Tyler Durden's Fight Club Blog

I agree with the last post, as no TRUE yoga instructor would ever say or believe that. I've taught yoga for years, and yoga is NOT about sweating, exercise, etc., period. In fact, the asanas (poses, stretches) are nothing more than tools for honing one's ability to concentrate, to meditate more effectively. Yoga is a state of mind, a philosophy, not a workout, not an exercise.

Western society has transformed yoga to meet jive with our societies need to see instantaneous results. If one doesn't sweat, one isn't tired, and so forth, most don't believe that they've truly worked out in any real way. The same is said with how most routines have evolved into quick, flowing series of movements. I find the best workouts are done on the mat, slowly, methodically, and in a controled way. For the record, yoga such as "hot yoga" and some more intense versions of traditional schools can be unsafe to beginners, and in fact is more flexibility training than anything else. Still, it's rewarding, beneficial, etc., but in reality, it's not TRUE yoga.

That being said, yoga is poweful, in many ways. It's easier to maintain as a lifestyle, it has far reaching benefits (mental, physical, even emotional), and when done routinely for a period of time, your body can be transformed into a very lean, efficient vessel.

To get to the point the article was trying to make, you burn calories ALL the time, and increased activity means an increased calorie burn, so it's not useless or ineffective, and walking 2 miles a day and burning an extra 200 or 300 calories because of it, can mean losing a 2 or 3 pounds in the course of a month, maybe 10 or 15 in a year, of course leveling off as your fitness level increases. And for some, it's easier to walk for a lifetime, than to run, lift, bike, etc.; consistency is key, and rather than make radical life changes, make one's that are doable, that you can keep, and when you've fully incorporated them into your life, you can move forward if the want and desire is there. Moderation makes the difference.

You could look at this in a different way. The psychological phenomena of the contagiousness of yawning is an adaptation that evolved in groups of animals to help in alerting them to danger. When one sees someone yawn, you yawn as well. The brain initiates this behavior, as the yawn itself draws an increased amount of oxygen into the lungs, sending more to the brain, and aids in "waking" individuals (which is also why we yawn when awake) to help in completing a task (such as fleeing danger).

Yawning requires calories but can make one feel energized, so that something like the act of exercise CAN in reality make one LESS tired or energized by the simple fact it initiates the burning of fuel in the body. Some of this fuel that is being burned is not even readily available to the rest of the body under normal circumstances, so you're not necessarily even depleting carbs and what not in the amounts that would lead to immediate fatigue. At any rate, one in theory exercises, in a manner of speaking, by being awake, period. You certainly can feel more energized in the mid afternoon as opposed to the waking hours of the day.

At any rate, that exercise IS the burning of FUEL, can explain in some situations why you might feel energized, with or without the release of endorphins. People can feel energized from light exercise that certainly does not release endorphins, so that alone could not be the case.