Yoga: The Art and Science of Flexibility
There is no one activity, sport or exercise system that does everything we need to be optimally fit and healthy. We need a number of different exercise activities that each work different systems and processes in the body to achieve optimal health and fitness.
- We need an exercise activity that works on and improves our heart and lung fitness, or cardiovascular health.
- We need a way of progressively increasing the strength of our muscles, which also results in a change in shape and tone of these muscles too.
- We need a type of exercise that improves flexibility in our muscles and our joints and which also keeps us mobile and resistant to injury.
- And we need the proper nutrition to fuel and support the exercise and activities we do, alongside adequate rest and recovery in order to progress.
These are what you might call the “Pillars” of Fitness. We need a combination of all of the above to achieve optimum health and fitness. None of them on their own will achieve it. Just like one pillar would not support a building — so too, no one activity on its own is enough to achieve optimal fitness.
There may be a “cross-over” of benefits between activities. For example a yoga class which uses your body’s own weight as “resistance” may to a limited extent improve your strength, but not as efficiently as a system whereby you can progressively increase the resistance using weights and machines. And as long as you are using a full range of movement during a weight-training programme, you shouldn’t lose flexibility — but it also won’t increase it. Neither strength training nor yoga will appreciably improve cardiovascular fitness, but “cardio” exercise will not be the most efficient way of improving strength or flexibility! And so on…
Today, I want to talk about one of these “Pillars”, Flexibility.
I have been exercising, playing sports, working out in a gym and practicing yoga since I was a teenager, and I know of no other activity, exercise, sport or system that improves flexibility like yoga.
Yoga in its physical incarnation is the Art and Science of Stretching — and I have found nothing better when it comes to improving flexibility.
I talk about this more in the following video:
You will find a library of all my Pre-recorded Yoga classes within my Coaching App, all included in my Coaching Plan.
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Thank you for reading.
Simon.
