Which is better yoga or exercise...?

thomasjack

Is this strong question that mostly people want to make comments on it. Yoga is getting more famous in these days. Because it is simple and less time taken as compare to exercise. Young generation turn to yoga and join its classes. It reduce tiredness and refresh body from whole day working tensions.

Exercise has its own benefits and impact on human body. Exercise work out is help to build strong and flexible muscles. It burn fat quickly as compare to yoga. Body builder get weight gain by doing hard exercise like biceps, triceps, shoulder, leg exercise etc.

Annah

I do Tai Chi with my 17 year old daughter. She doesn't have arthritis (I do) but she has mild joint problems which could progress (we have a genetic condition) so its important to keep her muscles strong and her joints subtle.

Tai Chi is a lot harder than it looks, and many young people find the patience required is difficult, but in my experience, many young people with health conditions have the patience of Job, so that shouldn't be an issue!

I can't do yoga, due to my risk of dislocations, but it seems a good thing to do too.

You'd be surprised how tiring something like Tai Chi or yoga can be however - its definitely exercise!

dreamdaisy

I would propose that yoga is anything but simple for those of us with joint problems. Neither is it less time-consuming than exercise. I cannot stand for longer than one minute before everything starts twanging, and as for the poses involved - ye gods! I tried it in the early days when I only had one affected joint but it achieved nothing apart from increasing the inflammation in the affected joint and leaving me stranded on the sofa until things subsided. It's horses for courses, thomasjack, and what helps one may not necessarily help another. If it suits you, and you find benefit from it, then that is a good thing. DD

charleeh

Hiya,

Before I had arthritis I weight trained and swam 50 lengths a week (I also did sit ups daily or hoola hoop). I was thin but healthy. The more weight I did I found I couldn't swim as fast oddly. Once I had arthritis I couldn't even pick up simple 1kg weights so all my equipment got put up in the loft as it depressed me. I found the cool water of my local swimming pool made me ache too so I stopped going swimming (plus I couldn't do what I could before and that also made me quite sad) I did try aqua fit classes which were great as the smaller pool was warmer but eventually I couldn't dry myself I was that ill so that had to stop.

I tired yoga and found it awesome. I really enjoyed it but eventually that got too much when I was in flare so I then I tried Tai Chi which is excellent. You can manage it when your in flare too - I highly recommend "tai chi for arthritis by dr paul lam" - got my dvd for £21 off amazon.

Exercise is all about finding what suits your body - what you can stick to, therefore it mustn't feel forced you have to enjoy it!

It depends what you want for your body - and what your body can physically do. I doubt you will get super toned from Yoga and certainly not from Tai Chi alone, well at least not the definition of the weight trainers physique. A good balance of each would be great, as I said, the more weight I did the less supple I was in the water... my preference is flexibility 100%.

I felt healthier doing yoga out of all the methods I tried. Maybe its the mind, body and spirit concept I liked too? .... but Tai Chi is excellent if you are in flare as it is so soothing and relaxing, it can really lift your spirits as it real easy to feel down when you have a flare.

Hope this helps!

Best wishes,

Charleeh