Can You Get Ripped with Yoga?
Most people don’t associate yoga with ripped, shredded muscles but some types of yoga can give you exactly that. Flow yoga is a type of fluid yoga that moves dynamically through a series of poses focusing on the connection between breath, movement and mind. There are many types of flow yoga, but in this blog I will focus on a series of exercises called Sun Salutations and show you how to get ripped with yoga. Sun Salutations are specifically designed to strengthen and stretch certain parts of the body, isolating different muscle groups with different poses. When done together, you get a full body, well rounded workout that builds muscle mass, strength and endurance.
Safety and Precautions
You should not do Sun Salutations if you have a shoulder, wrist, elbow, knee, hip or ankle injury. Talk to your doctor or physical therapist to see if this is an appropriate exercise for you.
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Table of Contents
My Personal Experience
I have been practicing the most well known or classic Sun Salutation sequence for over 20 years. It is a great sequence that gives you a full body workout and stretch. But that is its limitation. An exercise that works the entire body doesn’t focus any one muscle group enough to get ‘ripped’ muscles, or at least not easily. Three years ago, I completed a one month long, 300 hour yoga teacher training in Portugal. This experience took me much deeper into my flow yoga practice and taught me different sequences and routines for different purposes. Two Sun Salutation sequences I learnt are designed specifically for increasing muscle mass and strength. They both focus on different individual parts of the body. One focuses on the upper body: arms, shoulders, chest, back, core and balance. The other focuses on the lower body: hamstrings, thighs, calves, butt, balance and mobility. The three Sun Salutation sequences covered here are called the Aruna Suriya Namaskar (upper body), the Vedic Suriya Namaskar (lower body) and the classic Rishikesh Suriya Namaskar (whole body). When done together you get a great full body workout and stretch that builds strength, muscle mass and endurance that will get you ripped in no time. More about me.
Benefits of Getting Ripped with Yoga Instead of Lifting Weights
- Use your own body weight – less chance of injury and no need for expensive equipment.
- The sequences are specially designed to stretch and strengthen giving you a full body, well rounded workout.
- You can do it almost anywhere – you just need a flat surface as long as you are tall with a bit of extra room for arm movements.
- The sequences are done slowly and include stretching which also reduces the likelihood of injury.
- The continuous flow movement done in conjunction with the breath creates a moving meditation. This is great for working on focus and mindfulness.
- All exercise reduces stress, but the mindfulness aspect of flow yoga is a truly great stress reliever.
Tips on How to Get Ripped
I would love to tell you that you can just do these three Sun Salutations every day and in two months you’ll have a six pack and be ripped. Unfortunately that’s not the case. You need to have a relatively healthy all-round lifestyle in order to get ripped. While I don’t lift weights or go to the gym, I do have a healthy lifestyle. I don’t drink or smoke. I eat a Whole Food Plant Based diet, and I do Tummo Breathing and Cold water Therapy every day. I also follow an intermittent fasting eating schedule. This means I only eat for 8-12 hours each day, fasting the other 12-16. Try an intermittent fasting schedule that works for you. For me this is most easily done by eating breakfast around 10 AM and finishing supper by around 8 PM.
Lifestyle suggestions to get ripped.
- Eat a Whole Food Plant Based Diet.
- Practice Intermittent Fasting
- Do Cold Water Therapy by taking cold showers or doing cold water plunges.
- Do Tummo Breathing
- Drink alcohol moderately. Get my tips on sober living here.
- Be active! I love surfing, stand up paddle boarding, gardening, hiking and biking. Find sports or activities you enjoy, and get out and do them!
Aruna Suriya Namaskar (Upper Body: Arms, Chest, Shoulders, Back Balance and Core)
Aruna Sun Salutations works on the upper body by basically doing a handstand in the middle of the sequence. If you can’t do a handstand that’s fine. The whole point of the exercise is TRYING to do a handstand. This works on your arms, shoulders, chest and back muscles and works them to failure. Training muscles to failure doesn’t sound like a good thing but it is actually the fastest way to increase both muscle mass and strength. This is key in building muscles to capacity and getting ripped. Other exercises in the sequence include the plank, pushup and mountain or downward dog.
Aruna Sun Salutations are great for building muscle and strength in the arms, chest and back. An added bonus is that when practiced over time, this exercise helps protect the head and body in falls as you are basically catching yourself in the exercise.
Try do do 6 to 12 reps. Do the reps slowly, focusing on your breathing and body movements throughout the sequence.
Watch a video of Aruna Suriya Namaskar for beginners
Watch a video of Aruna Suriya Namaskar
Vedic Suriya Namaskar (Lower Body: Hamstrings, Thighs, Calves, Butt, Balance and Mobility)
Vedic Sun Salutations focuses on the lower body by doing a squat and lunge in the sequence. These work on the hamstrings, thighs, calves and butt. The sequence is also great for your balance and mobility in general. This Sun Salutation is great for incorporating other standing poses in the sequence like the extended side angle and open/extended triangle pose.
Try do do 6 to 12 reps. Do the reps slowly, focusing on your breathing and body movements throughout the sequence.
Watch a video of Vedic Suriya Namaskar
Rishikesh Suriya Namaskar (Whole Body: Arms, Chest, Shoulders, Back, Core, Hamstrings, Thighs, calves, Butt, Balance and Mobility)
Rishikesh Sun Salutations are one of the classic Sun Salutation sequences that you may be familiar with. It works on the entire body, giving you a full body workout and amplifying the effects of the other two sequences. This Sun Salutation is great for incorporating other prone yoga poses in the sequence like pigeon pose and other strength building poses like side plank.
Try to do 6 to 12 reps. Do the reps slowly, focusing on your breathing and body movements throughout the sequence.
Full Workout Sequence and Tips
- Focus on your breathing and body movements throughout the sequences. Breath slowly and evenly through the nose.
- Bring your attention back to your breath and body movements if it wanders. Do this without judging or silently commenting on the wander. Merely note that your mind wandered, bring it back to your breath and body movements and continue.
- Start off with the Vedic Sun Salutation as this is the easiest physically and acts as a warm up for the other two.
- Include warrior poses with the lunges to get a really intense lower body workout.
- Follow this with the Aruna Sun salutations.
- Do the best you can and start out small.
- Beginners can just step back into a plank then step forward again.
- Intermediate practitioners can jump back into plank and jump from downward dog forward again.
- Try to float on your hands back into plank and back again. Gradually putting more weight for longer on your hands as time progresses.
- Finish up with the classic Rishikesh Sun Salutation.
- This will stretch and re-work the muscle groups focused on in the Aruna and Vedic Sun Salutations.
Do this sequence five times per week while following my other suggestions and you will be ripped in no time.
Have fun!
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