Is Yoga Enough?

There are so many health benefits to yoga. However, yoga might not be enough to be your entire workout regimen. It doesn't fit the traditional way I think of working out since I have a background playing basketball. It doesn't have quite the cardio that I'm used to. While I have gotten several health benefits from yoga, I still feel pretty out of breath during my soccer games on Sunday. Is the answer more intense yoga or does it need to be supplemented with something else?

Cardiovascular fitness is very key to living a long and healthy life. Therefore, it should be a huge consideration when planning a workout routine. In order to improve the fitness of your heart, you need to focus on intensity, duration, and frequency. We should aim to stay above 65% of our maximum heart rate for at least 20 minutes, three to five times per week. However, there is more and more evidence that mixing high and low intensity workouts is beneficial.

The style of yoga plays into how much your heart rate will increase. If you are doing long holds, your heart rate will likely remain lower. If you are doing more of a Ashtanga power flow style yoga, it is more likely your heat rate will increase into the intense range. Other teachers argue that even the most intense yoga will never challenge your heart in the same way as running or swimming.

There still hasn't been that much research into the heart benefits of yoga. It will be interesting to see what people learn about it in the future. For me, I will just make sure that I am doing a variety of different kinds of workouts anyways to keep myself more engaged. I will always love playing basketball but it is also nice to gain some more strength and flexibility as well as relieve stress through yoga.

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/3160