Fit Perfection

Many yoga teachers purport yoga as the only form of exercise you need to do.  And they often see their way of yoga as the only way.

In his book Bikram Yoga, Bikram Choudry (The founder of Hot Yoga), is quoted:  “So many Americans ruin their bodies by blindly running around ‘exercising’ and playing sports.  I tell my students, ‘No barbells, no dumbbells, no racket.’  Games are ok for children, for recreation and to teach them sportsmanship.  But after that, you must give up trying to put a little round ball in a hole all the time.”

Unfortunately, Bikram is not a reliable witness to anything at this time as he is charged with financial fraud and sexual misconduct.   The last news I read about Bikram suggests that he is hiding from prosecution and that his location is unknown.  But still, he has made superlative claims about what yoga can do for you.  I love what Bikram says, not because I think he is right, but I find the boldness of his claims laughable and the superlatives he uses immediately make me suspicious of anything he says.  But there is a part of me that understands how those same bold claims inspire people and remove any ambiguity.  Often we are so tired of making and weighing decisions that it is a breath of fresh air when someone says, unequivocally, “Do this”!  The danger here, however, is always one step away from the Dixie cup with the Kool-Aid!

William Broad on Bikram:

“In great detail, Choudhury explains why his yoga is superior to every other type of physical workout and why it deserves your attention – and perhaps most important – your money.  Remarkably, he rejects all other styles of yoga.  A standard estimate for the number of people who do yoga is twenty million (as of 2012), and Choudhury happily cites that number as representing a world of misguided souls.

“’Bogus Yoga’ is what he calls their practice.  He ridicules other approaches as watered down to accommodate American weakness and inflexibility.  Among the competition he scoffs at Kundalini, Ashtanga and Vinyasa (“which never existed in India”), as well as Iyengar (“he uses so many props in his method that his method is called ‘The Furniture Yoga’ in India’)  The newer brands, he added, are even more ridiculous. You’ve got Easy Yoga, Sit-at-Your-Desk Yoga, Yoga for Beginners, Yoga for Dummies, Yoga for Pets, and Babaar Yoga. It’s all Mickey Mouse Yoga to me.”

“The false prophets, he charges, shirk their responsibilities to ancient tradition and cheat students out of the ‘perfect life’ keeping them from the rewards of ‘optimum health and maximum function’.  In contrast, he portrays his own style in cartoonish superlatives:  ’You’ll become a superman or a superwoman.’” 

Will Bikram yoga make you a superman or a super woman?  Is Yoga all you need to keep fit?  This is the question William Broad seeks to answer in this chapter.  First he defines the question as to how do you measure fitness.  He quotes the studies and the scientists and institutions that did the work.  He follows the evolution of how science defined physical fitness.  It starts with vital capacity and vital index to VO2 max and aerobic capacity.  He talks about how hard it is to study yoga primarily because there is no money in it for large institutions and also because of the vast differences in the various styles of yoga.  He describes some of the studies that were done and are widely quoted but which have very little real scientific significance either because of the small size of the sample, the lack of a control group in the study and/or because some of the studies have been hailed as fact even though they were self published and not submitted to peer reviewed journals.  He doesn’t state this, but it is so easy to find an article on the internet that supports whatever claim you would like to believe.  Very often we read these things but don’t necessarily vet their veracity.

At the end of all of this, the conclusion is that yoga equaled or surpassed exercise in such things as: improving balance, reducing fatigue, decreasing anxiety, cutting stress, lifting moods, improving sleep, reducing pain, lowering cholesterol and raising the quality of life both socially and on the job.

But the scientists also spoke of a conspicuous limitation for an activity that had long billed itself as a path to physical superiority.  They noted that the benefits of yoga ran through all categories “except those improving physical fitness.”

While yoga may not be the only form of physical exercise you need, it’s most important benefit may be the fact that it can alter your moods.  And that is the subject of the next chapter.