Just Wondering: Does Yoga ‘Count’ as Strength Training or Cardio?

If you’ve ever practiced yoga, there’s a good chance you’ve, at times, felt breathless during a demanding flow or sore the next day from many rounds of Chaturanga. Surely, getting sweaty, breathless, and sore means that yoga “counts” as a cardio and strength workout… right?

Not exactly. Yoga is pretty powerful, but for most people, it likely isn’t intense enough to be considered true strength or cardio work—and while that might sound like a bad thing, it’s really okay.

It’s important to remember what yoga is really about. “Yoga in the West has become a posture-based form of exercise and rarely emphasizes its vast philosophical history,” explains Amanda McCarroll, E-RYT 500, yoga teacher and co-founder of Buddhi Moves.

Asana (the physical postures) is just one of eight limbs (or parts) of yoga, a system of Indian philosophy that’s been around for thousands of years. “The yoga we practice today is based on the teachings of a few Indian men who made the physical aspect of yoga popular in the 1930s and onward,” McCarroll continues. Really, “yoga is a mental and spiritual state, not a form of exercise. The goal of yoga is to yoke or merge the true self with the universal self—a state of full absorption and oneness.”

All that doesn’t mean yoga offers zero strength or cardio benefits; it just has its limitations. Stay tuned as we break down the science, ahead.

Does yoga count as strength training?

“Yoga almost always offers strength benefits,” McCarroll says. But can it count as true strength training? Not really. It’s not that you aren’t building strength when your muscles are shaking in chair pose—it’s just that yoga likely isn’t challenging enough to result in real gains in muscular strength, size, or endurance for many people.

“There are certain styles of yoga, such as Vinyasa and Ashtanga, that include many postures that use the body for resistance,” McCarroll says. While a more physically challenging yoga class can help with maintaining bone mass and building muscle, using external resistance like weights will yield better and more efficient results, she says.

Chris Mohr, PhD, RD, fitness and nutrition advisor at Fortune Recommends Health, agrees. “For exercise to be considered strength or resistance training, it must challenge your muscles to the point where they adapt and become stronger,” he explains. “This usually involves lifting weights, using resistance bands, or even your own body weight to create resistance.”

The key is to work your muscles until you get to the point of failure (i.e., not being able to do any more repetitions), which should be in the 6 to 12 rep range per set, he continues. Most yoga flows won’t put you through that many reps of any single pose, and while they may take you to the point of failure, it’s not likely.

A big factor here is whether or not you’re already active. Beginners may experience more strength benefits from yoga than those who already practice or are accustomed to strength work. “Yoga, in particular, introduces movements that use your own body weight and involve several muscle groups in new ways,” Dr. Mohr says. “This may help improve muscle tone, endurance, and overall strength for those who are less active. For those already seasoned in strength training, like weightlifters or those who often do resistance workouts, the strength gains from yoga might not be as dramatic.”

You also need to consider which muscles yoga works. A well-rounded strength routine will target all the muscle groups in your body, but yoga tends to build strength mainly in your upper body and core. A small 2016 study published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice¹, for example, found that when women in their 20s did a one-hour yoga class three times a week for six weeks, it boosted muscular endurance in their abs and upper body. Another study published in 2021 in Frontiers in Public Health² also found that yoga helped boost core strength in healthy women when they did a single, one-hour session of novice-level Hatha yoga per week.

If you’re new to working out, coming back from a hiatus or injury, or intentionally working at a less intense level, yoga can help you build a worthwhile base of strength. But if you’re looking to use yoga for strength training and need more of a challenge, look out for hybrid-style classes, like CorePower Yoga’s Yoga Sculpt class or McCarroll’s FlowLIFT, both of which incorporate cardio and strength elements as well as external weights.

“Yoga, in particular, introduces movements that use your own body weight and involve several muscle groups in new ways. This may help improve muscle tone, endurance, and overall strength.” —Chris Mohr, PhD, RD

Does yoga count as cardio?

For starters, let’s establish what really qualifies as a cardio workout. “Cardio, or aerobic exercise, is any activity that raises your heart and breathing rates for an extended period, helping to improve heart and lung health,” Dr. Mohr says. “To be considered cardio, the exercise should make your heart beat faster, reaching about 60 to 80 percent of its maximum rate (calculated as 220 minus your age), and keep it there for at least 10 to 20 minutes.”

So, for example, if you’re 30 years old, your estimated maximum heart rate is 190 beats per minute (bpm). That means your approximate target heart rate for a cardio workout would be 114 to 152 bpm. This would be roughly considered a moderate-intensity workout.

So, does yoga push you into that heart rate zone? It’s hard to say definitively. Everyone’s personal heart rate training zones will differ, and so will their body’s response to exercise. The best way to tell if yoga reaches moderate intensity for you, personally, is by gathering data on how your body responds to a session via a smartwatch or heart rate monitor.

If you really want to squeeze the most cardio benefit out of your yoga session, you can up the intensity by increasing the speed or difficulty of the poses. A 2016 review of research published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise³ evaluated the energy cost (i.e. calories burned) during yoga sessions to gauge its intensity. The researchers found that the majority of individual poses and full yoga sessions would be classified as light exercise. However, they also realized that some higher-intensity poses and flows—including Surya Namaskar, aka sun salutation—could be considered moderate intensity.

A small 2021 study published in Frontiers in Physiology⁴ took this investigation to the next level. They found that when 20 women yoga instructors did 10 minutes of sun salutation B at a speedy tempo of 1.5 seconds per pose, they reached high-intensity exercise levels, including an average heart rate of 88.7 percent of their max heart rate, and a peak at 95.6 percent of their max heart rate. It’s worth noting that these were yoga instructors, so they were familiar with the flow and able to transition through it at a fast pace; it’s unclear whether the average yogi would be able to get close to that pace while maintaining proper form or needing to be cued by a teacher, for example.

But before you go speeding through your next yoga session, McCarroll has an important caveat to note: “The main thing that separates yoga from other physical activity is deep, conscious breathing,” she says. “Cardiovascular exercise inherently causes rapid breath that’s more difficult to control and even more difficult to maintain through the nose. Once we’ve lost the breath, it could be said that one is no longer practicing yoga.”

When practiced at a slower, more intentional pace, yoga offers so many other benefits that have nothing to do with cardio (more on that below). You may be better off choosing a truly aerobic workout—jogging, walking, swimming, cycling, dancing, there are so many choices—to meet your cardio quota rather than trying to turn yoga into what it’s not.

The other benefits of yoga worth noting

Yoga doesn’t need to fit squarely into the boxes of strength training or cardio to earn its place in your wellness routine. “It improves flexibility, balance, and joint movement, which helps reduce the risk of injuries and improve your posture,” Dr. Mohr says. “Yoga is also great for mental health⁵, to help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression through breathing and mindfulness practices.” Finally, regular yoga can also help you sleep better⁶, lower blood pressure⁷, and overall improve your ability to relax, he says.

“One of the greatest benefits of yoga is learning how to breathe consciously with attention and control,” McCarroll adds, which can calm your nervous system, trigger your relaxation response, and lower cortisol (a stress hormone). “Yoga gives us more awareness of our bodies and breath, teaches us to stay calm in uncomfortable situations, and gives us a tool for managing our own stress.”

And this is all if you let yoga be what it is: a mind-body practice focused on your breath—not a time to pound out reps of Chaturanga or speed through a sun salutation as quickly as possible.

“Any movement is great movement.” —Chris Mohr, PhD, RD

The bottom line

Technically, yoga typically won’t qualify as either cardio or strength training. However, there are exceptions; your current fitness level and the exact yoga flows you’re doing will change how the practice affects your body and dictate whether or not it ventures into aerobic exercise or strength-, muscle- or endurance-building territory.

Dr. Mohr is more inclined to qualify yoga as strength training versus cardio. “Some styles, like Vinyasa or Ashtanga, involve holding challenging poses or moving through sequences that use your body weight for resistance, which can build muscle strength and endurance,” he says. “But yoga generally doesn’t keep your heart rate high enough for long enough to count as cardio unless it’s a very fast-paced flow. Research shows yoga can build strength but is less effective for cardio conditioning.”

So, where does yoga fit in your fitness routine? “Try doing it one or two times per week, especially on days when you’re resting or doing lighter activities,” Dr. Mohr says.

If you’re a beginner exerciser and looking to use yoga to build strength or just get your body moving, that’s a great idea. Choose more active styles like Vinyasa or power yoga. If you’re using yoga for active recovery on a rest day, try gentler yoga styles like restorative or Yin yoga, which can help you recover and relax. “Yoga can also be a good warmup or cooldown to help improve flexibility and prevent injury,” Dr. Mohr says.

Just don’t lose sight of yoga’s origins and true intentions; it’s more than just a workout. If you practice regularly, you’ll reap many benefits from yoga even if it doesn’t “count” as one of these other types of exercise. “Any movement is great movement,” Dr. Mohr says.