Strength, Balance, and Longevity - Yoga From a Fitness Perspective

As a Yoga Instructor I receive a lot of questions from friends, students, and people that I meet on a day-to-day basis.  Despite Yoga’s increasing popularity and the tremendous amount of media attention it has been receiving, there is still a great deal of mystery surrounding this ancient practice.  I decided that I wanted to reach out to people I admire in their respective fields to dig a little deeper, find some new answers, and new information about yoga.  One of the ongoing discussions that I frequently find myself involved in is regarding the question: “Is Yoga Enough to Keep You Fit?”

I conducted this fourth interview with Marianne Norton Bemister.  Marianne is a Certified Personal Trainer with her Bachelors in Teaching Physical Education from Keene State College.  She is an Independent Advocare Nutrition Distributor, a Water Sports instructor, and Mom of three active and amazing young men.  Her resume includes Competitive Natural Body Building as well as Competitive Gymnastics and Coaching.  I have a great deal of respect for her vibrant and inspirational work, both on and off the mat. 

AS:  Please tell me a little bit about your first introduction to yoga and how that practice has evolved for you?

MB:  My first experience with Yoga was on a cruise ship in the late 90’s. I had always been flexible and wanted to try it.  I enjoyed the experience, but felt like my time was better spent in the gym or at the track.  After two achilles tendon injuries I decided to try yoga again for the sheer rehabilitation of my lower legs.  I really thought it was going to be a breeze and help me get back into running quicker.  Boy was I wrong!  After my first class with Amy Spencer, I was exhausted and completely humbled.  Who would have thought that a class for “stretching” could challenge my body so much, both mentally and physically?  I was hooked!  I started training weekly, then twice a week, and I am now practicing three times a week.  I even hired Amy for some private sessions to assist me with obtaining a more precise understanding of proper alignment for my body.  Yoga became my new “sport” of choice.  I challenged myself with each class to push my body harder.

AS:  What types of improvements have you seen since you began incorporating yoga into your fitness regime?

MB:  Since committing to Yoga, exactly one year ago, I have seen some amazing changes in my body.  For starters I am able to run again, pain free, for the first time in 10 years!!!  I also have been able to give up my visits to my chiropractor. Yoga has taught me how to control my “gymnast” sway back and align my entire spine during physical activity, as well as during my daily routine. I am stronger and this has allowed me to increase my weights in the gym without getting hurt. I have stability muscles that are now at the same strength as my bigger gross motor muscles. Yoga has taught me to breath more effectively so my stamina can improve in anaerobic as well as aerobic exercise.  The best part of it all is that I am less stressed, which allows me to be more available for my family and my clients!

AS:  I often hear people discussing the idea that yoga is counterproductive to weight training.  What are your thoughts about that?

MB:  There has been a great deal of research in regards to stretching and how it can negatively impact resistance training. I am here to tell you that yoga has allowed me and my clients to continue working out while gaining muscle mass and definition. When doing resistance training the muscles are actually broken down.  The “rest period” is the time where you build strength and muscle integrity.  Unfortunately, while you are healing, your body can spasm and that will cause imbalances. Before I began practicing Yoga, I would have pain almost daily due to these imbalances.  Occasionally, I would require physical therapy or rest to assist me with the recovery process.  Gone are the days of imbalance!  Yoga assists the body by training the stability muscles and ligaments to be equally strong and healthy.  Gaining spine, ligament, tendon and muscular balance is the definition of health!

AS:  There has been quite a bit of research regarding decreased delayed onset muscle soreness in practitioners of Yoga.  What are your thoughts regarding that concept?

MB:  Even with proper body alignment, resistance training can cause muscle soreness due to lactic acid build up.  With Yoga, the “next day” pain can be eradicated!  The lactic acid build up is due to circulation and the blood filling the effected area in order to protect and heal the muscle.  With yoga, the muscles are warmed, stretched, and given oxygen which allows the lactic acid to be broken down and filtered out through your kidneys.  It’s similar to the scenario of an athlete cramping during a game and the trainer stretching them to get the cramping to stop.  Think of yoga as your own little personal athletic trainer!

AS:  There have also been studies that suggest that the practice of yoga can help prevent injury for athletes.  Do you think this is true?

MB:  As a personal trainer who teaches her clients about the physiology of exercise, I highly recommend Yoga to all athletes.  I tell all competitive athletes to do Yoga to increase their agility and all aging athletes to do Yoga to prevent visits to the chiropractor, (or at least frequent ones).  The benefits of yoga are far more complex than what I have described for you here; we haven’t even touched on the mental and emotional piece that can benefit an athletes performance, but this will have to do for now! So please, don’t wait, go find a highly trained yoga instructor now! Your body will thank you!

AS:  Do you recommend yoga to your fitness clients?

MB:  Since bringing Yoga into my daily exercise routine, I have been recommending that all my clients do the same.  Sometimes, I even incorporate yoga moves into my clients program without them even realizing what I am doing.  The reaction is always the same; “wow, that’s amazing!”.  What many don’t understand is that there are over 600 muscles in the human body and it is almost impossible to train each one with big gross motor movements.  Yoga is the answer.  During your practice, the instructor is constantly teaching you how to mentally be in tuned to all these muscles, where a piece of gym equipment could never allow for that kind of inner muscle awareness.

Did this interview answer some questions for you?  Is there additional information that would like to know?  Please let me know.

Namaste ૐ