"But I thought all yoga was therapeutic?"

[RubberDuck]

Read this article today and it's given me a lot to think about:
yogainternational.com/article/view/but-i-thought-all-yoga-was-therapeutic

Particularly liked this part as it ties in closely with a recent epiphany of my own:
"Despite the fact that even students who have practiced for years have alignment epiphanies when they raise the surface at which they practice, in your average class, modifications with a chair or other high surface are almost never offered for standing postures like triangle. If the agile teacher and the other students are using no props, it could be embarrassing to pull out a chair—especially if the student is young, or older but wanting to appear strong and healthy."

Interested what others think. Am very much trying to go for the "play" and "find what feels good" approach at the moment, but occasionally feel guilt that I'm not doing a 'proper' workout.

Interesting read. I've managed to give myself a yoga injury and learned the hard way that pushing yourself to "open" is not necessarily good for you.

Re "I thought all yoga was therapeutic?" - Strength never comes from just therapy and some 'pushing the limits' is unavoidable. However, it is true that yoga classes are far more demanding now than they were when I first started ~ 13 years ago. I don't know what the answer is tbh.

Yes - it's finding just the right balance isn't it. Not easy.

Interesting question. Does it help to think of yoga as NOT a workout?

It's been helping me. But then my yoga practice is sort of evolving out of a meditation practice (and because my preferred exercise is contraindicated for health reasons now, boo). I started out thinking of it as replacement exercise, but it's become much more mindful movement for me, now.

I'm not sure this is necessarily The Right Thing To Do, but it's working for me at the moment.

(But yes, every now and then the guilt seeps in about "am I getting enough exercise". I'm trying to squash it!)

Sorry to hear you have 'lost' your preferred exercise. I would find that very hard to deal with.

Are there other forms of exercise you could do as 'exercise' which might alleviate the bothersome guilt about yoga?

It's an interesting topic for me because for many years my yoga practice was about asana only - just a physical practice (though not usually a very vigorous style). More recently I've moved away from the purely physical, it's been an interesting journey.

I'm trying to get outside everyday for a walk, most days just half an hour but an hour's walk a couple of times a week. Not brilliant, but at least something. (And the fresh air is nice :) )

I lost my favourite exercise (running) due to various injuries that were funny enough NOT brought on by running and it's hard

I turned back to yoga to rehabilitate my poor joints and it has been wonderful not only to get me pain-free and functional, but also to strengthen my arms & back AND straighten my back - I had a rather hunched posture, from a lifelong reading habit and many years of working at a computer.

Would you not like to try running? Couch-to-5K programs are brilliant.

Interesting that you have both gradually moved away from the physical side of yoga towards meditation.

I keep toying with the idea of running. I should probably look into it more (perhaps in the spring!)

Basically I have two health issues I need to be careful of:

• hiatal hernia/acid reflux so I can't lift anything too heavy (weight lifting was my love and that's had to stop).
• super fast resting heart rate and during exercise. Had it medically checked out and there's nothing wrong with my heart, per se, but I do need to be careful as even moderate cardio can get me to the point of dizziness, pain and feeling sick. As my dad died young from a heart attack, it's something I'm uber-careful with.

That and I hate public exercise (hangover from being the unfit geek in school sports)

It does tend to limit my options somewhat.

Does a higher resting heart rate mean that you are at a higher risk of heart attacks? I doubt that.

Isn't it true that resting heart rate decreases with cardio exercise? I sort of remember that George W Bush's resting heart rate was about 40 bpm (for all his faults, the man likes to run).

What is your resting heart rate and age? When I was doing interval training in my early 40s, I was going up to 160 bpm and then coming down to 115 bpm or so.

Resting heart rate is around the 90s and heart rate has maxed out around 198bpm (so yeah, pretty high :D). General mooching around the house

Weight lifting was good because it was strengthening muscles and only getting high heart rate in very short bursts with long rest periods between. Monitored carefully to watch it never went over 170bpm (which is what my safe max should be). My resting heart rate did come down to about 60bpm with that, but my max didn't drop much.

My normal walking pace usually gets my heart rate to around 134bpm which is 79% of my supposed maximum heart rate so technically still a good work out!

Sorry that should read general mooching around the house is around 110bpm

www.webmd.com/heart-disease/features/5-heart-rate-myths-debunked "Recent studies suggest a heart rate higher than 76 beats per minute when you're resting may be linked to a higher risk of heart attack."

So yes, it can mean that.

On the flip side, I'm also on asthma medication (I'm a fairly healthy person, honest! Even those this thread doesn't make it seem that way!) which also has a tendency to raise heart rate.

I just checked out my heart rate after 10 minutes on the sofa and it is 88 bpm.

"Higher bpm has a bit higher risk of heart attack" makes sense and isn't a revelation, simply because fitter people have both lower heart rates and lower heart attacks. It is correlation not causation, as explained in that Mayo Clinic link.

I agree, if normal walking gets your heart rate up to 134 bpm, you probably shouldn't be running. Keep up the walking, though, and you should see this figure decreasing over time and then you can start running (jogging slowly and in intervals).

Does your heart race during yoga practice? Mine does during vinyasa yoga.

It can do in more vigorous yoga and obviously elevates in body strength postures, but nothing too scary as of yet :)