Is There Yoga in P90X?
On more then one occasion, I have been at a social gathering where, upon learning that I am a yoga teacher, someone says, “Oh, I do yoga. Have you ever heard of P90X?” An appropriate response always seems to elude me.
For anyone who has never been up late channel surfing and come across the infomercial, P90X is a series of home fitness DVD’s. The system is based on what the creator calls “muscle confusion” and consists of a poly-circuit of varied daily exercise routines, one of which is “yoga.” The advertisements boast a total body transformation. Apparently, the key to sculpting the body of your dreams is to mix it up and keep yourself guessing. The testimonials are quite convincing.
Having consulted some anatomy wonk friends, as I understand it, a muscle may lengthen, shorten or remain the same. Technically, it’s impossible to “confuse” a muscle. I cannot speak to whether keeping the mind in flux is an effective way to sculpt the body. When it regards Yoga, nothing could be more counter-productive.
The yoga component of P90X does offer some introductory words about Yoga being more then just the physical but the actuality of what follows belies the sentiment. Unfortunately, plenty of yoga classes employ much the same philosophy and present the same disconnect between word and deed. Many classical assertions about yoga have similar characteristics.
The distinguishing factor between doing yoga positions for physical fitness or alternate purposes and utilizing yoga poses for health is the mentality that goes into the engagement of the forms. Monks engage intense physicality to challenge their minds’ ability to transcend the difficulty and progress towards realization. The conventional yoga goer of today subjects themselves to the same sorts of treatment as a means to escape the stresses of life and have a more aesthetically pleasing body.
Whether trying to achieve enlightenment or abs, the mentality is largely the same. The line of argument most in favor of forever increasing challenge suggests that by taking the physicality “to the edge” and beyond, the mind becomes more concentrated and we will experience increased growth. One student said, “When we are doing the simple exercises, my mind is all over the place. I need something more challenging so I can focus.”
If your mind is all over the place when you’re doing a simple form then, fact is, that is what is happening. Your mind is all over the place. Increased physical challenge can successfully overwhelm the senses and obscure your minds’ ruminations, as in the expression “get out of my head.” This can be enjoyable, even beneficial; however, the “high” will eventually wear off and the underlying state of anxiety remains. The cycle of distraction/ relief will need to be repeated again and again, sometimes with unintended detriment.
One of the primary stated purposes of Yoga practice is to reduce the “fluctuations” of mind so that we can have clarity in our experience. Engaging the physical forms intends to bring ourselves present, not distract us from it.
Its understandable that being present when we are filled with anxiety is not initially enjoyable but in order to begin the process of easing what ails us, we first need to acknowledge that it exists. Like a cold that lasts for months instead of a few days because its been covered up by taking nasal decongestants, we have to let ourselves feel whatever it is before we can overcome it.
By embracing what is present, even when it is unfavorable, we are in a position to develop an alternate course. Otherwise, things are likely to continue as they are despite our best efforts. Until we can be with ourselves, doing nothing, and feel relatively at ease, the chances that we will ever feel at ease when we are doing things and being with other people are very slim.
The key to cultivating a Yoga practice that is not just another distraction is the context and mentality it encompasses. For the most part, everyone is doing the same forms. How and why we are doing them is making for drastically different experiences and results.
I don’t know if this is what the P90X folks are getting at, but our muscles do adapt to specific types of exercise and after a while, you just don’t get the same benefit from doing the same thing over and over. Changing things up starts the process over again. Do that enough and your body won’t ever be able to get deep into the adaptation phase, and thus, you won’t lose the full benefit of the exercise.
Adaptation is one reason why an extremely fit runner will get sore if they take up a different sport like cycling.
I believe that the variety of poses, classes and levels of intensity found within most yoga practices is also one of the reasons that yoga seems infinitely progressive and doesn’t seem to suffer from the adaptation effect so much.
Namaste’
Scott
Hey Scott- Thanks for starting another thread here. Just so happens you have put your finger on the very topic I am currently writing about, very auspicious. Perhaps you can help me work through a few thoughts.
There is something I don’t understand about “Adaptation,” as you describe it. If you engage an exercise repeatedly and successfully condition it to accomplish that physical task then why, once you have gained the strength and flexibility required, do you then cease to receive the benefit? Haven’t you simply gained the physicality to accomplish that task? If the task is said to be healthy one, wouldn’t accomplishing it mean better health? A runner conditions there body to run. Riding a bike requires different body action then running, that’s why a runner gets sore after cycling. If they cycle for a while they will likely stop getting as sore.
The case you have made here is similar to one common in the yoga world. They usually refer to it as “muscle memory”, like you have used “Adaptation.” This is said to be a negative thing, that if you don’t change up your practice your body will create muscle memory and stop receiving benefit.
This is only perhaps true if the exercises that you are doing are not based in the natural functioning of the body. The way we hold our bodies habitually in life is creating muscle memory for us to hold our bodies in that way. We can condition our bodies to do just about anything. Depending on how we hold our bodies and how we condition our bodies we are in the physical state we are in.
The repetition of foundational poses and functional body movements is a way of restoring and renewing the healthy and efficient functioning of the body that can sometimes become compromised. There is no negative to repeating them again and again, even if they become easier, In fact, the easier it becomes, the better. We are creating healthy muscle memory to counter some not so healthy muscle memory. That’s why when runners and cyclists get hurt and stop competing, they often utilize yoga to heal.
What constitutes a “foundational” pose is a longer conversation but there is a difference between simple arm liftings and mountain pose and sidecrow and “dangling pendant earring” (if you know that one.) There are also many different approaches, some more athletic, some more therapeutic.
My comments in “Screw Union with the Divine” about the difference between the yoga that monks do and that house-holders do is related. You see, the harder edged approaches that the physical fitness industry has adopted is coming out of ascetic traditions. Transcendence based physical practice has married quite well with western work-out mentality. Whether you are trying to achieve enlightenment or abs, it amounts to same mentality and physical mistreatment.
I don’t want to take anything away from anyone. if you like intense physical challenge and you want to continually provide that to yourself by mixing up your work-out, rock on I say. Its just that yoga practice is not meant to be cross-circuit training, its not about forever pushing your physical limits (in my opinion, of course.) These two things can be complimentary of one another but are not the same. Although, going to most yoga classes these days, folks have no way of knowing that.
From a yogic perspective, there is a larger point. Fact is, a person can condition there body to be supremely strong and flexible, have amazing asana alignment and accomplish any number of miraculous feats and still have lots of pain and be miserable in life. Happened to me. Physical prowess does not equal health. Continually taking the body to its “edge” again and again, over time, generally causes chronic pain down the road, not further growth.
I have more to say but perhaps I will save it for my next bit. Let me know what your thoughts are about my response here. Please feel welcome to be entirely candid. I appreciate your perspective.
Adaptation – you don’t cease to benefit, your gains diminish as your body adapts to whatever the task is. If you have a goal like gaining strength or improving cardio-vascular fitness, then mixing up your routines is a means of speeding up the gains you desire. The point about cycling and running is just an example of training specificity. Training for one thing does not necessarily transfer to other types of activities. This is one reason that extremely fit people can get their butt kicked when they first start doing yoga.
I don’t think that adaptation and muscle memory are exactly the same thing, though it makes sense that they are related. Supposedly, at least according to the way my yoga teacher uses it, muscle memory can be attained the first time you mindfully get a motion or a pose “correct.” Once you have felt it and integrated it once, its like riding a bicycle, you never forget how.
I agree with you about the foundational poses. I think you will see that they encompass the full range of motion and utilize every major muscle as both the agonist and antagonist muscle. There is a lot of variety of muscle and joint action, where in running and cycling and most other types of exercise, the same muscles are used the same way over and over. No attention is paid to the muscles or other body systems that are not needed for that sport or exercise. In Yoga, at least where I practice, we never do exactly the same class twice. Even doing foundational poses, we change things up a lot. You can teach a foundational class that empahasizes vinyasa more and thus make it more of a cardio workout, or you could move slowely using long holds and it becomes more about strength. Maybe you focus on breath and make it a meditative class. Its possible to teach all three of these very different classes with exactly the same poses, or obviously with totally different poses. I practice and teach in the Anusara-inspired tradition, so I definitely understand the ability to use foundational poses to help correct and heal injuries.
I heard you repeat the theme about the ascetics several times. While I have no doubt that some practice the way you relate it, isn’t it also common for monks to only practice as much as they need to to prepare for meditation? I thought that the more extreme gatha yogis – those that go around doing demonstrations and such were not necesssarily monks. I’ve never been to India though, so all of my knowledge about that is second hand. Anyway, my belief about anyone who pushes themselves so hard that they repeatedly injore themselves or make themselves unhealthy, is that they are not practicing mindfully nor are they practicing ahimsa. In my opinion, that is not yoga.
I think there can be a practice where there is always some room for progress without always pushing limits. In fact, if you always push limits, I’d have to say that you aren’t being mindful of what your body needs. Sometimes, the body needs rest. Again, in contrast to sports like running or cycling or yoga offers so many more ways to address the needs of body, mind, emotions, energy, spirit, etc. etc. I think you can exist within it as an activity that will always have a way forward that meets your needs and it does not have to be an extreme physical challenge. It also does not have to engaged in with a sense of striving to be progressive. Sometimes, in fact much of the time, letting go of specific goals and just being aware in the moment is what provides the greatest returns.
As for the extremely fit person who is not happy or fulfilled, I’m sure you are right. I guess yoga could be used to get strong and thus become a better mugger too, but again, I would question whether that is really yoga. I think there is a reason that Patanjali put the Yamas and Niyamas first. If your practice tears down your body without allowing it time to recover, heal and grow, then you just aren’t doing yoga. It may look like it, but you aren’t.
BTW – it is my understanding that Hatha Yoga has much more to thank the Tantric tradition for than the Vedic tradition. I don’t believe that there are too many ascetic Tantrikas out there either. According to the Tantric way of thinking, we are all already exactly what we are supposed to be in this moment and enlightenment is simply awakening to that fact. People who believe this are much less likely to abuse themselves seeking enlightenment, so I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that Monks per se have a practice thet is in conflict with our householder way of life. I’d guess it depends very much on the Monk, and the householder.
Namaste’
Scott
I have found that when non-traditional fitness instructors try to teach yoga, it is much less enjoyable. I would expect P90x to be the same, although I can’t say I have tried it.