Is Yoga Exercise?

It has taken me so long to write this. I’ve had a draft going for a couple of months. It’s a strangely difficult subject to discuss. But instead of an essay that arrives at a neat conclusion,  I’m sharing the conversation I keep having with myself.

Is yoga a workout? No. Yes. Sort of. Yes, but…

It depends. The context matters. Or does it?

7 out of 8 limbs of yoga do not involve physical exercise. Maybe the better question is: Is asana a workout? Does it even matter when most people focus mainly on asana anyway?

There have been times I have skipped a yoga practice because I felt like I needed to devote that one hour in the day to a more intense workout - I wanted the biggest bang for my workout dollar. And there have been times I have shied away from yoga classes because I feared I wasn’t fit enough to keep up. So is yoga a workout? I don’t know. Sometimes it can be?

When you pay to go to a vinyasa flow class at a studio, are you expecting a full body workout?  Do you imagine that most people do? It seems like many studios expect this, and deliver. A class title that includes the word “power” sure seems to imply a rigorous physical workout. But is this actually yoga, or rather, the product of what has become a yoga industry?

I used to believe that I had to follow every single cue and instruction my yoga teacher gave in order to receive the maximum benefit from a yoga class. Like there was a secret formula in the sequence that would give me the perfect workout if I did everything as prescribed. If I modified anything, I worried I wasn’t working hard enough. If I couldn’t keep up or do a pose (hello crow pose) I worried I was missing out on a physical benefit. And if I wasn’t getting the “maximum benefit,” what was the point?

Well, that’s not how it works. At all.

Asana, the 3rd limb of yoga, incorporates elements of what we may consider exercise (strength, stamina, flexibility, balance) but its intended purpose is not to help us check off the exercise box on our to-do list, it’s to give us tools that help us learn to calm our minds, and a safe playground to experiment with those tools. Yoga is a spiritual endeavor that involves physicality.

The more I think about this, the more I realize the way my American brain labels activities and ranks priorities struggles with this nuance. Why would I move and sweat if it wasn’t achieving the goal of the perfect workout?

Yes, teachers put great effort into creating sequences that are well-rounded and intentional. But the truth is you receive the “maximum benefit” (a phrase that probably doesn’t belong anywhere near yoga) of a yoga class when you connect to your breath and your body, find awareness of the present moment, and  tune into your inner knowing.

In your practice, one day you may feel energized and strong, and the next you may feel called to rest. One day you may feel safe to try something you’re not sure you can do. Or your biggest challenge may be in finding stillness. In this sense, the actual poses are irrelevant - what matters is that they offer you a low stakes framework to tune in to yourself. 

If you tip over in a balance, it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares. It’s part of the practice. You take a breath and try again. Or maybe you move on to the next pose. That’s it. The only consequence for exploring, for trying and failing, is that you get to try again, if you want to. “Failing” doesn’t matter - but listening to yourself and trusting your intuition does. 

Sometimes the physical challenge of poses feels uncomfortable, and that’s great. We practice being okay with feeling discomfort on the mat so we can better tolerate discomfort in life. When we learn to tune into ourselves and trust ourselves on the mat, that attunement and trust begins to show up in other areas of our daily lives. If yoga has a “maximum benefit,” this is it.

When we approach our yoga practice as just a good workout, we may miss out on the rest or restorative moments we are craving, and we abandon the opportunity to listen to our intuition.

And yet, so many of us still seem stuck on the exercise part.

I notice cognitive dissonance when I attempt to reconcile the truth about yoga with my conditioned beliefs about what is productive, what is of highest value. It’s hard for my brain to accept that honoring rest and intuition is just as valuable as burning calories. 

Yoga is antithetical to the American obsession with being productive and working as hard as we can. It’s a radical act of using our bodies and physicality for the purpose of spirituality instead of for production. 

My yoga practice is pushing me to see outside the limits of my capitalist-conditioned beliefs. This can be uncomfortable and unfamiliar and confusing - sensations I am familiar with from practicing a pose like fallen triangle. This pose just doesn’t make sense in my body, it doesn’t feel great, and I don’t think I’m doing it right or well. But I’ve learned the discomfort is tolerable. It won’t kill me, it won’t ruin my day. I breathe through it, try again, and I’m okay.