Simple Response

No. Yoga is not strength training nor should it be considered strength training.

Can Yoga Create Strength Adaptations?

Yoga can create some very isolated strength training adaptations, especially when yoga is performed with exercises that challenge the upper body. Some forms of yoga involves holding challenging positions for the upper body that can create strength training adaptations.

For extremely sedentary individuals yoga can build strength in the full body, as almost any other activity would (dancing, running, walking, climbing etc). This however doesn’t mean that we should categories these activities as strength training. Especially when strength training is vastly more effective at building strength.

This Doesn’t Make It Strength Training

Strength training, when done well, will put emphasis on building strength in all the key muscle groups and movement patterns. This will result in the body becoming stronger as an entity. This is drastically different from the strength that might be gained from performing some yoga poses. People who practice yoga cannot deadlift twice their bodyweight.

Yoga is Amazing, Just Not For Strength Adaptations

This is not a criticism of the practice of yoga, which has plenty of benefits for both mental and physical health. However it is important to realise the limitations of a certain activity. An other example of this would be that strength training is not cardiovascular training. Strength training does not improve your cardiovascular system to a high enough degree that we should consider it the same as running or cycling. Strength training will increase your heart rate during the activity and for very sedentary individuals it can improve their cardiovascular system, however this does not mean that strength training is cardiovascular training. In the same vein, yoga can make you slightly stronger in some positions if you are generally a sedentary person but this by no means that we should consider yoga to be strength training.

I have had this debate with a few yoga advocates who want to believe that their practice is a fix all for physical health. It is an important point that people looking to optimise their health should be doing strength training and if they believe that yoga is akin to strength training, they are missing out on an activity which could revolutionise their physical health.

The Best of Both Worlds: Do Both

If you can find the time do to both well structured strength training and maintain a yoga practice then you will get the benefits of both activities. Someone who is striving towards optimal health should be improving their strength, increasing their mobility and finding ways that suit them to relax. If you are serious about building health consider adding both into your physical training routine.