Whats the difference between yoga and just plain stretching or normal exercise?
Yoga is based on stretching, breathing, and the meditative process. It places emphasis on mindfulness and efficiency of movement. When transitioning from one pose to another, the goal is to make that transition without a bunch of stumbling and repositioning of body parts. Successful transition from Table pose to Downward Dog with one leg extended in one smooth motion without repositioning your hands or your standing foot is exemplary of the fluidity taught in yoga. This is what makes yoga fantastic for hand-eye coordination and body awareness.
Mindset is paramount in yoga. Yoga mastery is not determined by how far you can put your foot behind your head or whether you can balance upside down on one hand. Yoga stresses that not everyone has the same limitations and that it is far more important to hold a posture or practice a technique correctly versus trying to out-do the person next to you. The yoga experience really begins and ends with the individual holding the pose. Your best is whatever you say it is.
Physiologically, many yoga stretches are dynamic versus static. Yoga poses stretch some muscles while engaging others. Sometimes the stretched muscle is also the working muscle. There are some passive stretches in yoga, but the act of transitioning from pose to pose without breaks (referred to as vinyasa) has the same affect on the body as performing sets of exercise without breaks. The heart rate goes up and the muscles get to work!
Traditional exercise is goal oriented: “How many push-ups can I do? Can I touch my toes? I’m going to do 10 more crunches today than I did yesterday.” Yoga, by contrast, is a process. The idea is to focus your awareness on what you are doing and how you feel as you perform the postures. In exercise, you fail if you miss your goal. In Yoga, you succeed by trying. In exercise you push yourself. In Yoga, you learn to relax and to let your body give. In Yoga, the body, rather than the mind, sets the pace. There’s also a difference on the physical level. Weight training, for example, makes you stronger by breaking down and rebuilding muscle tissue. It’s this breaking down and rebuilding that results in the bulky muscle look. Yoga increases strength by toning and lengthening the muscles. The result is not “abs of steel.” Instead it is a more subtle combination of strength, elasticity, and suppleness. It is the result of listening to your body and practicing “mindfully.
Traditional exercise is goal oriented: “How many push-ups can I do? Can I touch my toes? I’m going to do 10 more crunches today than I did yesterday.” Yoga, by contrast, is a process. The idea is to focus your awareness on what you are doing and how you feel as you perform the postures. In exercise, you fail if you miss your goal. In Yoga, you succeed by trying. In exercise you push yourself. In Yoga, you learn to relax and to let your body give. In Yoga, the body, rather than the mind, sets the pace. There’s also a difference on the physical level. Weight training, for example, makes you stronger by breaking down and rebuilding muscle tissue. It’s this breaking down and rebuilding that results in the bulky muscle look. Yoga increases strength by toning and lengthening the muscles. The result is not “abs of steel.” Instead it is a more subtle combination of strength, elasticity, and suppleness.
