taranimator's Journal

Smuggling my Heart Rate Monitor into Yoga Class
Nov 19 2007 13:00

Shhhh... don't tell my yoga teacher!! I did something not very yogic the other day ... I smuggled my heart rate monitor into class. 

Knowing perfectly well that focusing on my energy output at yoga class was about as ridiculous as measuring the esoterics of hack squats, I strapped on my sensor band and hung my signal-recieving watch around my water bottle in as casually as possible.  Did anyone catch me sneaking a peak at the number on the little LCD screen while we were stretching into upward dog?  I hope not.. but it was in the name of exercise research!!  Calorie-count allows yoga a measly 128 cal's per hour, which is even less than cleaning up after supper ('walking, washing dishes, clearing dishes from the table': 138 cal's/hr), bowling or shuffleboard (166 cal's/hr).  Now that's just for Hatha yoga, mind you, the eminently relaxing and fortifying branch of yoga's many styles.  I was curious about more intense levels of Ashtanga yoga that demand lengthy arm-balances and extreme postures that have even my muscle-bound, flexible hubby shaking and sweating up a storm. 

So we did yoga, intense yoga, for about 2 hours.  I turned on my HRM only for the intense part, not the warm up/cool down.  My average HR: 77 BPM.  My RHR is about 58, so that isn't very high.  Peak for the whole class: 115.  This astounded me -- I was working so hard!  I was breathing heavily, sweating like crazy, and at several points, even dizzy with fatigue.  I found the class so challenging, I expected to see numbers in the low 130's or even higher.  77 was a shock!! What was even more interesting was that no matter how tired I was, how shakey I got from holding a balance, as soon as it ended, my HR would plummet down to low 60's immediately.  The recovery was instant -- as if I never exerted myself at all. 

By comparison, in the weight room, during even a light workout will average at least 115 - 130 average HR -- my husband, even higher: 140-160 (he's a maniac!).  Spikes upwards of 150-170 with each set or rep are normal, and when the set is over, my heart keeps pumping blood to my muscles for many minutes afterwards.  That must account for the calorie-burning that continues well after I've left the weight room (some people say up to 24 hrs after).

So back to my measly yogic output of 77 BPM.  That wasn't what I expected at all!  I thought my yoga class was hard...  I thought I'd finish my class and go, "see?  Told ya!" to my gym-rat husband (who at least loves doing yoga, bless his muscley heart).  But this time, I had to admit, yoga was a lot of great things, but not the calorie-burning workout I thought it was.  Oh well, at least now I know the truth, and I can focus on the core benefits of my class -- relaxation, flexibilty, and balance... Yoga also gives me a welcome non-goal-oriented practice, and has turned out to be an enriching way to spend time with friends. 

So to answer something my friends and relatives often ask, "can't I just do yoga/pilates instead of working out?" Well, I think yoga is a wonderful way to offset the stress and strain of our intense working lives and compliment a heavy weight/cardio regime.  The flexibility, balance, and meditative elements would do anyone a world of good, especially sore-bodied hardcore weight-trainers or cardio junkies that are pumping themselves full of cortisol with every turn of the treadmill.  Yoga rules!!!  But I don't know too many people who make it challenging enough or frequent enough to be considered a full workout in itself.  It's a complimentary exercise.  I love it for that.  Namaste...