lumbar region. Stretch your arms towards your toes, and straighten your legs and lift them above the mat. This pose helps work the core muscles, which support the abdomen and improve posture. The position must be maintained for 20 seconds. five repetitions.

The following exercises are good to complete your workout:

• , to perform which you need to lie on the mat with your stomach down, focusing on your palms (forearms) and half toes; hold the body straight, parallel to the floor for 20 seconds or several minutes;
• a modified version of the Plank - the same pose, only with an alternating change in emphasis on the palms and forearms; You can complicate the pose by alternating legs, bending one of them at the knee and pressing it to the abdominal area.

A selection of useful videos

Pilates

In this area, special exercises have been selected for people with musculoskeletal disorders. The lesson program may include various poses, including from a lying position. Pilates is similar to fitness in terms of maintaining balance in asanas, developing body flexibility, strengthening muscles and maintaining the correct breathing cycle.

What's best for losing weight?

Positive properties of yoga:

• helps to get rid of excess weight even for people with a sedentary lifestyle;
• available for those who have health problems (cardiovascular diseases, problems with the musculoskeletal system, etc.);
• calms, restores energy, relieves stress and nervous tension;
• helps to find harmony of soul and body;
• improves posture.

Thanks to fitness, you can reduce fat accumulation in the body, speed up metabolic processes, activate muscle growth, remove waste and toxins, reduce swelling, stimulate lymph flow, strengthen blood vessels and lower cholesterol levels in the blood, and get rid of cellulite.

Everyone makes the choice between fitness and classical yoga themselves. But it is important to note that weight loss exercises will be useful to everyone and there are practically no contraindications.

What to choose?

Fitness yoga is convenient for practicing. It includes classical, Pilates and fitness exercises. It can be practiced by pregnant women and will be beneficial for everyone.

Daily Practice Helps strengthen the body, tighten muscles, increase endurance, joint flexibility and improve stretching.

If It's hard to decide between yoga and fitness, then you can safely choose to combine all the best that exists in these areas - Fitness Yoga. If you need a spiritual component in practice and meditation, then it is better to stop your choice.

Yoga: does a decent man do it? What are the harms of going to the gym after yoga and Pilates? Is it worth combining yoga and the gym? The hidden dangers of running, yoga and fitness... The Internet space is replete with these and thousands of other articles of this kind. And, I must say, not by chance. Many people seriously ask themselves: is it worth combining yoga classes with exercise in the gym, is it productive, is it even compatible?

Have you ever wondered why India, a country of almost one and a half billion people, has produced so few Olympic champions? In the entire 121-year history of the Olympic Games, the Indian team has won Olympic gold only 9 times. The USA won about a thousand Olympic gold medals, China - 239 such medals, Russia (excluding the USSR) - 200 (including the USSR - almost 700, taking into account the former republics of the USSR - about 800). Even Bulgaria won 52 Olympic gold medals. But India is only 9.

This clearly proves that India is not a sporting country at all. At the same time, this is the country where, in fact, yoga was born, and the Indian city of Rishikesh is still considered the world capital of yoga. A simple but obvious conclusion suggests itself: yoga and professional sports, at a minimum, do not coincide, and at maximum, in some aspects they even organically contradict each other.

The basis of absolutely any sport (including “iron” sports) is formed, in fact, by only two components - fierce self-torture and an equally fierce desire to defeat all rivals. Without these two components there is no champion, but complete and unconditional compliance with these components will 100% ensure this very champion. Everything else is specific, details and, so to speak, working moments. So in yoga there is none of these components; it, yoga, is based on directly opposite principles.

No, no, successful yogis are far from being slackers (if you inadvertently thought about this contrast between yoga and sports). Moreover, master yogis work as hard as the most successful athletes. But the goals of this very hard work for yogis and athletes are diametrically opposed and, as a result, the results achieved are diametrically opposite.

Professional athletes of the Olympic and world levels achieve unimaginable (in fact, pathologically perfect, by the standards of Homo sapiens) results, but, as a rule, they become ruins at 35-40 (someone comes to this “wonderful” state at the age of just over 20) , and most of them simply don’t live to see 50.

Yogis, as they say, lack stars from heaven in terms of physical training. But their “modest” physical fitness remains with them, and sometimes increases, until old age. We know many yogis over the age of 70 who do all the splits and do headstands, but such professional athletes practically do not exist.

Yoga is not aimed at exhausting and wearing out one’s own body into rubbish, it is aimed at healing, both physical and spiritual (who doesn’t like the word “spiritual”, let it be “psycho-emotional”). All this is achieved mainly through the rational combination of tensile and compression loads in the yoga system. Loads in the same gym involve almost only compression, and when working with maximum weights.

Those who are professionally involved in iron sports know many examples where a once actively competing master of sports of international class in the barbell, after entering the competition, cannot turn his body 90 degrees and even has great difficulty tying his shoelaces. The thing is that the compression load when exercising with “iron” goes mainly to the spine, and, as you know, the spinal cord, which is responsible for the coordination of movements, is located in it. Many weightlifters hang on the horizontal bar after grueling workouts, but this, as a rule, is not enough to fully restore the spine after a frantic vertical load on it - and negative health consequences can rarely be avoided.

The balanced alternation of compression and stretching used in yoga virtually eliminates the risk of various types of injuries to the joints and spine (of course, with reasonable training organization). Yoga in general categorically does not encourage training with any additional weights - be it static exercises or dynamic exercises. The main substrate of yoga (in fact, just like the exercises of the “siloviki”) is the spine, only yogis try not to squeeze the maximum out of it, thereby wearing out and distorting, but, on the contrary, strive to strengthen this skeleton in every possible way, carefully alternating static and dynamic influence on it.

Many will reasonably object: but there are literally millions of cases where people are injured while doing yoga all over the world. And they will be absolutely right in this objection. With only one caveat, in fact, which nullifies this very objection: injuries in yoga occur mainly because people either want to do the splits after a month of training (and, accordingly, persist in them too ardently and zealously), or come to classes, having medical contraindications to them. You know how: a flame can warm you up in the cold, it can burn you, or it can burn your house down. It is not the flame that is to blame, but its use.

Yoga and “iron” sports relate to the body weight of the practitioner in diametrically opposite ways. “Iron” provides for an irrepressible increase in the so-called “own weight”. A beginner is separated from a master of sports (to whom it is given - to an international master of sports and an honored master of sports) by an average of 3-4 weight categories gained. This is understandable, even from the point of view of physics. We all remember from school that force is equal to the product of mass and acceleration, and therefore a 160-kilogram athlete always has an incomparable advantage over a 60-kilogram one - in terms of lifting weights.

Yoga is a completely different matter. In yoga, the goal is not to over-feed the practitioner, nor to bring him to a state of anorexia. The goal is to provide the practitioner with such muscle mass that would make it possible to perform asanas relatively easily and unhindered. That's all. Yoga does not make a cult out of body weight.

What kind of music do you typically hear in gyms? That's right: music performed by Cannibal Corpse, Slipknot, System of a Down, HammerFall and others like that. She is beautiful and cheerful, there is no question, it’s just that something much more measured and peaceful is suitable for yoga classes. The heavy metal roar calls to the “iron” peaks, and to yogic wisdom – rather, the light sound of strings combined with measured, quiet and leisurely tapping on the drum.

The yogi does not have the goal of defeating the enemy. He doesn’t even have an enemy, and therefore he simply has no one to defeat. He has only one rival (not an enemy!) - this is the one whom he sees in the mirror, and whom he must certainly become better tomorrow. An athlete’s enemy is everyone who dares to practically challenge his “bestness.” We must bypass all these competing “scoundrels” at any cost. If the “scoundrels” are not sufficiently prepared, then you can relax and perform at half strength. A yogi never relaxes - and, at the same time, never tenses up. This is an apparent dialectical paradox, but in fact it can be explained simply: an athlete (including an “iron” athlete) competes with others, a yogi always competes only with himself.

Of course, yoga and sports have a lot in common. Both yogis and athletes go from simple to complex; Both yogis and athletes prepare for a movement while inhaling, perform it while exhaling, and so on. But still, there are probably more essential differences between yoga and sports than similarities.

Is it possible to be an “iron” athlete and at the same time a yogi? It is possible, but only with the above reservations. If training with “iron” is not based on self-torture and hatred of others (read – “rivals”), then go ahead and sing: I worked out the barbell in a hurry, then did yogic asanas. No harm but good. But if you are an “iron” professional, then the doors of yoga are closed to you (although, obviously, you are unlikely to worry much about this).

In conclusion, we should probably make a reservation that the article in no way stated that “hardware” is bad and yoga is good. Not a single yogi will ever be able to show off superbly and effectively developed muscle mass on the beach, just as he will not be able to jump one and a half meters in height, or land a knockout (or close to it) blow on a punching bag. He will also not do much of what a weightlifter, powerlifter, arm wrestler, bodybuilder, and so on and so forth can easily do. You just need to take off your rose-colored glasses and face the truth: yoga and strength training at a high level are incompatible. This, in fact, is what was discussed in the article.

How is fitness yoga different from other styles of yoga? Any hatha yoga teacher will tell you that this training has a very indirect relationship to the ancient teachings. Fitness yoga should be practiced by those who do not strive for spiritual heights, but simply want to strengthen their muscles, pump up their hips, abs, buttocks, arms and back, lose weight and improve stretching. Often this type of activity is the best thing that can be recommended to a beginner. Most fitness instructors focus specifically on working with the body and problem areas, and it’s also much easier to master in this format.

Fitness yoga for beginners

You can train at home using special video programs or practice in a club. But fitness yoga teachers often say that it is better for beginners to practice under the guidance of an instructor. Usually mistakes and incorrect body position during exercises are better visible from the outside. The trainer can literally build the correct body position with his hands, and after you have mastered the basics, you can take the training home.

But if you don’t have the opportunity to go to a yoga club or studio, you can still learn. Purchase a video program and a book describing the basic asanas. Today, for beginners, you can find original comics with brief descriptions of poses and clear pictures. Before mastering this or that asana, carefully read the description, and be sure to watch the entire video before starting the workout.

Fitness yoga: exercises

Mini-complex: fitness yoga for abs

Warm-up: Tree Pose and Bow Pose
Stand straight, feet parallel, extend your arms up, trying not to bring your shoulders to your ears. Place your palms together above your head and lower your arms to your chest. Place the foot of your left foot in the area of ​​the knee of your right, take the knee of your left leg to the side. Pull your stomach in - otherwise you won’t last long in an unstable position. Stay in tree pose for 6 long breaths and then repeat on the opposite side.

Stand up straight again and raise your arms up, but now lean to the left, stretching your arms out of your pelvis to the left. Keep your legs as motionless as possible, feel the work at your waist, stretch out for 5-6 breathing cycles (inhale-exhale), repeat in the other direction.

Main exercises
Boat pose
Sit on the floor on your buttocks, tilt your straight body back at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. Then lift your legs as straight as possible off the floor. Beginners can bend their knees to maintain stability. Stretch your arms forward along your body, pull your stomach inward, but don’t forget to breathe. Fix the pose for 3-5 breathing cycles, repeat the exercise 4-6 times.

Cobra Pose
Roll over onto your stomach with your palms facing your chest. Using the strength of your back and abdominal muscles, lift your body off the floor to approximately the middle of your waist. Beginners may use their hands to push off a little. Hold the pose for 3-5 breathing cycles and repeat it 2 times.

Plank Pose
Take a push-up position and slowly lower yourself onto your forearms. Draw in your stomach, stabilize your lower back, bring your shoulder blades toward your spine and stand in this pose for 4-5 breathing cycles. Repeat the exercise 3-4 times.
Finish the exercises with a minute of quiet rest on your back.

Mini-complex: fitness yoga for hips
Do the warm-up from the previous complex, but at the end, lean forward, touch your toes to the floor, and straighten your legs. Stretch down from the pelvis and hold this pose for 5 breathing cycles. Stretching your hamstrings is very important for warming up your legs.

Main part
Chair Pose
From a straight stance with your feet parallel, bend your knees and lower into a squat. Stretch your arms behind your head, do not relax your stomach, stretch your buttocks back, as if trying to sit on a low chair. Hold for 3-5 cycles, and repeat 4-6 times.

Warrior Pose 1
Take a lunge position, feet hip-width apart, legs spaced about 1 meter apart. Try to get as low as possible, almost placing your knee on the floor. The back is straight, the main task is to stretch out from the pelvic bones. Hold for 3-5 cycles, repeat 4-6 times on each leg.

Shoulder bridge
Lie on your back as if doing an abdominal crunch. Vertebra by vertebra, lift your spine off the floor, tense and squeeze your buttocks, stand, fixing your posture and straining your buttocks and back of your thighs for 3-5 breathing cycles. Repeat the exercise 4-6 times.

At the end, lie quietly on a smooth floor surface for 3-4 minutes, relaxing the muscles of the whole body. These exercises can be performed in the morning, instead of traditional exercises. They do not take much time and allow you to get used to regular training. In a couple of months, you will be ready for a full hour of fitness yoga classes in a club or at home; supplement these exercises with regular walking, swimming or dancing if you want to lose weight.

Video: fitness yoga for beginners

Fitness trainer Elena Selivanova - especially for.

Anyone who begins to lose weight in healthy ways, without the use of express diets and Thai pills of dubious origin, sooner or later comes to the understanding that physical activity is an integral part of any weight loss program. And here you have to choose which way to load your own body in a healthier and more enjoyable way. Fortunately, now every club has at least several areas of fitness, as well as dance classes, yoga and group cardio training. So what is better for losing weight - active fitness or calm yoga?

If we talk only about the desire to quickly lose extra pounds, then fitness is definitely in the lead. To speed up metabolic processes and burn fat reserves, the heart rate during training must be in a certain range. This is quite easy to achieve by moving to fast music, and almost impossible by meditating and practicing static asanas.

But the fact is that those types of fitness that actively burn fat are not suitable for everyone. They create a fairly large load on the cardiovascular system and musculoskeletal system, which in people with a weight of 20 percent or more exceeding the upper limit of normal are already not in the best condition. Therefore, beginners who do not have minimal physical training should seriously think about the benefits of yoga:

relieving stress, unloading the nervous system;

development of flexibility and mobility of joints;

relaxation and stretching of the spine;

restoration of energy balance;

correction of posture, development of plasticity.

Yoga has only one drawback - it will not give quick results in losing weight. But much faster than fitness, you will give your body beautiful shape and improve the condition of your skin. There are practically no contraindications to it. People with a diseased or injured spine and impaired functions of the vestibular apparatus cannot attend classes.

Maybe fitness is better?

So maybe it’s fitness after all? For a young and not too overweight body, perhaps yes. Only if the emphasis is not on general improvement in health, but on rapid weight loss. It should be remembered that some types of fitness can overload the joints and spine, increase blood pressure and stimulate the heart too much. Therefore, there are many more medical contraindications for practicing different types of fitness, and it is better to ask a trainer about them before buying a subscription or attending trial training.

On the other hand, it is fitness:

• promotes active fat burning;
• accelerates metabolic processes;
• stimulates the growth of muscle fibers;
• accelerates the removal of waste and toxins;
• eliminates swelling, stimulates lymph flow;
• strengthens blood vessels, reduces cholesterol;
• successfully fights cellulite.

The list of advantages is quite long. But if the body cannot yet cope with such loads, it is better to properly prepare it for them than to create health problems for yourself. Or maybe we can somehow combine everything?

Strange mix

Fitness yoga is one of the synthetic areas of fitness that combines seemingly two incompatible things - calm exercises accompanied by music and serious physical activity. This cannot be said to be perfect. New proprietary programs are constantly being developed, but they have not yet reached the level that gives quick and tangible results for those who want to lose weight. Reviews about it are different. Those for whom traditional yoga is too calm, but who cannot yet afford the fast pace of classical fitness, like the new direction.

Classes are held at a moderate pace and focus on those asanas (postures) that allow maximum load and work on problem areas. At the same time, all the usual attributes of yoga are present: beautiful light, scented sticks, stylized music.

An example of such a workout can be seen by downloading a video on the Internet. But don’t forget that all trainers are different and each of them has their own idea of ​​what fitness yoga is.

So where is the truth?

In fact, the question of which is better - fitness or yoga, is from the same series as the chicken and the egg. There is no clear answer to this. It all depends first of all on your health status, and then on your priorities and individual preferences. If desired, you can combine both. For example, do fitness twice a week and yoga twice a week. The main thing is that the body feels good and does not feel strong overloads.

Fitness yoga is a good option for those who love everything unusual and are ready to accept the synthesis of two diverse areas. As a means for rapid weight loss, it is not very good - the pace of exercise is clearly not enough to speed up metabolism. But as a transitional stage from classical yoga to more active areas of fitness, this is an almost ideal type of training. It will allow you to gently prepare your body for the serious physical activity that fitness offers.

If we compare modern ideas about yoga and the ancient teachings that have developed over many years, they are radically different. The goal of ancient and traditional yoga was spiritual improvement, and physical exercises (as opposed to bodyflex) occupied a useful, but very small part in it.

What is called yoga today is associated by people mainly with poses (asanas), and is more related to types of fitness, where the goal of yoga is physical health. But that's not true. If we turn to the primary sources, it turns out that the goal of yoga is yoga itself or the process of awakening the human essence and a way to free a person from the cycle of rebirth (the wheel of samsara).

Therefore, in this article we will talk only about the benefits of asanas (body postures during classes), and not about the teachings of a yogi, so as not to contradict the main treatise and not to distort the concept of “yoga”. And to understand why asanas are needed and what place they occupy in traditional teaching, you will have to delve into history.

Aspects of Yoga

The ancient Vedic books say that life is a series of reincarnations that takes place over several cycles. Yoga involves a similar movement, and in the course of performing all aspects of yoga, not only physical health can change, but also spiritual cleansing can occur, which is much more important than cleansing on the physical level.

So, yoga includes aspects that must be observed during classes. These include:

In addition, there are several more aspects of yoga, by observing which you will learn to determine your lifestyle, regulate your relationships with the outside world, develop the ability to concentrate and the ability to relax.

The lack of understanding of the essence of the teaching in the West leads many followers of yoga fitness to further study Eastern philosophy and religion. Although asanas are of great value for physical health, they cannot be interpreted as yoga because they are only a small part of it.

It is strictly forbidden to abuse your own body while performing asanas, as well as to overcome the pain that may arise at first. Practicing yogi trainers argue that weak irritations can increase vitality and strength, while large irritations can slow down or completely destroy them.

What is fitness yoga for beginners and why is it needed?

If you want to know yourself through yoga, you will somehow have to start from the first aspect by doing various muscle stretching exercises. Next, you will be able to familiarize yourself with breathing practices, the principles of healthy eating and the art of meditation, which will become the basis for your harmony of body, mind and spirit.

But before you start doing the exercises, it’s logical to ask what yoga does for beginners?

You can do yoga at any age, even if you have a long list of chronic diseases. The exceptions are diseases such as acute radiculitis, bleeding disorders and acute infectious conditions. If a person has cancer, mental disorders or heart failure, then it is better for him to refrain from exercising.

Where to start classes? The answer is simple - with the advice of those who are already engaged or have many years of experience. This is not aerobics or a form of fitness to strive for better exercise performance. Any result you achieve will work, and the best performance of asanas is ahead of you. So, tips for beginners are as follows:

Which yoga style should you choose?

Before you jump into classes, find out what type of yoga you need? What is behind the mysterious words “jivamuktu” and “kundalini”? The fact is that fitness yoga for beginners offers many directions that have several differences. Take a closer look at them:

Starting to practice yoga seriously means taking a responsible step towards your improvement and the desire to change your life for the better. You can safely count on the fact that yoga will give you harmony of body and soul, mind and emotions, because no other exercise system can give this!

As a result, you will learn to consciously do many things, as well as love and feel good about everything that is happening to you at the moment. Faith in the future will appear, and the path to your goals will become less thorny and difficult.