In recent years, yoga has experienced a real boom, especially in metropolises. No wonder, because yoga helps to reduce stress and increase physical well-being. But can you build muscle with yoga? FITBOOK has looked at the study situation.
Yoga is not a sport. Instead, Indian teaching is about achieving balance between body and soul. Yoga is therefore ideal for reducing stress, increasing well-being and creating inner harmony. However, if you try yoga for the first time, you will find that the exercises are quite strenuous. The combination of balance, flexibility and tension quickly makes inexperienced people sweat. You ask yourself: Can you build muscle with yoga? A look at what the science says on the matter.
Vinyasa Yoga increases muscle strength and endurance
Yoga not only improves flexibility, but can actually help to strengthen the muscles. This was shown by a study from 2019.1 29 subjects were observed over a period of twelve weeks who completed yoga and Taijifit (a form of Tai Chi) in online courses. The style of yoga was Vinyasa Yoga. This variant is characterized by dynamic exercises with smooth transitions. This is in contrast to the more static Hatha Yoga, in which the positions are held longer. 16 of the subjects performed Vinyasa Yoga during the study period, 13 others practiced Taijifit.
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At the beginning and end of the study, the muscle strength (through leg press, chest press and hand grip), endurance and flexibility of the subjects were determined. In the end, the researchers came to a clear conclusion: after the twelve-week training period, both Vinyasa Yoga and Taijifit led to more muscle strength, strength endurance and, unsurprisingly, greater flexibility. In addition, the yoga subjects had greater gains in muscular endurance, specifically in the chest press and abdominal exercises.
Despite the positive results, it must be said that this is a small study with few participants. And because muscle size gains weren’t accurately measured, it’s not possible to say with certainty whether study participants actually gained muscle through yoga.
Hatha yoga also has a positive effect on muscles
A much larger study from China was published in 2015.2 The effect of hatha yoga on 87 subjects (both male and female) was examined and compared with a control group of 86 participants who did not practice yoga or exercise. For 12 weeks, the subjects in the yoga group were instructed once a week and then performed the exercises for an average of 23 minutes per day.
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After evaluating the results, the researchers were able to show that a twelve-week hatha yoga program not only had a positive effect on the mobility of the participants, but also increased muscle strength and muscular endurance. Unfortunately, the researchers did not determine the exact muscle growth of the subjects in this study either.
Stretching exercises don’t always result in muscle growth
Another interesting study came out in 2020.3 It didn’t specifically look at the effect of yoga, but the influence of stretching exercises on muscle growth. However, since yoga involves a lot of stretching, this study may provide a clue as to whether yoga can build muscle.
Researchers at the Scandinavian Society for Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine in Copenhagen examined ten studies on stretching exercises that used exercise logs to track changes in muscle size. Of the ten studies, three clearly showed positive effects of stretching on muscle structure. Five of the studies incorporated stretching into a strength training program. Of these, two studies in particular showed improved muscle growth when stretching took place between exercises.
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However, the researchers note that low-intensity passive stretching does not produce a positive change in muscle size. Only when a certain degree of tensile stress is added to the stretching can this trigger muscle growth. This could be an indication that yoga stimulates muscle growth, especially when it takes a lot of strength to perform an exercise.
Conclusion
According to studies, yoga seems to be able to both strengthen the muscles and promote endurance. However, there are no studies that measure muscle growth more precisely or document an increase in muscle mass through yoga. The limiting factor in yoga is the fact that exercises are performed using your own body weight. In contrast to weight training, you cannot increase the resistance at will by increasing your weight. But that is exactly what stimulates muscle growth effectively. In the end, as is well known, yoga is not primarily intended to build muscle and is therefore probably not the first choice for people who want to gain muscle mass anyway.
Sources
- Martin AC, Candow D (2019). Effects of Online Yoga and Tai Chi on Physical Health Outcome Measures of Adult Informal Caregivers. International Journal of Yoga
- Lau C, Yu R, Woo J (2015). Effects of a 12-Week Hatha Yoga Intervention on Cardiorespiratory Endurance, Muscular Strength and Endurance, and Flexibility in Hong Kong Chinese Adults: A Controlled Clinical Trial. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Nunes JP, Schoenfeld BJ, Nakamura M et al. (2020). Does stretch training induce muscle hypertrophy in humans? A review of the literature. Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging