by Molly Hansen

Created on: October 28, 2009

I love doing yoga. There are many benefits to incorporating it into a fitness regimen. However, I do not believe it is enough to make a person "physically fit". The first thing we have to establish, though, is what does being "physically fit" really mean? Let me explain what it means to me. It means being able to do all of life's requirements such as lifting our kids into the car, hauling groceries to the house, running to catch our toddlers, and meeting any physical challenges life presents to us on a day to day basis. It is having the strength and endurance needed to accomplish any activities we may face throughout our day.

To meet this standard, yoga is not enough. We need three basic things to be physically fit: flexibility, strength, and endurance. Yoga will definitely give you flexibility, and it can strengthen muscles to a point, but it can not give you endurance.

I started working out six years ago after the birth of my second child. Before that I had been naturally thin, but not physically fit. I started with pilates, which incorporates yoga but is more physically focused without the mental and spiritual emphasis. I begun to see changes in my body. Like yoga, pilates works the deep interior muscles of your body and increases flexibility. I gained flexibility and strength and was definitely in better physical shape because of it. But after a while I stopped seeing changes and it only took me so far. On its own it could not take me to the next level of increasing my strength further or provide the cardiovascular exercise that is necessary to build endurance.

And then I broke my back. It was during my recovery that I began to focus on yoga exclusively. Pilates was too challenging so yoga was the appropriate place to start my journey back to health. Through yoga my back was strengthened and my body healed. It is low impact, slow, and calming and it was exactly what I needed at the time. But again, it could only take me so far.

After my back had fully healed I began to incorporate walking, which quickly became running, into my fitness routine. This took me to the next level of physical fitness. I really began to see the extra pounds come off, which yoga alone could not burn. Consequently, I was further motivated. I had more energy and less stress. I started slowly, but as time went on, as I diligently stuck it out and kept going, I could run farther and run faster. I saw real, tangible results and benefits of adding running to my fitness regime.

I have

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