How Does Yoga Build Muscle and Different From Weight Training?

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How does yoga build muscle

Last Updated on July 11, 2020

If we use the term ‘strength training’ the first thing that comes to your mind is probably weights. You’d immediately divert your mind into a gym and think about several repetitions of muscle contractions by using weights for resistance. But why do people also have sore muscles after doing yoga just as they have it after a gym routine? Does that mean yoga comprises of strength training exercises as well? Here, we will answer ‘does yoga build muscle’ and tell you how you can practice it to improve your core.

Experts in the world of fitness advise people into doing strength training for at least two times every week. It keeps their metabolism running and definitely improves strength. Doctors recommend strength training to prevent bone loss.

Can you build muscles by doing yoga?

Let’s admit that everyone likes and dislikes certain types of exercising. For you, weight training might seem eternal slogging with machines, resistance cords, and dumbbells. You might prefer doing yoga instead but also wonder, “does yoga build muscle?”

Rodney Yee, a yoga expert, was once asked if she likes to lift weights. To that, she laughed and said she likes to lift her own body weight. This means that yoga puts your body through postures and orientations that you have to use your muscles eventually. It makes you lift weight but that’s all concerned with your own body.

Most people who understand the essence of yoga, don’t chase behind having a perfect body. Well, not that it’s wrong, but it’s equally important to open up your feeling, thinking, being, and more.

If you’re concerned about having healthy muscles and strength, you’d find an expert yogi have that too. Yoga gradually makes your body toned and defined. Your muscle sizes improve and all you do is lift your body weight. You need a lot of skill, determination, but the results are usually better than lifting weights.

What are weights best for?

You might find women in a gym lifting weights to make their body toned, but you won’t find a man doing yoga to improve body bulk. Weights are primarily focused to make your muscles bulk up and that’s why it a major part of strength training. When you exercise with heavy resistance you end up enhancing your entire musculoskeletal system.

When your muscles and bones are overloaded to develop, they gradually nurture you into having a great body. When you go through weight training, the muscles adapt to the resistance and become strong. Here, the weight is not a challenge anymore and you keep adding more weight to achieve better results. When you go through weight training, you continue growing the size of muscles and enhance your strength.

Why is yoga better than weight training?

If you’re looking forward to having larger muscle definition, you might want to stick to weights. But if you want a well-round approach, you would like yoga instead. You can use yoga to build muscle but know the reasons why you should:

  • Regular yoga practices can reduce the chances of injury. Your body becomes more conditioned to perform in every way you move. You can walk faster, twist better, bend and stretch as much as your body can take.
  • Yoga is a type of functional fitness and it moves your body every day. You can use both your small or large muscles to twist and arch, and not just go one-dimensional likes weights do.
  • To give your body an ultimate toning, you must do yoga. Weights resist your body from flexing all your muscles together and concentrates on one muscle at a time.
  • Yoga depends on eccentric contraction and lets your muscles stretch and contract. It makes your muscles look elongated, sleek, and increases flexibility in joints and muscles.
  • Weight training makes your muscles smaller when it contracts. It follows the principle of concentric muscle contraction and that’s what defines this phenomenon. Without stretching too much, the muscle fibers stay close to each other. This makes the muscles look compact and bulge out.
  • You can improve muscle endurance with yoga as it makes you hold a certain posture for some time, and repeat it many times.

Should you do either or both?

The best way to exercise is by doing a bit of every type of exercise. You need a little bit of cardio, yoga, cross-fit, machines, and weights. Get a mix of exercises that makes you work on your body and use resistance tools too. Many studies have shown that a variety of workouts shows you visible results faster.

Bodyweight exercise is not just yoga, they include push-ups, squats, lunges, and much more. These need you to hold yourself or lift up. It puts pressure on different muscles and limbs. So, you need the best in every exercise type.

You should stress a lot on the kind of exercise you like doing and make that a lifelong habit. For that, you end up trying different types of exercises and choose to do the one you like the most.

When you try different types of workout, you will push yourself and make your body go through tests. You might soon become a fitness enthusiast and help people walk the path of being fit and healthy. In addition, try adding CBD to your yoga routine for added benefit.

Best yoga postures for strength

There are certain yoga postures that people do in order to tone their muscles in different ways. For example, challenging arm balance exercises, inversion poses, are great for muscle building. They make the smaller muscles flex and don’t only cater to the big muscles only as most machines do. You need to take the support of your own body and that’s what builds strength.

Exercises like the warrior poses and triangle pose are perfect for strengthening muscles. You also need to try balance poses like a tree where you need to hold the body on one leg. You put the pressure of one leg and strengthen it gradually with repetitions.

Doing yoga continuously and learning more poses will make you flexible and strong. You can also carry on with traditional exercises like bodyweight forms, lunges, squats, and more. It is best if you don’t jump right into advanced yoga poses but go step by step like every beginner should.