Strength training yoga: Truth or joke?

Practicing yoga to increase flexibility is something everyone knows. However, in addition to improving the body’s flexibility, few people know that practicing yoga also helps to increase muscle very effectively, even for many people, it is better than going to the gym.

If we want to gain muscle, most of us think about going to the gym. However, if you don’t like the gym, you can come to yoga, a gentle but also very good muscle-gaining set.

Although few people know this benefit of yoga, if you try it once, you will surely be surprised. Let’s see the sharing below with easyhealthylive.com to see how yoga helps to increase muscle.

Practicing yoga to build muscle: Is it true?

Yoga can be a perfect choice to help muscles become toned and strong. However, the common psychology of most of us when it comes to yoga is that this subject only works to stretch the body and relax the mind, but few think that this is an exercise that can bring a ” 6-pack body”.

Instead, to have a “six pack body”, weight training is the solution that many people think of the most. And yoga is rarely chosen for this purpose because many people think that yoga movements are too simple and they do not realize the connection between yoga movements and muscle building.

In fact, yoga poses are all exercises that work to tone all the muscles in the body. Not only will it help you restore your health, but it will also help calm your mind and give you a sense of peace.

How to gain muscle with yoga?

In order for yoga exercises to promote their ability to increase muscle, you can apply the following 3 methods:

1. Progressive overload

Progressive overload is a very common term in gyms and bodybuilding. This is a method of accumulating pressure on the body over time by increasing the difficulty of the exercise so that the body gradually adapts and develops. How to apply this method to yoga?

When doing this method in yoga, you will have to modify the poses continuously so that the body is conditioned to experience a lot of stress and pressure. You can set a goal to practice the pose from basic to advanced and determine specifically what you have to do to achieve that pose. Every week, you need to push yourself properly to reach your goal soon.

In addition to gradually increasing the difficulty of the poses, you also need to increase the time you hold the pose. Remember, the more difficult the pose, the more strenuous your muscle strength will improve. However, the body will also have certain limits, listen to your own body and find out what you can and cannot do.

The more difficult the pose, the more strenuous your muscle strength will be

2. Create metabolic stress – metabolic stress

Metabolic stress is when you take advantage of lactic acid during exercise to boost muscle growth. Specifically, when exercising, in addition to feeling tired and tired, you will also feel a burning sensation in the muscles. This is due to the lactic acid produced inside the muscle fiber.

In yoga, you will feel this when you practice a series of poses without rest. Or you can also feel this when doing squats sitting up and down for a period of time or leaning against the wall, feet perpendicular to the floor for 2 minutes.

Many studies have demonstrated that metabolic stress (Metabolic Stress) can have many benefits for muscle growth and strength.

3. Muscle mechanical damage

Have you ever thought about pushing yourself to exercise as much as possible so that your body feels extremely tired? In fact, this is also a very good way to increase muscle, when the body is too tired, the muscles are damaged, they will need time to rest. After resting, you will see your muscles grow stronger.

During your workout, try pushing your body through the “comfort zone”. This can be difficult, but it is a way to promote self-adaptation.

Using this method regularly will tire you out because you are damaging your muscles so they grow stronger. You don’t have to do this every workout, instead, try it once a week and you’ll see amazing results.

Top 5 yoga poses to help you sculpt the best body

Here are some very effective yoga poses for muscle gain:

1. Chair Pose

The chair pose puts metabolic stress on the legs. If you want a quick and powerful effect, you need to reach deep into the pose.

Doing

• Stand in mountain pose, feet close together, hands along the body
• Slowly bend your knees, push your hips back, imagine you are sitting on a chair
• Raise your hands toward the ceiling, palms facing each other. Arms are straight, do not bend elbows.
• Hold the pose and stretch the spine.

2. Warrior Pose II

This is a full body pose that works all the muscles in the body.

Doing

• Stand up straight, feet about 90cm apart
• Turn your right foot out 90 degrees, left foot inward 15 degrees. The heel of the right foot should be in line with the center of the left foot
• Raise your arms to the side so they are at shoulder level. Palms facing down and arms parallel to the ground
• Take a deep breath. As you exhale, bend your right knee so that the knee is directly above the ankle.
• Gently turn your head, look to the right
• Hold the position and breathe evenly.
• Repeat the pose with the left leg by turning your left foot 90 degrees outward and your right foot inward 15 degrees.

3. Boat Pose

This pose brings a lot of benefits to the abdominal muscles. Practice this pose regularly, your abdominal muscles will have a huge and obvious change.

Doing

• Sit up straight, knees bent. Place your hands on the floor, behind your hips, fingers pointing toward your feet. Keep your back straight, chest slightly raised. Inhale slowly
• Exhale, slowly raise your legs up high, keeping your legs together and your back slowly back, straighten your legs, balance on your tailbone and thighs.
• Inhale, raise your legs so that your feet are higher than your eyes, arms raised at shoulder height, parallel to the floor, palms facing each other, so that your body forms a V shape.
• Hold this position for 10-20 seconds and slowly bend your legs and return to the starting position.

4. Grasshopper Pose

This is a great pose to tone your back muscles. While performing this pose, do not forget to breathe. Because you are lying on your stomach and have to use force to lift your body, you will often pay less attention to taking slow, deep breaths.

Doing

• Lie face down on the mat, hands parallel to the hips.
• Taking a deep breath, slowly lift your legs up.
• Squeeze your thighs, make sure to lift your legs, and straighten your knees. Try to lift as high as you can, your weight will now be on your abs.
• Hold the pose for 30-60 seconds, then slowly lower your legs to relax.

5. Crocodile Pose

This pose can be difficult for those who are new to yoga. However, if you want to gain muscle, this is one of the extremely effective poses. If you find it difficult to practice, you can use yoga bricks to support.

Doing

• Start in a plank position, making sure that your hands are shoulder-width apart.
• Keeping your hands straight and perpendicular to the floor, squeeze the four corners of your hands firmly on the mat, squeezing your abs and keeping your back straight.
• Slowly reach forward and lower down. Don’t let your elbows swing out to the sides. Squeeze elbows to sides.
• Keep your shoulders level with your elbows, so that your forearms are perpendicular to the floor, your arms are perpendicular to your forearms and parallel to the floor.
• If it’s too hard, lower your knees. Hold for 10-30 seconds, then lower your body to the mat.

How many times a week do you practice yoga for the best muscle gain?

For fast muscle gain to be effective, you should practice yoga 3 times per week. However, if you only practice once a week, you can still achieve results. It all depends on how much effort you put into reaching your goal of performing advanced poses.

The most important thing is that you need to make a realistic plan, while maintaining a scientific lifestyle for yourself. Trying to make yoga a habit is one of the surest and most effective ways to get the results you want soon.

4 basic mistakes that make yoga practice not bring the desired muscle gain results

If you find yourself doing yoga for a while and your muscle strength still isn’t improving, consider whether you’re making one of these four mistakes:

1. Exercise too gently, do not put pressure on the body

If you are practicing yoga to reduce stress and increase flexibility, then try to practice regularly to achieve your goal of muscle gain. And if you are just focusing on finding comfort in your body without putting pressure on it, then you will be very unlikely to achieve the desired results.

Do not be too dependent on practicing yoga at the centers. Instead, find an advanced pose that you want to do, and then work on improving your body slowly to achieve this. To shorten the time, you can invite a private yoga teacher of easyhealthylive.com to guide a specific route.

2. Overtraining

Many people believe that the more you practice, the faster the results. However, it is this mindset that causes many people to force their bodies too much and not give them time to recover. This condition, if it goes on for a long time, is not only ineffective but can also be harmful to the body.

3. Avoid advanced poses

After mastering the basic yoga poses, there comes a time when you feel like you want to try more advanced yoga poses. However, many people are afraid of this because they are too scared and do not dare to try.

In fact, practicing advanced poses is an effective way to help increase muscle mass. Because it is the pressure and stress you encounter in the process of practicing difficult postures that create conditions for your body to develop.

Due to fear, many people are afraid to practice difficult poses but do not know that this is an effective way to increase muscle

4. Unscientific diet and lifestyle

One of the most important things to get in good health and quickly achieve the desired muscle gain effect is that you must pay attention to your daily diet. Building a nutritious and complete diet is essential. If you regularly eat a lot of junk food, fried food, fried with a lot of fat, it will be difficult for you to gain muscle.

Through the above sharing, I hope you have an answer to the question of whether yoga can increase muscle or not. If you intend to gain muscle, improve strength with yoga but still do not know where to start, do not hesitate to download easyhealthylive.com to your device, connect with our yoga teacher to guide a route. Fit.

Reference source

Can Yoga Build Muscle? The Truth! https://yogarove.com/can-yoga-build-muscle/ Accessed date: 5/21/2020