hey
i want to get all i can at weigh tlifting and i want it to maximize both
thanks earlier for the help with triceps
but i was wondering what yoga exercises would work:
- biceps
- shoulders
thanks!
someone please help!!
seriously,
nobody knows?
i thought u guys would
i just thought you might be interested in this… you may already know about this. butthere is a dvd and book called Iron Yoga out by Anthony Carillo. Here is what it says about the workout…“combines power yoga with strength training… full-body workout… offers more than 25 specially designed yoga poses that incorporate simple weight-training exercises for a body-shaping, toning, and sculpting routine…”
Hello - I would think that hand stand, shoulder stand, crow, and all those that use the arms and shoulders for balance would help.
Some of these are taken from gymnastics:
Shoulders: Handstands, handstand pushups, press to handstand, planche
Biceps: elbow lever, chinups (all variations), planche
I find the crow not very useful for strength. I use it only as a gateway exercise to more challenging and strengthening hand balancing exercises. Same with the shoulder stand. However, if you can do a press to handstand from the crow, or a backward roll to shoulder stand pressing into a handstand, you are a stud.
Perhaps the delay in responses or the lack thereof is due to the idea you put forth of yoga as “exercises”. It’s kinda like asking how to use a Humvee in your sandbox. You’re missing the point.
If you’re merely trying to build muscle mass you are best served in that pursuit with weight training. Yoga is a much broader, 3,000 year old science of the body of which only a small fragment is asana or poses (or exercises).
In addition, yoga does not, by design, tear up muscle fibre to build muscle mass. In fact much of yoga is about lengthening the muscle while weight training is about tightening and shortening.
I’m giving this information based purely on my sense of your goals based on your post. Best steer clear of yoga for fear of converting all your muscle to slow twitch in the next eight years.
You would be very hard pressed to actually build the biceps in a traditional yoga practice. That and the fact that the bicep is the most over trained and under utilized muscle on your carcass - I mean really useless other than appearance (which by the by qualifies as ego and once again isn’t what yoga is about) - yet again points to some other sort of work.
weight training is about tightening and shortening.
That's pretty much an old wive's tale. Weight training typically results in better flexibility, not worse. Competitive Olympic weightlifters in particular are among the most flexible of all athletes.
You can't do this with short and tight muscles.
Please point me to the research you are using as the basis for your claim. I am anxious to learn more.
Try a Google search with "weight training" +flexibility +study
Also, just look closely at the picture!
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/articles_stretching-round.htm
Quote: "Although we have known for a long time that weight training can improve musculoskeletal flexibility and function...
http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/04newsreleases/nr_200401/nr_education040127.html
The effects of strength training, cardiovascular training and their combination on flexibility of inactive older adults. IG. Fatouros, K. Taxildaris, SP. Tokmakidis, et al., Int J Sports Med , 2002, vol. 23, pp. 112--119
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Researchers Aline Barbosa et al (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2002, 16(1), pp14-18.)
(Just an aside: If weightlifting is so great for flexibility, why are the weightlifters coming here for advice on yoga asanas?)
In yoga we learn that muscles have two functions - contracting (movement) and holding a posture (postural). Alot of what asanas do is strengthen the postural muscles. However, if you don’t stretch these muscles first, but go right to strengthening them, they will get shorter.
As another poster said, traditionally weightlifters have been motivated by how their body looks from the outside. This is not to say all people who lift weights have this motivation - just a significant percentage. So, in some cases they can fall into the trap of over-developing muscles like biceps, triceps, pectorals, deltoids, etc. that are “visible” while neglecting the deep postural muscles and these, as a result, get shorter and shorter.
If the weightlifter is aware of this trap and takes appropriate measures (for example the professional weightlifter pictured, who probably has professional coaching), there is no reason why he or she cannot be flexible AND strong at the same time. Remember, in weightlifting and in yoga and in any other discipline, there are “right” ways and “wrong” ways to go about it.
However, if you want to learn the right way to lift weights, go to a weightlifting forum. Yogis will not be of much help.
Weightlifting is usually done as an outer discipline, where the aim is to put on a display. Yoga is an inner discipline. In real yoga there is no intent to impress others. Instead, the idea is balanced development of all facets of the personality, from the “grossest” (the physical body) to the “finest” (the subtle intellect and beyond). We do not ignore the physical body, gross as it is, because neglect causes it to become weak and sick, and this is very distracting and demands all one’s attention.
NP
I'm not looking for advice on yoga asanas, other than I've heard rumor that some advanced asanas actually aim to stretch certain ligaments so I'd like to know which ones those are... I do a few things in workouts that resemble some yoga asanas, so it's good for me to see what other programs are doing for fitness when there is overlap.
You seem to confuse weightlifting with bodybuilding. Many do. Weightlifting is an Olympic sport, bodybuilding is a competitive beauty contest. Weight training is an activity practiced by both weightlifters and bodybuilders and by others. Bodybuilding and wannabe bodybuilders tend to dominate the weight training community, so I understand the confusion. Most large commercial gyms model their weight training activities after the bodybuilding model, instead of the weightlifting model. True weightlifters are exceedingly rare in most English-speaking countries.
However, if you don't stretch these muscles first, but go right to strengthening them, they will get shorter.
What shortens muscles is chronic use in a limited range of motion. Or not using them at all. If you strength train them in a full range of motion, flexibility will increase as will strength. Most elite weightlifters do not have or need an extensive, formal stretching program. Usually they go through some light mobility drills and then just start lifting.
For example Jeff Wittmer, pictured above, has almost gotten TOO flexible from his weightlifting activities. He has had several lifts disqualified when his butt briefly touched the ground. I talked to his father/coach and they have never really worked on increasing his flexibility; his flexibility just got there from the lifting. And his postural muscles are in great shape; they have to be for him to hold more than 400 pounds overhead. But this is weightlifting, not bodybuilding. Bodybuilders do tend to only train what can be seen and wannabe bodybuilders are often as tight as a brick indeed.
Thanks for the explanation, Lincoln. You are right that I was thinking “amateur bodybuilder” and not “elite Olympic-level weightlifter”. I have no doubt that the best weightlifters are as flexible as they need to be for their sport. I’m coming to this discussion from a yoga teacher’s viewpoint. So far, I haven’t had an elite weightlifter come to my class. The sports-oriented people I have had the honor to work with were really tight, except for one gymnast. In any case, if anyone (doesn’t matter who) feels like they are too tight, and/or they feel bodily weak, a good regimen of yoga asanas, starting from the really basic ones and building up under a qualified, experienced yoga teacher, combined with pranayama (yogic breathing exercises), a sattvic diet, deep relaxation and meditation can do wonders for one’s health. But, like in weightlifting, or any other discipline for that matter, you have to really want it and be willing to work the program. Cheers. NP
Not to bend anyone’s freckle but I’ve got three issues with this thread.
I beleive I now understand the delineation of weight lifting and body building. It’s well stated. And I’ve looked at the picture carefully. It’s just a picture and we should not draw too many conclusions from it. However, any yoga teacher would be concerned about knee ligament safety in these poses as we “over engineer” safety. This is not the Mantra of weight lifting, or cycling, or archery, or bowling. The primary is different. So when we speak as yoga teachers we are always speaking froma “safety first” point of view.
Number one is that the research cited tends to draw conclusion without proper scientific framework. That is to say these are not double-blind tests with a large enough sample. We, as readers must use extreme care in accepting (unilaterally) something called a study. Many studies do not follow stringent testing protocls but reach a conclusion never the less. I am NOT saying the conclusion here isn’t correct, I’m simply saying that the protocols for reaching the conclusion are not followed and therefore if the conclusion is correct it is an accident, not scientific. Any statistical researcher can cite you pasage and verse on this. (I might also point out that study number three in the thread was conducted using inactive men 65-78 years old who might have seen improvement with any physical activity increasing strength).
Number two, the idea (perverse that it is) that yoga is an exercise grows only from our own ignorance and lack of study of yoga and it’s roots. Yoga, as created several thousand years ago, is not an exercise regimen and certianly is not designed to replace your “cardio”. There are many way to stretch and/or get sweaty without yoga. Chase a bus.
So when someone says they do yoga-type things I think they’ve missed the boat. That does not make what they do “wrong” it ust doesn’t make it “yoga”.
Number three, yoga is a subtle science of the body, an awareness practice, a way to more fully realize our dharma. Yes it has some tangible, marketed, and very popular benefits. But these benefits are byproducts of a deeper practice. So yoga is not the exercise margarine of the new millenium
to my understanding yoga asanas is about training the body for the next step, enlightenment.
anything involving additional objects (weights for example) is counter productive, and those bodybuilders you speak of arent known for their long life spans either…which isnt very yogy
its teh same shit you see when people learn taichi just to fight.
oh and by the way the way that guys arms are locked out with that bar above his head is just a discrase to the human body.