What Does Being Wiped Out After a Yoga Practice Mean?

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Isn’t it interesting that you can feel tired and wiped out after a vigorous yoga class, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you created *strength* in your body in that yoga class?

Strength is actually a really specific variable. It means how much force a muscle can generate against resistance.

If we want to increase strength, we need to expose our muscles to higher loads than they’re currently used to so that they’re challenged to adapt and become stronger (generate more force).

If we move around a lot at a fast pace for 60-75 min in a sweaty yoga class, this might make us tired afterward - but this isn’t necessarily the same thing as *strengthening*. This is just tired.

In fact, when I do actual strength work in my yoga practice (loading my muscles for adaptations), the moves are usually done slowwwly and are hard & effortful in the moment I’m doing them, but then afterward I don’t feel crazily exhausted and wiped out.

I personally like taking a sweaty, faster-paced yoga class that makes me tired afterward (I really do! 😀) But I don’t really count that as *strengthening* work in my mind, because that’s something different.

What are some ways that you work on the variable of strength in your yoga practice?