[Stubbs]

I have been thinking about yoga a lot lately, and after watching that camp they went to on 'holiday idiots from hell' or whatever it was called last night i think i am going to go for it. I've been trying to come up with some pro's and con's, here are a few:

Pro's
-Works for Sharma, Leo and Matt Fielding (pro skater, my other main diversion)
-Increased flexibility for wide legs moves
-Increased reach (is it true that Bentley increased his reach for equilibrium?)
-Increased core strength
-Will be able to do mad shit with body

Con's
-Being mistaken for a hippy, maaaan.
-The cost of lessons.
-Having to do Yoga instead of climbing or skating.

So what's the 411 - do you think it's an aid to climbing?

[Nigel]

Almost certainly a help I would have thought. My grandparents both did it and it did 'em the world of good health-wise. I'll take on anyone who jibes it.

[Bubba]

Flexibility and core-strength are always going to be good for climbing. Pilates is meant to be wicked for core-strengh too. The mental aspects of Yoga (though I've never tried them) must surely be good for preparing for problems too?

Although probably not a substitute for lessons, there's a lot of good books about which will take you through a lot of the postures and stretches.

[dave]

i know a lad who used to go to yoga classes. he always seemd crippled when climbing the next day.

[Bubba]

That sounds like PowerYoga or something hideous

You can do YogaLates now apparantly.

[dave]

i prefer doing stretching excersises on tropical islands.

Pilates Of The Caribbean

[Stubbs]

Pilates is meant to be wicked for core-strengh too. The mental aspects of Yoga (though I've never tried them) must surely be good for preparing for problems too?

This brings up the other point - there seems to be a large range of types of yoga about now, some research will be needed to find the right one. i might try and dig up those old climber articles to see if they are any help.

Pilates Of The Caribbean

Also stretching whilst drinking chocolaty coffee - MoccaLates

[Fingers of a Martyr]

the thing with yoga is that it's advertised as a 'sport' when it was originally a form of meditation. i've been told on good authority that it shud be kept that way because it teaches you to shut down your nervous system which is okay for meditation but it ain't gonna make u climb harder.

[vivahate]

it obviously will have positive implications for your climbing. i think mentally being able to relax and focus your though will allow you to climb harder. i'd like to try it, but at the moment i'd rather climb

[Stubbs]

but at the moment i'd rather climb

my problem precisely - convincing myself to use my free time for something else - maybe it'll be good for rest days - we can't all rock it like Malcy in Stone Love!

[Nigel]

the thing with yoga is that it's advertised as a 'sport' when it was originally a form of meditation. i've been told on good authority that it shud be kept that way because it teaches you to shut down your nervous system which is okay for meditation but it ain't gonna make u climb harder.

I've never seen it advertised as a 'sport'; all classes, books etc. make it fairly clear that yoga is a 'spiritual method' of which the postures (asanas) that are most people's image of yoga are literally the first step (of eight). If you don't go past the postures, which most don't, then the worst you can do is relax your muscles, improve flexibility, get an aerobic workout, and improve body tension. So your climbing will improve. It wasn't the same 'good authorities' who told you to train hard and starve yourself was it?

I told people not to jibe it!

[Fingers of a Martyr]

no actually it was a yoga instructor!

but go ahead, book yourself in for some classes and report back in a months time nigella, see if it's made u any better.

[Nigel]

A yoga instructor is obviously going to have that outlook. Just like a lot of good climbers would say that starting climbing is pointless unless you progress to cutting it outside.

Elitism.

[a dense loner]

sharma doesn't do yoga n neither does leo. so where that's come from i don't know. you're thinkin of gresham doin yoga for equilibrium. it's just a training scheme for a bit for something that you think is missing. miles had the same type of thing for his arete at burbage south, needed a leg clamp on it so trained for a few weeks with one of them leg thingys with a spring in the middle to increase strength in inside leg. this worked.

yoga does not help you climb any better unless you think it does!

[Jim]

so its a climbers placebo then?

[conn]

mmm... where can we get these placebos

[Bubba]

Increased flexibility, balance and core strength are always going to benefit your climbing in one way or another.

[a dense loner]

of course they are, but they needn't come from yoga they can strangely enough come from climbing.

if we want a really contentious point all the climbers that i've met from around the world who swear by yoga n talk the talk are lacking. obviously a few, like yuji, are almost unstoppable but in the grand scheme of things these people are few n far between compared to the amount that don't do yoga.

it's exactly the same argument as saying martial arts is good for climbing, what a load of bollocks.

these things are used as a "new base line" so that you have a general level of well being, fitness, strength etc. once this is reached you can do well at other sports quite quickly, whatever they happen to be. just like the lad at school that everyone hated cos he was good at everything

[Bubba]

I suppose you can get more flexible for climbing by just climbing, but isn 't a formal stretching routine is probably going to bring you faster gains? I've met a lot of very inflexible climbers who climb a lot :?

I suspect the stretching routines of many top climbers use techniques that originate from Yoga. I could of course be talking bollocks.

I think the mental aspect is going to vary far more from person to person - some people will probably have more success on a problem by working themselves up into a rage than by meditating.

Anyway, I don't think anyone is saying that Yoga is suddenly going to make you climb better, but  in terms of the OP I reckon it's more good than wack.

[Bubba]

it's exactly the same argument as saying martial arts is good for climbing, what a load of bollocks.

Aye - some MAs probably provide somethings that would indirectly help your climbing (primarily again flexibility) but the link is far vaguer. For a start, MAs vary so much between each other it's impossible to come up with many facets that all MAs share.

[a dense loner]

that's just it you see. most climbers just stretch, saying stretching is based on yoga is dangerous ground.
what i really mean is if you're going to pay for yoga classes n taking the time to become good at it for it to benefit your climbing. you could already be doing your core exercises at the wall, n these would be much more specific. you could also be following a stretching routine at home while watching tele, saving money n gettin your tv hit at the same time. bearing in mind that i am the most inflexible person on the planet but i did some yoga whilst recovering from an accident, the results were quite good ie they stopped me from debilitating but as soon as i was "strong" enough i stopped doing it n started climbing again. my problem was that i became a lot more flexible in the move but couldn't translate this flexibility to the rock

[Johnny Brown]

At the top left of this page is a guy (Zaff Ali) climbing harder than most, if not all, of you. He is the most amazing climber you will ever see - more like a gecko than a man. I've seen him do moves I couldn't understand on invisible holds. He does a lot of yoga.

Leo might not have done much yoga, but Patch did. I'm not sure about Sharma but I'm pretty sure he does a bit. Yoga won't make you an amazing climber more than doing pull-ups will... unless you apply it.  

However it is the most similar thing to bouldering I've done - no doubt that warming up at home with a half-hour's yoga makes me climb a lot better (once I get to the plantation :wink: ) As well as the obvious flexibility benefits, it helps enormously with body awareness - you learn to relax and tense different muscles individually whilst performing the same movement - very useful.

Dense drivelled:

all the climbers that i've met from around the world who swear by yoga n talk the talk are lacking.

Whatever Dense. You swear against it and you are severely lacking

[Nigel]

Word to that Mr Lengthy.

[Stubbs]

At the top left of this page is a guy

What page?

Despite Dense's views i'm gonna go for it, there's been a lot more positive than negative on here.

Seems that Sharma meditates every day, which is a part of yoga, right?
http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200401/200401_balance_7.html

[vivahate]

cross training is almost always useful in sports, saying you should just climb to increase ability is similar to suggesting that boxers should just box to get fit. Although i haven't tried it yet i rekon Yoga would help, at least a little, if flexibility and your head were weak points in your climbing.