Advice needed

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi Everyone,

I need to ask for some open ended advice about practising yoga and progressing to an advanced stage, but before I do I will give some background information about myself:

I first practised yoga 7 or 8 years ago, when I used it as a method to increase my flexibility for martial arts training. Unfortunately there are no yoga classes available anywhere near where I live and so I just practised a set routine for beginners using a book written by Vimla Lalvani. My routine included basic poses such as ‘head to knee’, ‘side stretch’, ‘dog pose’ etc. Using this routine in conjunction with my martial arts stretching meant that I was fairly flexible at that point.

Flasforward to the present day and it has been many years since I practised martial arts or yoga. I have lost much of the flexibility from that time and my focus has been on general weight training and conditioning. I am much more muscular than in the past, but I do miss yoga and being flexible as well.

I have resolved to start practising yoga again in conjuction with my weight training and would like to ask the following quesitons:

  1. Can someone achieve an advanced level of yoga whilst also being physically built like a weight lifter? Do these two forms of exercise complement or work against each other?

  2. In order to achieve an advanced level of yoga, how often should I practise? How many times a week and for how long each session?

  3. Given that I can only practise yoga through books or DVDs, how should I plan my sessions? There are hundreds, maybe thousands of poses and variations, how can I organise a good routine and update it to reflect my progress (or lack thereof!) so that I can continually improve over time?

I Hope this post is not too much of a mouthful to answer, I would really appreciate the advice of some experienced yoga practitioners,

Thank you

#2
  1. Can someone achieve an advanced level of yoga whilst also being physically built like a weight lifter? Do these two forms of exercise complement or work against each other?

Yoga is the ultimate compliment to other forms of exercise in terms of preventing and healing injuries, refining technique, stamina, performance in general.
Could say that Hatha Yoga gives the foundation and other more extrinsic disciplines the ‘house.’ If the ‘house’ has been built on a mis aligned foundation, it might be necessary to knock the house down to correct the misalignment.
For example, if someone has a spinal imbalance, weights/conditioning might build muscle over the imbalance without correcting it. To get to and correct the deeper intrinsic muscles, it might be necessary to shed the imbalanced extrinsic muscles.
People coming form weights to Yoga tend to get leaner to begin with, but often feel a lot healthier.

  1. In order to achieve an advanced level of yoga, how often should I practise? How many times a week and for how long each session?

The Yogis of old would stand in Tadasana for a year or so. The Shaolin monks of old would stand in horse stance for a similar amount of time.
Most of us lack the time and discipline for that!
6 hours per day, 6 days a week is a good starting point to reach a competent level. This would include savasana and meditation, adjusted accordingly if the body is tired.
If that’s not possible, then aim to practice as much as you can. Practice time is greatly optimized by practicing at the right times of day. Sun up and sun down are the best. Meditation just before sun up and before sleep.

  1. Given that I can only practise yoga through books or DVDs, how should I plan my sessions? There are hundreds, maybe thousands of poses and variations, how can I organise a good routine and update it to reflect my progress (or lack thereof!) so that I can continually improve over time?

A teacher is necessary until you can establish your own practice. There is and never has been no two ways about this.
If that’s really not possible I’d suggest booking classes specifically geared to building self practice. If you could do this for a month+ per year or so, this would help greatly.

#3

[QUOTE=Terence;63361]Yoga is the ultimate compliment to other forms of exercise in terms of preventing and healing injuries, refining technique, stamina, performance in general.
Could say that Hatha Yoga gives the foundation and other more extrinsic disciplines the ‘house.’ If the ‘house’ has been built on a mis aligned foundation, it might be necessary to knock the house down to correct the misalignment.
For example, if someone has a spinal imbalance, weights/conditioning might build muscle over the imbalance without correcting it. To get to and correct the deeper intrinsic muscles, it might be necessary to shed the imbalanced extrinsic muscles.
People coming form weights to Yoga tend to get leaner to begin with, but often feel a lot healthier.[/quote]

I understand. Would it be the case that having bulky muscles around the legs and back in particular would make it difficult to perform many of the poses because they restrict my movement?

[QUOTE=Terence;63361]

The Yogis of old would stand in Tadasana for a year or so. The Shaolin monks of old would stand in horse stance for a similar amount of time.
Most of us lack the time and discipline for that!
6 hours per day, 6 days a week is a good starting point to reach a competent level. This would include savasana and meditation, adjusted accordingly if the body is tired.
If that’s not possible, then aim to practice as much as you can. Practice time is greatly optimized by practicing at the right times of day. Sun up and sun down are the best. Meditation just before sun up and before sleep. [/quote]

I don’t understand how anyone with a family or a job can afford 36 hours of yoga training per week, unless yoga instruction is exclusively how you make a living! I can probably make time to do a Hatha yoga session 2 or 3 times a week for an hour each session.

[QUOTE=Terence;63361] A teacher is necessary until you can establish your own practice. There is and never has been no two ways about this.
If that’s really not possible I’d suggest booking classes specifically geared to building self practice. If you could do this for a month+ per year or so, this would help greatly.[/QUOTE]

I was afraid you were going to say that. I live in a rural area so it’s just not possible to attend a class right now. In the future I will move to a more populous area, but until then I will have to make do with a book :frowning:

#4

There is what some would consider an IDEAL situation and then there is reality. Most of us live in reality.

Of course working with a teacher would be preferable - but it’s not always possible. Make the best with what you can do. If the absolute best you can do is books and DVDs - then use books and DVDs. If when traveling you can find a class or a teacher - perfect. If you can make time and money in your life for a retreat/seminar/workshop - GREAT! Even online - - - perhaps learning online is not IDEAL - but it’s much better than doing nothing.

I would worry less about reaching an ‘advanced’ level of yoga and just DO yoga. I regularly combine heavy lifting/strength training with yoga. I think they compliment each other and I get benefits from each of them.

Find what works in your life. It may take some trial and error - but that’s all part of the life experiment/experience.

#5

[QUOTE=KrisR;63376]There is what some would consider an IDEAL situation and then there is reality. Most of us live in reality.

Of course working with a teacher would be preferable - but it’s not always possible. Make the best with what you can do. If the absolute best you can do is books and DVDs - then use books and DVDs. If when traveling you can find a class or a teacher - perfect. If you can make time and money in your life for a retreat/seminar/workshop - GREAT! Even online - - - perhaps learning online is not IDEAL - but it’s much better than doing nothing.

I would worry less about reaching an ‘advanced’ level of yoga and just DO yoga. I regularly combine heavy lifting/strength training with yoga. I think they compliment each other and I get benefits from each of them.

Find what works in your life. It may take some trial and error - but that’s all part of the life experiment/experience.[/QUOTE]

I’ve done a few sessions from my book and even just doing the simple poses is proving to be a good challenge. I will try to do this routine as often as possible and like you said, if I get the opportunity to go to a class I will.

Thanks for your response.

#6

So I’ll try to answer your three questions directly in the best way(s) I am able.

Can someone achieve an advanced level of yoga whilst also being physically built like a weight lifter? Do these two forms of exercise complement or work against each other?
An “advanced” level of yoga is only a relative term. When talking about Yoga an advanced practice is one where you are not in separation from your spirit and most of us are in separation more than we are in unity. Let me shift the response away from yoga and toward asana or poses.

Hard, tight muscles can inhibit some musculo-skeletal function. The list of those inhibitions is not important for this thread. The other side of that coin is that muscles need to be used and bone needs to bear weight. I’ve worked with some very muscly football players and in some cases, yes, their muscle mass gets in the way. That is not to say “forget muscle”, it’s just a direct answer to your inquiry.

In the practice of yoga (or asana) some things heap on top of our living and steer us toward burnout, overdoing, excess, and imbalance. Other things lead us to equanimity and counter our patterns and life choices (when they need countering due to lack of balance). The question here is only what works for you in your living. I have found appropriate asana to help in injury prevention when I am doing things that tend to beat my body. So for me, when I wield it properly, asana is helpful. AND it has taught me how to treat my body with more respect and awareness over time.

  1. In order to achieve an advanced level of yoga, how often should I practise? How many times a week and for how long each session?
    Again this is an asana question. Yoga is practiced in all of one’s living. If you are looking for an ability to “do” poses , if you are looking to do physically more difficult poses then this will depend on your built-in range of motion (rom), your diet, your rest, your thoughts, your alignment, and your balance between doing (tapas) and contentment (santosha).

A daily practice of 90 minutes can be very helpful and a beginning student may see changes in as little as six weeks. However there can also be several plateaus along the way and frankly books and DVDs don’t help much in that respect. They also do not address you specifically, especially when there’s an injury or a mobility/stability issue. However I fully agree with Kris above that doing is better than not and books/DVDs are better than guessing (sometimes).

3… how should I plan my sessions?..how can I organise a good routine and update it to reflect my progress…
Keep it simple and try not to damage yourself through the practice or the inappropriate infusion of violence, aggression, or ego in it. Continual improvement mandates that the student constantly be refining the pose, it does not require that the poses constantly be changed. Unfortunately we live in a society that says “don’t judge a book by its cover” as it is judging a book by its cover. The depth of asana is your ability to go within, through the layers of yourself, using the pose as a conduit.

Of course when the goal is a gross physical growth, yes, change is needed externally and this will be very challenging without a guide. While I’ve not followed them for my practice I have seen the progressions in “Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health” by BKS Iyengar and that would be a good book for a safe, growing, physical practice.

#7

Hello there,
As for the post written. You can surely get back into it with more muscle on your frame. But you will find your body just doesn’t move the way it did before. So, don’t expect it to, since you composition has changed. Do what you can and don’t get frustrated.
You may want to find classes online that you can follow, like ashtanga or a vinyasa.
Good luck with your practice and listen to the body and the mind will flow.

#8

Thanks for your kind responses. I have been making more time to practise this week and can already see some of my previous flexibility returning. It is encouraging, I just hope I can keep it up without the support of a teacher. I will perhaps post updates on my progress if I get stuck with anything or of doing the same routine.

Thanks again.