I am looking for yoga poses such as glute bridge which I can use weights and resistance bands to make them more challenging. Any advice will be appreciated.
2 Answers
Your imagination is your only limitation here. I'm not a hardcore yoga guy, but here are some videos of clients of mine doing movements that have some replication in yoga.
Weighted Bridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlEzW_bs0jA
Crawling Downward Dog with Push-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxWwDXiQ3ss
Single Leg Lean Over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n8pmUCZr-8
What is your motivation is for adding resistance to yoga poses? I think of it this way: Asana yoga is a wonderful tradition going back a couple hundred years. The poses you see today have been selected organically over the passage of time, with the input and collective wisdom of countless practitioners. The practice fits together in a cohesive way.
Weight lifting probably doesn't go back as far as yoga, but it goes back to at least the fifties. The lifts people do in the gyms have also been selected by the input of countless people in gyms around the world. Of course, you will see some people doing stupid stuff at the gym, but if you are intelligent, then you can put together a well designed program from the classic lifts.
My view is that yoga and weight lifting are each valid systems on their own, but they don't mix very well, like Thai food and Italian food don't go together. When you try to combine yoga and weight lifting, you will end up with a whole that is less than the parts.
For example, I once went to a yoga class where we did stuff like the warrior pose II with a dumbell in each hand. What muscle were they trying to strengthen? Is it the middle delt? If so, there are classic lifts that are vastly more effective at working the middle delt. In my opinion, the class would have been better if we had done an hour of yoga, and followed it with a half hour of weight lifting. They would get better results.
In other words, if you want to do yoga, then do it for the spiritual, communal, mental reasons that it was created. If you want to get stronger, then learn from the people who have been doing it for years: weight lifters.
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Thanks. There are some yoga movement patterns such as glute bridge (Setu Bandha) are incredible for resistance training. I am looking for yoga movement patterns to incorporate my resistance training routine. I already do squats, glute bridges, deadlifts. My purpose is not muscle hypertrophy my purpose is using healthy movement patterns on resistance training because there is so much more(body oxygenation(control pause), breathing) than hypertrophy. Yoga poses with bodyweight posses do not as effective as yoga posses with resistance training.– my-lordFeb 19, 2019 at 11:16
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I have not done Yoga myself, but I understand that it consist of stretches (and breathing/meditation)? According to flexibility expert jujimufu: stretches with a light resistance are more effective than static stretches: youtube.com/watch?v=WFydcAts408 For this reason I think it might be a good idea to add some light resistance to Yoga poses.– AndyFeb 19, 2019 at 11:21
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1@Andy You are right that stretching can be more effective with resistance. However, Yoga is not the same as stretching. Stretching is done, or should be done inside the functional range of movement. By contrast, in yoga, most of the poses take joints to the end range of movement, and then push further. Look for example, at the Warrior Pose; the hip of the back (straight) leg is at the very end range of movement. Look at the Upward Dog; most people extend their lumbar spine to its limit. This is not how a knowledgable trainer would stretch a client in the modern era.– ChrisFeb 19, 2019 at 18:02
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@Chris. Does that mean that range of motion is increased? If so is it not important to get strong over this newfound range of motion? I worry that Yoga may get me flexible but not strong over the entire range of motion. I think this may be dangerous. When one is striking a pose one is control over the environment. In real life there may be external forces that are larger than I anticipated. Just as an easy example: assume a kickboxer throws a high kick. Then he not only need the flexibility to do this but also full range of motion strength in case his opponent grabs his leg and starts pulling.– AndyFeb 19, 2019 at 20:52
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1Yoga will increase your range of motion, but not your functional range of motion. In other words, as you suggest, yoga will not keep you strong over your newfound range of motion. For example, if you were in the Warrior Pose, and somebody tossed a bad of potatoes to you, you would not be a strong position to catch the potatoes. Yoga is a wonderful system for mental, spiritual, communal reasons. But it is not an effective way to prepare your body for something like a contact sport.– ChrisFeb 19, 2019 at 21:12