Imagine for a moment that you’re at the Olympic Village eating in the cafeteria with all the athletes. A huge man wanders by with massive neck and shoulder muscles, thighs as big as your chest, and biceps and forearms like a python. He’s next to a rail-thin man with long sinewy legs and arms and a gaunt face. A minute later you see a whole group of people with broad shoulders and chests, and long, lean legs and torso. It’s easy to tell from their bodies the type of athlete they are. These people are at the top of their field, and have honed their bodies over years and years to be perfectly suited to excel in their chosen sport. The shot-putter looks nothing like the long-distance runner, and the group of elite swimmers, with their V-shaped backs also have a look all their own.
Form follows function.
The forces that act on a body eventually shape that body. The explosive force needed to throw a 16# ball through the air requires hours of training in the weight-room, ballistic (ie: speed) training, and, of course, lots of throwing the shot. Exercises like these that are high intensity and low repetitions make the muscles large and powerful. In contrast, the long-distance runner does very little weight-lifting; their sport requires muscles to do the same thing over and over for prolonged periods. This type of exercise is low resistance and is done for many reps which will create strong, but not bulky muscles. The swimmer’s body is created through forces similar to the runner’s body. But since the swimmer is pulling the arms forcefully through the water, their upper body can be a bit bulky though long and lean from the high repetitions.
What shape does the well-trained yogi have? Well, anyone going to a yoga class has seen yogis of all shapes and sizes, and since asana practice can be done gently or vigorously, the way it effects your body depends on how you approach it. Let’s first discuss the idea of strengthening.
Research shows that in order to gain strength in your muscles, you have to work with a certain amount of vigor/effort.
Let me explain that in terms of weight-lifting first. If you were lifting a weight overhead, you could lift a small amount many times, but, if you kept adding weight to the bar, there would eventually be a point where you could just lift it overhead once. That’s your 1RM, your 1 repetition maximum. Well, researchers found that the best way to gain strength was to do a couple of sets of a weight that you could lift no more than 8-12 times. This is usually equated to working out with an average of 70%-80% of your 1RM. Apparently, there has to be a fairly strenuous stimulus to cause a muscle to strengthen. Groups that work their muscles at a level of 25-50% don’t seem to make as many strength gains.
So, as you can see, things are quite different with regard to our asana practice. We don’t use weights; our resistance comes from pushing and pulling our body weight against gravity, and pulling against the tightness of our muscles. And we don’t use repetitions in the same way as weight-lifters. It’s more common for us to hold poses for sustained periods. (You can read more about how we use resistance in our asana practice in a previous article I wrote called, “The interplay of opposites” on “The Y of Yoga” blog.
So, when we think about the vigor or intensity of our practice, it might help to think in terms of our perception of effort we are putting out. When we’re taking it easy, around the 25-50% effort, we won’t gain significant strength, but remember, that doesn’t mean it’s not useful. We’re just speaking of strength now. However, if you’re really working hard, and you can’t hold the pose another moment, you’re working at the 80-100% intensity level, and that’s when your muscles gets the message to get stronger.
OK, imagine you’re in the Olympic Village again, and this time some of the top yoga teachers in the world walked by. (Yogis in the Olympics??) They wouldn’t look like track and field athletes, basketball players, or cyclists, or any of the examples I mentioned before. No, in their street clothes, they’d look like normal, everyday people. But in yoga clothes, you’d see long, lean muscles. Very economical – no extra bulk. That’s because of the well-rounded nature of an asana practice. Straining hard some. Relaxing some. And lots and lots of stretching.
