Gym or yoga: What’s better way to achieve fitness?

MANILA, Philippines - Physical fitness is vital to people’s health and well-being. It helps them function efficiently in work, sports and leisure activities. It also improves their mood and mental functioning and reduces their risks for various diseases.

When it comes to achieving optimal physical fitness, most people either do gym workouts or practice yoga. “Both gym and yoga help us stay fit and healthy. Their benefits, however, differ from one person to another. It is our diverse fitness needs and goals that influence our exercise preference,” says Dr. Nicky Montoya, president of MediCard Philippines.

Gym workouts for muscle, strength building

Gym workouts typically involve cardio and weight-training exercises. These workouts are aided by different equipment that targets one’s specific fitness goals. Treadmills and steppers, for instance, are designed to burn calories fast while free weights and resistance bands are used to tone and strengthen muscles. Some of the major benefits of gym regimens include:

• Body toning and losing weight

Although all exercises can help tone one’s body, following a strenuous gym workout is one of the fastest ways to achieve this goal. Intense cardio exercises are particularly effective in dropping weight because they keep the heart pumping and the calories burning.

• Building strength and improving stamina

Gym equipment like pull-up bars and barbells are especially designed to build strength. They require sustained contractions of the muscles, which when done on a regular basis, would train them to contract more efficiently for a longer period of time without injuring the tendon.

This would eventually increase endurance in lifting and moving heavy objects. Various gym regimens are also effective in building stamina. By being required to exercise continuously for a given period of time, the body is trained to endure pain and sustain energy levels.

Yoga workouts for flexibility, inner peace

Yoga, a practice that follows a system of meditative postures or asana, is a relaxing and low-impact activity. Unlike most exercise routines that target body sculpting and strengthening through heavy workouts, yoga focuses more on achieving harmony of the mind, body and spirit. Yoga nurtures one’s health and well-being by:

• Improving cardio-respiratory fitness and body’s flexibility

The breath work exercises, stretching and various poses in yoga improve the flexibility of the rib area and shoulders and fully expand lung capacity. This expansion makes the circulatory and respiratory systems work efficiently in supplying oxygen to the skeletal muscles during sustained physical activities.

Stretching poses also increase the muscles’ flexibility and make them larger and capable of extracting more oxygen, which leads to the body’s increased endurance to physical exertion.

• Preventing stress and boosting immunity

Continuous yoga practice alters gene expressions — particularly the body’s physical and emotional response to stress. By repeating a pose or a mantra while disregarding other thoughts, relaxation response to stress is evoked.

This response is associated with “feeling good.” It also guards against psychological disorders like anxiety and depression and stress-related illnesses like hypertension and heart problems.

“Regardless if we are doing a cardio workout at the gym or meditating on our yoga mat, a healthy exercise routine can essentially rejuvenate our body,” says Montoya.

“Once our body is ‘tuned up’ after a vigorous exercise session, we can easily ‘fix’ various health issues that are often linked to poor physical condition, like insomnia or even unwanted food cravings,” he adds.

The MediCard Lifestyle Center is a modern edifice in the heart of Makati that houses a state-of-the-art fitness facility and a yoga center, offering a variety of fitness classes for all levels of experience. For more information, visit http://mlc.medicardphils.com.