Ask a Trainer
Two elite 24 Hour Fitness Trainers tackle your most burning in-the-gym questions.
Does yoga count as stretching?
-- Alexx, San Francisco
Yoga isn’t a complete stretching regimen, but it does build flexibility. So, yes, it counts as stretching.
Yoga counts as yoga. This practice, which at one point was meant to bring about a mind-body connection, has now become what some people are trying to make a be-all, end-all [answer] for fitness: strength-training, weight loss, and stretching, all rolled into one. And yoga can’t do everything. No one specific form of exercise can.
But the question wasn’t: Does yoga count as everything I ever need to do for the rest of my life to build fitness? It was: Does yoga count as stretching? And it does. Because you’re holding your own body weight in the poses, you get great benefit isometrically. I love to see people do yoga to build strength and flexibility—but I’d also love for them to incorporate other stretching, too, even if it’s minimal. I’d recommend adding stretches for your chest and calf muscles, which are often really tight and sore.
Meet the Experts
Two trainers, both with impeccable credentials but very different styles.
Brandy Bachmeyer, 28, a former Olympic weightlifter, is a rare amalgam of brains, brawn, and perkiness. Sort of like a cross between MacGyver and a local TV weatherperson. In a good way. An elite trainer at San Ramon Supersport Club in California, Brandy regularly puts in 12-hour days, sometimes joining them as they train for half-marathons—even surveying the contents of their sub-Zeros.
Scott Nunes, a trainer at the 24 Hour Fitness in Escondido, California knows firsthand that getting fit doesn’t just happen. “I used to be a bona fide couch potato,” Nunes avows. When Nunes was in his mid 20s, he had back surgery, developed arthritis, and found himself weighing in at 260 pounds: “When my one-and-a-half-year-old son raced me to the top of the stairs and beat me, I started doing pushups and sit ups that day,” he recalls. Nunes, 37, got in great shape, which helped him raise his son, who’s now 14.
COMBINED WISDOM Do the dog—the downward-facing variety. Just be sure to stretch a little bit, too. Yoga bonus: You’ll learn some helpful breathing techniques. If you’re lifting, and you’re holding your breath, you’re not getting oxygen to your muscles—and yoga can definitely help with that.
