CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH YOGA?

As a yoga teacher, I’ve heard this burning question of aspiring yogis many times: Can you build muscle with yoga? And the short answer is a resounding: YOU BET!

You don’t have to spend hours in the gym to build muscles because yoga is an awesome way to gain strength and tone muscles and you don’t have to lift heavy weights. Research has shown over and over again that bodyweight training is highly effective in getting ripped and yoga is actually one of the original forms of functional fitness and a well-rounded approach to strength training.

What most people don’t realize is that yoga is so much more than developing a calm mind and increasing flexibility. If you choose the right style, you can develop strength and endurance and can achieve that toned body we are all looking to achieve. But even more importantly, you don’t just get a good-looking body, you also get a highly functional body.

Yoga mostly relies on a dynamic process that forces our muscles to strengthen and lengthen at the same time, which means that our muscle fibers and connective tissue get longer while we create tension that helps the body to maintain and build muscles. You can virtually tone every major muscle group with yoga, including your abs and booty.

On top of that, yoga also builds muscular endurance when we stay in a pose for a few breaths, which will tone and grow muscle fibers. And let’s not forget, in a dynamic approach like our FitFlavah Yoga Workouts, you can get your heart rate up and increase your metabolism, which helps you to burn fat.

SO HOW CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH YOGA AND REPLACE LIFTING WEIGHTS?

#1 Yoga is the Original Form of Functional Fitness and a Well-Rounded Approach to Strength Training

Strength training means that we use resistance in the form of weights to induce muscular contraction, which ultimately builds our skeletal muscles, strength and anaerobic endurance. But you don’t need to apply weights to get the same effect. You can induce this muscular contraction also by holding a yoga pose. Just think about it, have you ever been in Chair Pose or any kind of Warrior Pose, held it for a few breaths and felt your quads burning?

You don’t need to use dumbbells and barbells to get amazing muscles, because your own body can replace the weights. And the best part is, it’s available to you 24/7.

A recent study from the University of Wisconsin’s Human Performance Laboratory led by Dawn Boehde and John Porcari, Ph.D. revealed a significant increase in strength and endurance for participants who practice yoga three times a week for an 8-week period.

After 8 weeks participants were able to perform an average of six more push-ups and 14 more curl-ups. These results make totally sense if you think of all the planks and boat poses as well as twists and balancing poses you do in a yoga class. Have a look at the tables below to see the results compared to a control group who didn’t practice yoga.

The same research group did a companion study on Power Yoga to analyze the caloric expenditure as well as cardiovascular impact of yoga and documented the impact of yoga on VO2 max, Heart Rate and calories burned per minute in the following tables.

#2 Yoga is a Full-Body Workout

Just think about balancing poses in yoga. You need to have control over all of your muscles, particularly the core muscles, to avoid tipping over. But besides that, the variety of movements in yoga with standing poses, twists, balancing poses, inversions, arm balances, back bends and forward folds will make you realize that even the simplest of poses involve your entire body and all require an activation of a variety of different muscle groups to master them. This means that you will not only build a stronger, but also a much more impressive physique.

#3 Yoga is a Tried-and-True Workout

If you’re still not convinced that yoga is a workout, just remember that people have been practicing yoga for about 5,000 years. That’s way before any gym ever existed. Keep in mind, yoga was originally created as a technique to release all your pent-up physical energy in order to prepare for meditation, so they really made sure that you get a great workout that works you from every single angle.

What’s even more fascinating is that you don’t just improve your strength, endurance, balance, agility and flexibility through yoga, you also have a much better perception of what your body is actually capable of.

Let me give you a quick example from my teaching experience. At one of my classes I had a new student joining who was jacked from working out at the gym. I thought it would be a breeze for him to flow through the Vinyasas. But sure enough, after a couple of chaturanguas he broke down. So while you can create a fantastic physique in the gym, you may not always get the strength and functionality you are looking for.

If you want to build muscle with our yoga workouts, our BCAA Apple Mint Smoothie is a great way to support it. BCAA stands for branch chain amino acids and yes, amino acids are the building blocks of your muscles and without them, you’d be nothing but a stick-figure with rubber-band muscles.

BCAAs have become more and more popular recently among athletes who want to boost muscle growth and performance as well as cut body fat and help in quicker recovery between workouts. There is a real hype around BCAAs so we did our research to learn about their benefits and our own experience has been positive. However some argue that you don’t need to take a supplement to get all the benefits BCAAs can provide. Through well-rounded nutrition and regular protein shakes you get enough BCAAs that taking extra supplements can become obsolete. That being said, if you work out every day or you go for high intensity we find that they can support your fitness goals.

BCAAs provide you with three of the essential amino acids. Keep in mind, there are 20 different amino acids that make up the thousands of different proteins in our human body. Nine of those amino acids are considered essential, which means that our body cannot produce them and we have to obtain them through our diet or supplements.

The three essential amino acids you get from BCAAs are leucine, isoleucine and valine, typically in a 2:1:1 ratio. The big difference to most other amino acids is that BCAAs are broken down in the muscle instead of the liver and with that they play a major role in the production of energy during your workouts. On top of that they play a vital role in many other aspects of your health, including building muscle and maintaining a stable, normal blood sugar level.

Another unique aspect of these three amino acids and the reason why they are grouped together is that they are the only amino acids that have a chain which branches off to one side.

In recent years, BCAAs have been heavily researched and the results are amazing. There is a long list of benefits of supplementing with BCAAs so have a look below to find out what BCAAs can do for you.

BENEFITS OF BCAAs

#1 Promote Muscle Growth

One of the most remarkable benefit of BCAA for men and women alike is that it has the ability to promote muscle growth. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a serious athlete or casual gym-goer, there are plenty of studies that show that you can gain muscle with BCAAs. One particular study for example showed that people who consumed BCAAs after strength training experienced 22% more muscle protein synthesis than the control group. Keep in mind though, while BCAAs can help you to maximize muscle growth, you need to get a good mix of all 9 essential amino acids, so make sure that you eat a well-balanced, nutrient-dense diet to provide your body with all the building blocks it needs.

#2 Speed Up Recovery Time

Do you constantly feel sore after your workouts? BCAAs may be the answer. Studies reveal that BCAAs could reduce the breakdown of protein during your workouts and with that reduce muscle damage so you don’t have to deal with soreness. On top of that BCAAs have been found to speed up muscle recovery. A recent study out of Japan showed that taking BCAAs before and during your workout can lead to reduced muscle fatigue and soreness and researchers found that supplementing with BCAAs to be one of the most effective strategies to speed up recovery — even more so than rest after periods of intense exercise.

#3 Improve Athletic Performance

Whether you hit the gym, go for a run, CrossFit or play football, BCAAs may help to improve your athletic performance. Besides increasing muscle growth, speeding up recovery and reducing soreness, it has been found that BCAAs can also enhance strength and performance. A study out of the UK showed that supplementing with BCAAs — and leucine in particular — daily for a period of 12 weeks during a strength training program showed a significant increase in strength.

#4 Aid in Weight Loss

More and more research has been focusing on BCAAs and weight loss and has found a strong link between the two. One particular study has shown that branch chain amino acids are more effective in increasing lean body mass while decreasing body fat than whey protein and a long-term animal study revealed that supplementing with leucine is effective in reducing body fat without affecting the protein status.

#5 Prevent Muscle Loss

Unfortunately it’s a fact of life that we lose lean muscle mass as we age. The good news however is that getting plenty of BCAAs from your diet and supplementation is an effective and easy way to slow down that muscle decline and at the same time optimize your body composition. A recent study, which has been published in the journal of Clinical Science revealed that adding BCAAs to your diet can reduce the risk of breakdown of muscle in the human body and could block the degradation of skeletal muscles. Of course, working out is still the most important factor in preventing muscle loss. Just consuming BCAAs and parking your butt on the couch all day won’t do the trick.

#6 Promote Liver Health

BCAAs may potentially improve symptoms of a complication of the liver disease called hepatic encephalopathy, which can result in loss of consciousness, confusion and even coma. On top of that, research has shown that BCAAs can aid to enhance the nutritional status and quality of life of people who suffer from chronic liver disease. Additionally studies have found that supplementing with BCAAs can improve liver function for patients who are undergoing liver surgery and reduce the risk of complications.

#7 Lower Blood Sugar Levels

This is huge. Recent research shows that BCAAs may also be effective in maintaining a stable, normal blood sugar level. It is thought that leucine and isoleucine in particular have the ability to increase the secretion of insulin, which causes the muscles to take in more sugar from the blood, which results in a lower blood sugar level. However, while these findings are very promising, the studies were only done on cells and animals, which means that the results may not be applicable to humans. But, there is research being done on humans now and the preliminary results are promising.

Just FYI, BCAAs are also present in a variety of protein-rich foods like poultry, meat and fish, eggs and dairy products, nuts and seeds, legumes like beans, lentils and peas as well as soy products. However, most people aren’t getting enough BCAAs through their diet, so adding our BCAA Smoothie to your daily routine, will definitely have an impact on your workout and your life.

One big question remains… When is the best time to consume BCAAs?

There is no definitive answer and you might have to experiment with the timing to find out when the best time for you is within your own workout routine. However, most experts advice to take BCAAs before and during your workout to get the best results in terms of energy and focus. But the bottom line is that you can take them before, during and after your workouts to quickly increase the levels of amino acids in your blood stream and with that promote protein synthesis and prevent muscle protein breakdown. Another solution is to take them in between meals if you feel like you don’t get adequate levels of BCAAs from your diet.

However, there isn’t enough research available to determine when to best take BCAAs is. It takes about 30 minutes for BCAA levels to peak in your blood and even though there is this long-held theory that you have a 45 to 60 minute window after exercise to get maximum muscle building benefits from consuming proteins, newer research now reveals that this window may actually be as wide as 5 hours after working out.

So try different timings for yourself to figure out what works best for you.

The most important thing is that you do take an adequate amount of BCAAs for your body weight (91 milligrams per pound of body weight) on a long-term, daily basis, even on your rest days to get the best results.

While you can take BCAAs just on their own, we love to mix them into a smoothie. For this particular smoothie we add half an apple, some fresh mint leaves and the juice of a lemon. It’s refreshing and delicious and will help you to get the body of your dreams.

BCAA APPLE MINT SMOOTHIE INGREDIENTS

1/2 green apple
juice of 1 lemon
10 mint leaves
1 heaping teaspoon (5.75g) BCAA Powder
1 cup water
1 cup ice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add all the ingredients in the blender.
2. Start blending on low speed and gradually increase. Blend until smooth.
3. Add BCAA powder and ice cubes last.

Yoga gives you a strong, functional body that carries you through life a lot easier. So stop forcing yourself to go lift some weights at the gym — even though we are the first to admit that the gym can be a lot of fun if you are into it and you can get great results if you do the right workouts. But if you don’t like the gym, do some more chaturangas, drop into Down Dog and flow through some of our creative sequences and you can definitely build muscle with yoga.

TONE AND STRENGTHEN YOUR BODY WITH YOGA
Joschi & Monika
JoschiNYC.com

Follow us on YourTube, Instagram and Facebook for more useful tips, tricks and hacks.