Yoga vs Stretching

I was in spin class this morning and a student in the class was complaining about a bad cramp in her calf. The woman next to her asked if she had stretched before class. Before she could even respond the teacher with a look of horror on her face said, “Oh you should never stretch before warming up!” She said it in such a way that one would think if you stretched before warming up your muscles that they would just snap under the pressure.

 As a yoga teacher I just kind of chuckled at this. It's always interesting to hear different views about stretching. Most often the view in a gym class is quite different from the yoga studio. According to this teachers advice we should run around the studio a few times before we start class.

As I spent the next 45 minutes spinning I got to thinking, what is the difference between stretching and yoga. They both involve lengthening the muscles. There are certainly some technique differences, but what I believe really separates the two and what makes yoga safe to do even if you aren’t “warmed up” is awareness.

At the beginning of a yoga class you start with subtle gentle movements. You ease into the poses, taking your time to assess your body and hopefully your mind. You’re going into the class knowing your muscles are tight. You slowly warm them up by stretching. Once the muscles are warm, you can then move into more challenging poses safely.

From a gyms perspective, stretching is something that is done, hopefully, but not always, at the end of class. Not a lot of time goes into the stretches, they just hope to target the main muscles that you worked in class. Proper form is not generally taught and the stretches are briefly held. But honestly, the classes we go to at the gym we aren’t going to for a good stretch.

The point I’m trying to come around to is that yes, you can stretch if your muscles aren’t warmed up, you just have to go slow and not power into the stretch. Yes, having warm muscles does allow you to get deeper into a stretch and is safer for the muscle (although it should be mentioned here that it is easy to overstretch a muscle when they are warm, causing the same damage as if you went too fast into a "cold" stretch). Again this comes back to awareness of what is going on in your body and how to proceed from there is up to you and how it feels in your body.