I hope you realised by now, that for me Yoga is not about the poses and the achievements, as in a WORK OUT, but more a spiritual development, a road to self discovery, as in a WORK IN.
This post, as my beloved teacher would say, is my humble opinion. I always teach you in class to: take it in - digest it - circulate it to every cell - check what feels true to you, keep that - discard the rest (5 Prana Mudra meditation rings a bell dear students? :-)). So please do that, make your own conscious call on the subject.
When we come to physical fitness how does that tie in? To answer the question in the title - is Yoga enough for physical fitness? - in short: it depends. I believe to be in balance both physically, mentally and emotionally you need to know if you are out of balance. If you identified that you have imbalances, the only way back to balance is if you know where you are going, as in what is your balance where you want to be? I wrote a blog post on this according to Ayurveda.
If your imbalance is Vata (excess air and ether elements), and you practice Vata balancing Yoga than you are on the way towards balance. If your imbalance is Kapha (excess earth and water elements) and you practice Vata balancing Yoga than it will take you quite a long while to get back into balance, or you may not even get there. My point is, when you personalise your practice (as it really should be) than yes it could be enough.
On a personal note, I am a Pitta Dosha (fire and water) constitution and had a Kapha imbalance (excess earth and water elements, manifesting as weight gain, sluggishness, accumulating things, not willing to change). I kept on practising Vata balancing Yoga and walking - low impact exercise. Did I get closer to my balance? Honestly? Not really. After I added more Kapha balancing, as in more moderate and high intensity exercises my journey to balance was much quicker. Could I have done it just with Yoga? Yes, practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Flow or Power Yoga but I preferred to balance my practice with jogging/running in the fresh air.
To summarise my rumblings...I believe Yoga is = union / balance. For me that means a balance of low intensity (fat burning), moderate intensity (cardio) and high intensity (peak) exercise and last but not least, meditation. For you it may be something totally different. My point is, find what works for you, using the very helpful starting points of your Ayurvedic constitution and current imbalance.
My current routine is the following, bear in mind, it changes with the seasons and how I feel in my mind/body/breath:
Body balancing - Yoga practise daily, walking in the fresh air, HIIT exercises and weights - 2x a week, Running (see blog post on running) - 2x a week
Mind balancing - daily meditation
For the more fitness minded, translating this into heart rate zones:
Heart rate zones:
Fat burn - 50-69% - low intensity exercise; in my case - (88-121 bpm) - Yoga & Walking
Cardio - 70-84% - moderate intensity exercise; in my case (122-148 bpm) - HIIT & Weights
Peak - above 85% - high intensity exercise; in my case (above 149 bpm) - Running
How to calculate your heart rate zone? 220-your age is said to be the maximum heart rate. As an example, in my case 220-44=176 is my maximum heart rate.To calculate the heart rate zones, simple multiply 176 by 0.5, 0.69, 0.84 to get your benchmark heart rate zones.
Yoga Run Weights
I would be interested to hear, what works for you?
If anybody is interested, give me a shout and I give you my weight training program, 30 minutes in the comfort of your own home.
Namaste
Dora