Building Stronger Arms Through Yoga
Yoga is fantastic for building strength in the arms and although you may never see your biceps bulge through your T-shirt sleeves, you will see an increase in arm strength and endurance that may not occur in perhaps other forms of exercise.
Moreover, some basic Calisthenics like Push-ups, the Plank and the Dive-bombers do borrow heavily from Yoga.
If one is looking to increase strength in the arms through Yoga, it is said that the best exercises to focus on is the one and only Sun Salutations first.
It can be difficult holding endurance building poses such as the Wheel, Bow, Peacock and Crow Poses-with their variations-for a good enough length of time (say an average of 90 seconds and beyond), but by increasing the number of rounds of the Sun-Salutations (Exercises) mentioned earlier to at least 24 straight rounds, you can increase your ability to hold any of the poses above for a quite a while.
It will be safe to say that is because the muscles are warmed up by this powerful
combination of systematic poses for the otherwise moderate to strenuous demands put on them.
In addition, if you start adding Hindu-push ups (a straight yoga derivative as it’s basically Downward Facing dog meets Cobra Pose repeated in sequence) for an occasional source of variety in working out, these same Sun Salutations increase endurance to be able to perform a good amount of this Yoga-esque
exercise.
That considered, in addition to the Sun Salutations (24+ rounds) the other poses one should focus on for increasing strength in the arms would be the following:
1. The Wheel Pose
2. The Inclined Plane Pose
3. The Bow Pose
4. The several variations of the Peacock Pose
5. The several variation of Crow Pose
6. The Side and Regular Plank pose
To some degree, even the simple shoulder-stand when performed in conjunction with it counter poses-The Bridge and Fish pose, can definitely come in handy for using Yoga for increasing arm strength.
Each of these poses also come in extremely useful for toning up the abs and offering in some cases a deep tissue massage to your visceral organs. Bet you free-weights can’t do that?
So next time you run into someone who thinks Yoga can’t do much for their arms, be sure to tell them to try the poses above, along with the wonderful Sun Salutations.
This will be a classic case of ‘trying is believing”, so give this suggestion a shot and you will be almost guaranteed increase in the strength of your arms using Yoga that is – in no time.