How does yoga differ from stretching?

[vulture1930]

I've recently started a new Darebee program and it involves yoga on what I believe to be a rest day at the end of the week.

Thing is... I had never done yoga before and I am pretty sure I did it completely wrong. It felt too challenging as well and all-in-all lead to me not enjoying it.

Since it's a rest day and I'd like to have something relaxing to look forward to, I am most likely going to replace it with stretching for the time being.

I am curious however, so I'd like to know if I am missing out on something physically that yoga provides over equally challenging stretching? Basically, why is it its own seperate category?

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Hi @vulture1930 !

Great questions! The answers are a bit complicated, because yoga and stretching are different things, but there is overlap between them.

Stretching is the name we give to exercises which are done primarily to increase flexibility, range of motion, and mobility. This in turn has knock-on effects which help to improve other aspects of fitness. There are seven primary different types of stretching (with some overlap between them). DAREBEE has a great Guide on Stretching for Strength & Flexibility which explains a bit about the different types and when and why you might want to use each one.

Yoga is a mind-body fitness practice which incorporates physical postures (you may hear these called "asanas"), breathing techniques (also called "pranayama"), and meditation to increase overall well-being. Many of the physical postures provide stretching benefits. Many are also bodyweight strength training. Yoga postures also help us to develop proprioception (awareness of the relative positioning of various parts of our body in space) and balance (standing balances and arm balances). Depending on the style of yoga (and there are many!), a yoga practice may be easy and relaxing or it may be vigorous and challenging. Some styles involve long holds (which can be quite challenging!). Other styles involve flowing movement from one posture into another.

DAREBEE Programs do not include rest days. They include active recovery days in which you will either do exercises that primarily target different muscle groups than those targeted in the previous day, or you will do similar movements to the previous day but at a lower intensity. DAREBEE's Guide on Rest, Recovery, & Overtraining explains the reasoning behind this. (The TLDR version is: The best rest is sleep. Do this every night between workout sessions. Taking an entire day to rest is not helpful and will slow your training progress.)

If you tell me which Program and Day you experienced, I can give you details on the benefits of each of the included yoga poses. If you have questions about how to perform any specific yoga pose, I can help you with that too. (Yoga is my specialty!)

I hope this helps!

 

[vulture1930]

That was quite insightful and detailed. I feel like I learned a thing or two. You made it easy for me since you explained it wonderfully and hit the core of my question. Thank you for taking the time.

It seems like I hammered in on the mobility aspect of yoga, but it's a lot broader than that as you explained.
I always knew that there was a difference, but now I understand the "what" a little better. In hindsight, my mind probably drifted there as I felt like my mobility was letting me down. I've got something thinking to do now, haha.

Active recovery, I like the sound of that.

Sure. It was day 7 of the total body program https://darebee.com/programs/total-body.html?showall=&start=7
I was struggling with achieving such a strict triangle (1). In the picture, the head,neck, shoulders and upper body are perfectly aligned - The hips are quite far off the ground as well. I tried it again just now. My own form was.. more like a plank with a curve in it

Do you start that pose standing or from the ground?

I feel like my mobility in the hips and legs is the main issue. Not sure if it is related, but to give you an idea, I also have trouble touching my toes and in the past have had mobility struggles with holding L-sits (could never fully stretch my legs).

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you for taking the time.

You are welcome.

Sure. It was day 7 of the total body program https://darebee.com/programs/total-body.html?showall=&start=7

Ah. Downward Facing Dog. (In Sanskrit: adho mukha shvanasana. Sometimes also simply called "downward dog" or even "down dog" for short.) Probably the most ubiquitous pose in yoga. To an advanced yogi, downward facing dog is considered a resting pose. (Cue laughter from every beginning yoga practitioner ever.) It's a great pose once you learn to love it. But for a beginning yogi it can definitely feel awkward, and that journey towards loving the pose can be a long one.

I was struggling with achieving such a strict triangle (1). In the picture, the head,neck, shoulders and upper body are perfectly aligned - The hips are quite far off the ground as well. I tried it again just now. My own form was.. more like a plank with a curve in it

The drawing shows the idealized form of downward facing dog. Down dog almost never looks like that in beginner yogis because such a form requires a high level of flexibility in one's shoulders, hips, hamstrings, and calves which most adult humans--unless they practice downward facing dog regularly--do not have.

Do you start that pose standing or from the ground?

A good place to start is in plank pose as this will position your hands and feet roughly the correct distance apart. From plank pose you push back strongly through your arms while simultaneously lifting your hips upward. Imagine you are a marionette with a string attached to your tailbone, and the puppeteer is pulling that string up, up, up! This is the primary action of downward facing dog.

If you feel as if your hands and feet are too far apart at this point, it is fine to walk the feet in a little closer. However, getting your heels to touch the ground is not important. (Once you have beautiful form in the rest of the pose, you can start to work on grounding your heels if you like. But heels on the ground is honestly the least important aspect of the pose. It requires a lot of ankle mobility and calf flexibility which most adult humans will never achieve. Struggling to ground your heels without that mobility will compromise the important alignments in the pose. It's just not worth it.)

I feel like my mobility in the hips and legs is the main issue. Not sure if it is related, but to give you an idea, I also have trouble touching my toes and in the past have had mobility struggles with holding L-sits (could never fully stretch my legs).

It is fine to do downward facing dog with a bend in your knees if you need it. Eventually--once you've developed more back body flexibility--you can work towards straightening your legs. But this is secondary to finding length through your spine and side body.

Draw your navel in and use your core muscles to lift your hips up and back. Press strongly through your arms to move your chest down and back. (Your chest is moving generally in a direction towards your feet.) Lift your heels as high as you need to, and, if necessary, bend your knees as much as you need to, to achieve that long, straight alignment from wrists to tailbone.

Once you have achieved a long line through your upper body, it can feel good to "walk the dog" by alternately straightening one leg, then the other, peddling your heels towards the ground. Just don't compromise your upper body alignment to do this.

If you try all of this, and you're still saying, "Sorry, Laura. I feel like a hunchback in down dog!" I suggest starting with a modified down dog which utilizes a chair (or other prop) to elevate your hands. Pose #6 in the workout below is downward facing dog with elevated hands!



You can also try placing your hands on the seat of the chair, the edge of a table or coffee table, stacks of books, yoga blocks--experiment with props of different heights to see which gives you the best ability to really lengthen through your arms, back, and sides, (and then, eventually, through the backs of your legs as well).

I hope some of this helps!

 

[vulture1930]

You are welcome.


Ah. Downward Facing Dog. (In Sanskrit: adho mukha shvanasana. Sometimes also simply called "downward dog" or even "down dog" for short.) Probably the most ubiquitous pose in yoga. To an advanced yogi, downward facing dog is considered a resting pose. (Cue laughter from every beginning yoga practitioner ever.) It's a great pose once you learn to love it. But for a beginning yogi it can definitely feel awkward, and that journey towards loving the pose can be a long one.


The drawing shows the idealized form of downward facing dog. Down dog almost never looks like that in beginner yogis because such a form requires a high level of flexibility in one's shoulders, hips, hamstrings, and calves which most adult humans--unless they practice downward facing dog regularly--do not have.


A good place to start is in plank pose as this will position your hands and feet roughly the correct distance apart. From plank pose you push back strongly through your arms while simultaneously lifting your hips upward. Imagine you are a marionette with a string attached to your tailbone, and the puppeteer is pulling that string up, up, up! This is the primary action of downward facing dog.

If you feel as if your hands and feet are too far apart at this point, it is fine to walk the feet in a little closer. However, getting your heels to touch the ground is not important. (Once you have beautiful form in the rest of the pose, you can start to work on grounding your heels if you like. But heels on the ground is honestly the least important aspect of the pose. It requires a lot of ankle mobility and calf flexibility which most adult humans will never achieve. Struggling to ground your heels without that mobility will compromise the important alignments in the pose. It's just not worth it.)


It is fine to do downward facing dog with a bend in your knees if you need it. Eventually--once you've developed more back body flexibility--you can work towards straightening your legs. But this is secondary to finding length through your spine and side body.

Draw your navel in and use your core muscles to lift your hips up and back. Press strongly through your arms to move your chest down and back. (Your chest is moving generally in a direction towards your feet.) Lift your heels as high as you need to, and, if necessary, bend your knees as much as you need to, to achieve that long, straight alignment from wrists to tailbone.

Once you have achieved a long line through your upper body, it can feel good to "walk the dog" by alternately straightening one leg, then the other, peddling your heels towards the ground. Just don't compromise your upper body alignment to do this.

If you try all of this, and you're still saying, "Sorry, Laura. I feel like a hunchback in down dog!" I suggest starting with a modified down dog which utilizes a chair (or other prop) to elevate your hands. Pose #6 in the workout below is downward facing dog with elevated hands!



You can also try placing your hands on the seat of the chair, the edge of a table or coffee table, stacks of books, yoga blocks--experiment with props of different heights to see which gives you the best ability to really lengthen through your arms, back, and sides, (and then, eventually, through the backs of your legs as well).

I hope some of this helps!

Thanks for all the help. Needed some time for it all to sink in and today yoga was on the board again, so I had another look at your reply.
It's good to know that it's normal to find the poses difficult as a beginner, as I had no reference at all.

I tried it again today and to my surprise it went much better. I focussed less on my legs and more on achieving that straight line between the wrists and tailbone you mentioned. It gave me something to work with and was easier for me to understand/do. Standing on my toes instead of the heels made it easier as well.
One day, I shall master the triangle