There is no doubt that yoga is one of the best possible exercises for many groups of people. However, if you’re just beginning your business journey, you might not yet understand many terms that are constantly thrown around. Chances are you don’t know is yoga aerobic or anaerobic, or what do these labels even mean.
Learning the difference between aerobic and aerobic has many things to do with your heart rate. This is connected not just with your health, but with the effectiveness of the exercise you plan on doing.
So, is yoga aerobic or anaerobic? Here you’ll find all the answers!
Is Yoga Aerobic or Anaerobic?
Many yoga amateurs want to know what type of exercise they are doing. Is yoga aerobic or anaerobic? The answer is – neither!
Yoga cannot be classified as either aerobic or anaerobic exercise. This probably confuses you, especially if you don’t fully understand the terms.
As such, I’ll explain some main differences between the two types of training, their benefits, and why yoga cannot be considered either one of them. In the end, as yoga is not just physical but also a spiritual journey, the only way in which you can do it correctly is to fully understand it.
What Is the Difference Between Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercises?
You cannot know is yoga aerobic or anaerobic without understanding the difference between these two terms. To learn this, you’ll need some basic knowledge of the human body and how it produces energy.
You probably think that metabolism is the process that helps you lose weight – but it’s actually much more than that. According to definitions, metabolism considers all chemical processes that are constantly occurring inside your body that help you function properly and, as a result, live. [1]
This includes processes that break down nutrients from the food we ate, as well as the ones that help us repair our bodies.
Our body can create energy in two different ways, and that is by using anaerobic metabolism and aerobic metabolism.
-
Anaerobic metabolism
doesn’t use oxygen to create energy. In other words, when anaerobic metabolism is active, the muscle demands more oxygen than the body can deliver. This leads to oxygen deficiency in muscles. Once it becomes too high, the muscle will stop functioning, and it’ll need some time to recover. As it cannot use oxygen, it uses glycogen and glucose. [2]
-
Aerobic metabolism
creates energy when oxygen is present. It burns carbohydrates, amino acids, and fats – everything we get from food – with the help of oxygen. This gives you energy for regular functioning.
Which metabolism will be active depends on what the body sees fit at a certain time. One of the ways you can affect this is by exercising. For example, when you use aerobic exercises, you’ll support aerobic metabolism. Similar to that, when you use anaerobic exercises, the anaerobic metabolism will be active.
Aerobic exercises are usually those that include endurance exercises and exercises with long duration. Does this sound familiar? Yes, I am talking about cardio exercises! During them, your heart rate and breathing will increase, but they won’t reach their maximum.
Some examples of aerobic exercises include:
- Running
- Swimming
- Brisk walking
- Zumba
- Cycling
- Skipping
On the other hand, anaerobic exercises include short bursts of activity, such as sprints. In other words, these are exercises that you do for a short amount of time, but that take lots of energy.
Examples of this are:
- Sprinting
- Weight lifting
- Climbing
- Strength Training
- Jumping
Most sports contain a bit of both. This includes tennis, football, basketball, and many others. This is because you are combining short sprints and various long-lasting exercises.
Benefits of Aerobic Exercises
Doing aerobic exercises for a long period of time can have a great impact on your health. This includes:
- Increased blood volume.
- Capacity of the lung.
- Heart function.
- Red blood cells and hemoglobin.
- Increased metabolism.
- Better bone density.
- Deceased amount of fat.
- Increased function of the brain.
- Better endurance.
Also, aerobic exercises won’t cause sore muscles in the same amount as anaerobic exercises would. They also won’t create lactic acid, but they’ll produce water and carbon dioxide, which is why you’ll sweat excessively.
Of course, there are some downsides to these exercises, such as:
- They won’t help you build muscle.
- If your goal is weight loss, it will take you a longer time compared to anaerobic exercises.
- You can get overuse injuries.
Benefits of Anaerobic Exercises
Anaerobic exercises also have many benefits, such as:
- They help build lean muscle mass quickly.
- They are good for joint protection.
- They increase your metabolism.
- They increase your overall strength.
- Strength training helps your body get rid of lactic acid [3]
- They increase your bone strength.
Of course, just like any other form of exercise, even anaerobic ones have their downsides. These include:
- While they can help you get rid of lactic acid, they also cause its production. You’ll know this is happening by feeling a burning sensation in your body and muscles.
- It doesn’t improve your endurance.
- You’ll feel fatigued rather quickly, and your muscles can get sore.
Is Yoga Anaerobic?
In general, yoga isn’t an anaerobic exercise. However, some types of yoga, such as Slow-Flow or Yin Yoga, can have the same impact on your body as mild anaerobic exercises. However, there are some large differences between the two:
- While anaerobic exercises make your breathing faster, yoga slows it down.
- Yoga serves to calm you down, while anaerobic exercises require you to be active and competetive.
- Won’t build your muscles or strength nearly as fast as anaerobic exercises.
Is Yoga Aerobic?
From everything that’s being said, aerobic exercise is mostly done by doing certain exercises for a long period of time. As such, you might be inclined to think that yoga is an aerobic exercise. If anything, it seems to have more similarities with aerobic exercises than it has with anaerobic.
However, yoga isn’t entirely aerobic exercise either.
Yoga consists of doing various bodily poses followed by or interspersed with meditation and breathing exercises. However, this isn’t the same as doing cardio, at least not entirely. Here are a few key differences between yoga and aerobic exercises:
- Won’t improve your fitness as quickly as aerobic exercises would.
- Doesn’t have the same impact on heart rate as does cardio – more on this in a bit.
- Usually burns fewer calories than aerobic exercises.
What Type of Exercise Is Yoga?
Yoga is one of the oldest exercise practices and it’s connected not just with health benefits but with spiritual actions. In the time when yoga first became used, standard exercise, such as today’s going to the gym, wasn’t common. Yoga was the only exercise that helped people stretch and battle stress.
In general, yoga is a combination of calm postures and dynamic sequences that tend to overlap or that are even done at the same time.
As such, one might say yoga is considered a workout, but this doesn’t help you know is yoga aerobic or anaerobic.
To learn this, you should understand that yoga is a bit of both, yet it’s neither one of them.
Yoga combines some benefits of both aerobic and anaerobic exercises. In fact, different types of yoga are more anaerobic or aerobic. Even some poses lean more toward one type of exercise than the other due to the different effects they have on your body.
For example, flow yoga and Ashtanga yoga can be considered aerobic, as they constantly make sure your body is under physical pressure and demand high breathing.
On the other hand, most other types of yoga lean more toward anaerobic yoga.
Still, yoga has one feature that makes it challenging to even be considered an exercise, and this is because it doesn’t require heavy breathing, and it doesn’t place the same strains on your body as other forms of exercise do.
Benefits of Yoga
There are many reasons why experts might choose yoga over other exercises. This isn’t only because reflection after yoga is common – something that might help you get rid of stress and reach a calm state of mind.
Here are a few reasons why you might choose yoga over classic aerobic and anaerobic exercises:
- Yoga doesn’t help just your bones and muscles, but all of your body systems. This includes your digestive system, circulatory system, and cardiovascular system. On the other hand, most aerobic and anaerobic exercises focus on your cardiovascular systems only.
- Exercises and gym workouts require much more force than yoga, which is all about motivation and balance.
- Yoga can help tone up your entire body, combining it with the flexibility of your joints and muscles. Opposite of this, gym exercises usually focus on musculature build-up or weight loss. You’ll rarely find an exercise that focuses on both.
- You can do yoga in any place, at any time, and on any type of surface. Most other exercises require a specific type of equipment or surface, which is why they are done either in a gym or at a studio. Even those that you can do at home should be done on a specific type of substance.
- Yoga is a form of self-care that helps you stay motivated. It might even help increase your spirituality. On the other hand, exercises might promote competitiveness.
Effect of Yoga on Heart Rate
While it’s easy to see how yoga might slow down your breathing, any amateurs wonder does yoga lower heart rate or is this just another myth about this beneficial practice.
Believe it or not, there have been numerous studies that have proven that yoga can slow down a person’s heart rate. In fact, yoga can be extremely beneficial for the health of your heart. [4]
First off, yoga is an amazing stress outlet. It will relax your mind and body, which will lower the release of adrenaline and cortisol. These two hormones can make your arteries narrow, which will increase your blood pressure.
When you’re doing yoga, you’re required to breathe slowly. This will help give you relief from stress, which will reduce the chance of heart disease, bypass surgery, and a heart attack.
At the same time, yoga will lower your blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood cholesterol levels. This can help rejuvenate your heart.
For example, doing slow-paced yoga twice a week will greatly reduce the frequency of episodes of atrial fibrillation in people suffering from that condition. [5]
Finally, as mentioned, yoga will help lower your heart rate – something neither aerobic or anaerobic exercises can do.
While the average heart rate after doing yoga will be lowered, the heart rate while doing yoga will depend on many factors. Most notably, it will depend on the precise exercise you are doing.
For example, certain movements can increase your heart rate even while doing yoga. These might include:
- Doing physically challenging postures. This is usually about poses that require you to focus on balance.
- Any pose or a dynamic sequence that might require you to raise your arms above your head.
- A dynamic sequence that requires you to stand upright or to bend forward repeatedly.
- Any posture or sequence in which you are upside down.
While yoga might increase the heart rate while you’re doing it, its long-term effects are proven to be beneficial. However, it’s important to do it carefully, with the help of a licensed professional or with a proper guide.
Is Yoga Aerobic or Anaerobic? Final Words
Practicing yoga is one of the best things you can do for your overall health. This practice will help decrease your heart rate, slower your breathing, and increase your physical capacities.
Even though it isn’t entirely clear is yoga aerobic or anaerobic, the answer to this wouldn’t change all the benefits this exercise has.
Yoga takes the best of both types of workouts and combines them into an almost complete exercise routine that will greatly benefit your mind, spirit, and body. Just remember to do it properly and to be careful with some of the more challenging poses.