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For a bodybuilder, a “cardio” workout should primarily be a low-intensity session that keeps cortisol levels low. This is to speed up fat loss and preserve muscle. Because BY also causes dilation and constriction of the arteries, it also helps improve the elasticity and responsiveness of the arterial walls. It’s an incredible conditioning tool for me, and of course has myriad health benefits as well.
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Thanks, Michelle. I’m not quite clear, though, how BY necessarily keeps cortisol levels low. Does it have to do with controlling the body’s perception of stress during a BY class? Or after a class? And for a person like me who has historically done a lot of running along with weight training, how does cardio via running (or biking or swimming) stack up against cardio via Bikram Yoga. Lol, JJ, I’ll have to put together a blog article as an answer. Great question!
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Also in 1998, Dr. Dean Ornish, through experimenting with 194 patients of coronary heart disease, found that “80% of the patients were able to avoid bypass or angioplasty by adhering to lifestyle changes, including [Hatha] yoga.” To avoid the argument of confounding variables present in his experiment, Ornish noted that “adherence to the yoga and meditation program was as strongly correlated with the changes in the amount of blockage as was the adherence to diet” (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,106356,00.html).
