For the sake of simplicity, fitness professionals usually divide training into three categories: cardio, strength and flexibility. But do activities ever overlap? Sure, yoga can improve your flexibility wellness, but can it also serve as a cardio workout? In reality, activities exist on a continuum.
Seeing as most activities use oxygen as fuel, they are all considered cardiovascular. The exception to this rule is high-intensity exercises lasting less than two minutes, but generally, some activities just fall farther along the continuum, offering more of a cardiovascular challenge than others. This depends on the type of activity, and the intensity and duration of which you do it. Therefore, yoga counts as cardio, but walking and running tend to put progressively more cardiovascular demands on your body then a yoga class.
However, that works as an overall rule but what if you looked at individuals? Say you were to put a heart-rate monitor on a slow walker and another on a power-yoga participant, the yoga participant may maintain a higher heart rate for longer, and therefore stress their cardiovascular system more. If you think you may be able to get your cardio needs from your yoga class, try wearing a heart-rate monitor during a session. You need to see whether your heart rate rises to 60 to 85% of you max, and if so, for how long.
If your yoga class doesn’t help you maintain an elevated heart rate for 30 minutes, don’t worry; yoga still offers other equally important health benefits such as increased strength, mobility, flexibility and relaxation. Remember, you can’t really do anything within your class to amp up your cardio benefits, as different types of yoga will elicit different results, rather than your level of individual effort.
As a general rule, you should be aiming to achieve low-intensity movement that adds up to 60 minutes of movement per day, which many yoga classes allow you to accomplish. If you’re concerned you’re not moving enough, a great way to increase your movement is with a pedometer. You should aim to accumulate 10,000 steps per day. Also, try to do three weekly workouts in which you maintain a heart rate of 60 to 85% of your max for 20 to 30 minutes – you may be able to do it with power-yoga classes.