An article written in the Yoga Journal caught my eye. They wanted to test the theory that yoga was all that was needed for optimal fitness.

I wanted to know if indeed this was true because other than regular 15-20 minute walks on a treadmill and leg presses, I really had no sport or gym program other than yoga which I do 3 times a week for an hour and a half each, with some self-yoga squeezed in between these formal classes whenever I can.

First, the article tries to define the factors that influence how fit you are:

1. Cardiorespiratory fitness: how fit your heart, lungs and blood vessels are (your ability to move without feeling tired or out of wind). Tests would include working out on a treadmill using a mask to measure oxygen intake, how it moves through the bloodstream and into the muscles (VO2max test). Another would be blowing into a tube to test lung capacity as well as heart rate tests.

2. Muscular fitness: the tests cover muscle strength (amount of weight you can lift) and muscle endurance (how long you can lift it).

3. Flexibility: With age, muscles shorten and tendons stiffen. Range of motion of limbs occur and loss of flexibility can lead to pain and injuries.

4. Body composition: refers to the percentage of your body made up of fat instead of muscles, bones, organs, and other nonfat tissues. Too much fat, too little muscle can raise risk of disease and makes movement less efficient. One good test is the pinch test using a pair of calipers; for athletes with less body fat, their submerged (in water) body weight is compared with land weight. The greater the difference, the higher the fat percentage.

Researchers at the U. of Calif. Davies tested 10 college students in these factors before and after 8 weeks of yoga training that included 10 minutes pranayama (breathing), 15 minutes warm-ups, 50 minutes asanas, and 10 minutes meditation. Another research looked at 287 students over a 15-week period who took twice-weekly yoga. There were also other smaller researches testing this theory as well in India. Their findings were surprising:

– muscular strength of the U. of Calif. test group increased by as much as 31%, muscular endurance by 57%, flexibility by as much as 188%, and VO2max by 7%;

– lung capacity of the 287 students improved significantly, including those of the athletes among them who thought they had already maximized their lung capacity;

– a test group that practised pranayama in India showed a larger reduction of blood lactate (fatigue indicator)

– other test groups showed increased exercise performance as well as increased anaerobic threshhold (the point at which muscles cannot extract enough oxygen from your blood and therefore must switch from burning oxygen to burning sugar and creatine). Burning sugar and creatine is good since these are considered dirty fuel sources that create lactic acid and other by-products that build up in the blood, causing hyperventilation and loss of muscle coordination.

The question then is: why does yoga build fitness? There are several possibilities as gleaned from different researchers:

1. Muscles respond to stretching by becoming larger, thereby extracting more oxygen and in the process, increasing muscle strength and endurance;

2. The pranayama theory explains how yoga poses increase lung capacity. Rib areas, shoulders and back become flexible, thus allowing lungs to expand to its maximum capacity, leading to the conditioning of the diaphragm and fully oxygenating the blood.

3. Sun salutations (Suryanamaskar) increase heart rate;

4. Standing, balancing and inversion poses build strength

5. Lastly, a yoga instructor in SF, Dina Amsterdam, says that yoga tunes you into your body thereby helping you coordinate your actions. She says, “When you bring your breath, your awareness, and your physical body into harmony, you allow your body to work at its maximum fitness capacity.”

If you’re already into yoga, does it mean you are already fit and in no need for other types of exercise? This research says maybe, maybe not. It depends on how much yoga you do.

Gentle yoga done 3-4 times a week but for only about 15 minutes will have to be supplemented with other forms of exercise. Yoga done for less than an hour twice a week will need walking or increased yoga time or frequency. But you are in the best situation to be fit if you do yoga for more than an hour, 2-4 times a week. The research article also gives a list of the types of asanas that should be included in your routine. In addition, the article states, “Beyond fitness, yoga also offers many other gifts. It improves your health, reduces stress, improves sleep, and often acts like a powerful therapy to help heal relationships, improve your career, and boost your overall outlook on life.”

Reading this article gave me so much assurance that just through my regular yoga routine, I can hope to stay fit well into my senior years. If you, my dear readers, are still searching for THE regimen that will bring you to a higher level of fitness, do consider yoga. I never thought I would get into yoga since I already did ballet and jazz in my younger years (the more popular form of exercise for girls). Now, after a little over a year of hatha yoga, I can truly say that I wonder how I ever lived without it.