Which is best - Yoga or Strength Training? What about Yoga and Strength Training?
So which is it – yoga or resistance training? The two practices seem to indicate different paths to completely different destinations in terms of physique and functional ability. The yogi is the skinny guy or gal who can twist him or herself into a pretzel while calmly and annoyingly chanting AUM! The weight lifter is the meathead who spends too much time in the gym developing big muscles that may look good but are largely inflexible and non-functional.
Thankfully these two opinions are gross and inaccurate generalizations.
I personally think the research shows a combination of yoga posture practice and strength training is the best thing you can do for your body, aside from proper nutrition of course. This is not really a new concept. Health clubs all around the world have regular yoga classes in addition to their free weights and nautilus machines. We learned a few years ago in the book Real Men Do Yoga, that even football players can get a lot out of supplementing their heavy lifting with some rigorous posture practice.
But how well have yoga and strength training really been integrated in popular training regimes? Not too well in my opinion. The two practices remain separate things to do on separate days for separate purposes. Read on to find why recent discoveries indicate this should change.
As I pointed out in a recent paper, biotensegrity represents a new way of looking at the organization of the human body. It’s based on the architectural principles of tensegrity structures. While this idea is still largely up for debate, early research seems to support it.
Tom Myers has shown through a series of compelling dissections that global tension lines (he calls these lines Anatomy Trains) indeed run throughout the body. Dr. Stephen Levin proved during arthroscopic surgery that our bones never actually touch each other (not under normal circumstances, as least). Furthermore, research by Donald Ingber at Boston Children’s Hospital has shown how even at the cellular level biological systems behave in a way consistent with tensegrity structures.
Based on this evidence, it seems to me that the overall health of the physical body, at least in terms of comfortable, efficient movement, boils down to the maintenance of tensional integrity. I say this because the word tensegrity itself is a contraction of the phrase, “tensional integrity.” This indicates to me a full integration of strength training and yoga posture practice is essential for maintaining a body that can move with strength and grace in any situation.
Resistance training, whether by picking up dumbbells, barbells, or even your own bodyweight, takes care of the tensional part, while yoga practice takes care of the integrity part. If you’re interested in creative ways to integrate yoga posture practice with strength training in your own practice, subscribe to my Integral Fitness Newsletter using the form below. Also, keep an eye out for my new book, The Brickhouse Bodymind Blueprint, set for release March 21. In it you’ll find high-quality pictures detailing my own methods for achieving tensional integrity through the integration of yoga and strength training.
In the mean time, also check out Scott Sonnon’s Circular Strength Training system, and The Bodyweight Exercise Revolution e-book. As always, please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at philip(at)brickhousebodymind(dot)com if you have any questions about content or if you have suggestions for future content.
Sorry bur there isn’t any scientific evidence which indicates that the best thing you can do for your body is Yoga and strength training.
While Yoga is generally a fairly benign exercise system that many enjoy, it does not in anyway augment a sound strength training program.
You don’t need Yoga. You do need strength training.
Fred,
I think you’re right … at least in the fact that some of my conclusions run ahead of the research and are probably controversial in mainstream training circles, but that’s what I do – I take things and run with them. What the research does say is that our musculature is more connected via the fascial tissue than anyone slicing and dicing for an anatomy textbook ever stopped to understand. Furthermore, thanks to the mechanotransduction process of cell receptors called integrins, our cells respond to mechanical energy and tension in surrounding tissues in surprising ways. Excess density in tissues triggers the cellular death cycle, while elongation triggers cell division and the generation of new tissue, a desirable thing for folks looking to build muscle.
Strength training by itself is in my experience inadequate for balancing the various global tension lines (which certainly do exist based on dissective evidence referenced earlier). It cannot by itself compensate for the various postural deviations we pick up as a result of injury or just the day-to-day work of doing our jobs and being ourselves. It often actually reinforces these problems. Strength by itself also fails to adequately address the need to reduce myofascial density and undue resideual muscular tension.
This is where yoga posture practice plays a vital roll. To say yoga “does not in any way augment a sound strength training program” goes completely against my experience, and I think the research stated above could be read in support of my position.
Anybody else have thoughts?
What you are saying WRT elongation and such is, as you say, theoretical. If strength training is done properly - not like the folks you typically see in the gym who toss and heave and yank, a person will experience great benefits.
Myofascial density as you call it, is not preventable with Yoga. Perhaps a good deep tissue massage or Rolfing but not via Yoga.
I am not against Yoga save for some positions like the plow, but having done it for years I never felt any great benefit from it and often was injured trying to move into stretched positions that were/are unnatural.
I would only say that if yoga is done properly - not like the folks you typically see in a gym or studio trying to force themselves into unnatural positions before their bodies are ready - injury should not be a problem. In fact, if the bandhas are engaged and you are listening carefully to your body, the active stretching in yoga can most certainly bring about myofascial release just as you say can deep tissue massage or Rolphing or KMI. If you have not had such experience with yoga, I am deeply sorry. Perhaps you should find a new teacher?
At any rate, there are many ways to achieve myofascial release and balance tension lines. I have just found that doing an active posture practice is more beneficial in the long run than passive releases like massage therapy, because these releases are coming under your own power, and are reinforced by consciously creating more balanced alignment throughout the body. With these active stretches you are in a way giving yourself a deep tissue massage. Further, you are learning to conscientiously mitigate the myotatic stretch reflex and you are refining your proprioceptive senses in ways that just aren’t as available during strength training. Bottom line for me - lift heavy stuff to master the tensional and do vigorous yoga to maintain integrity.
BTW - Plow in itself is not a dangerous position if done correctly. The important thing is not to put weight on your neck. Weight should be completely supported by the shoulders.
Thanks for the discussion, Fred … Hope you have a nice weekend!