The Foundation of Martial Arts: Yoga

[Bart Scovill]

By Paul Jerard

At first glance, Martial Arts and Yoga seem like opposing forces and philosophies, but these two health maintenance systems have more in common than meets the eye. For a moment, consider the similarities between Tai Chi and Hatha Yoga. Within the warm up, you notice very similar movement, philosophy, and principles.

Why does "climb the mountain" stance look so much like Warrior I posture? Is it coincidence, luck, or a common link? Why does Kundalini have movements that resemble punching, kicking, and martial arts foot work? Are Kung Fu forms an extension of Vinyasa? Each has been referred to as meditation in motion....Rest of Article.

[Bart Scovill]

Bump...This is an interesting article, and I'm afraid it got lost behind our recent spammer's posts.

[southpaw0727]

Iv'e always wanted to take yoga however there's no school around here to take it. Iv'e thought about getting a dvd or book that may at least get me in the right direction, do you have any suggestions?

[Bart Scovill]

I started with a TV program called Yoga Zone. Simple routines and great explanations (a couple of attractive teachers doesn't hurt either). There was a Bikram's Yoga class that I took for a while. Yoga in a room heated to between 95 & 105. Most the time, I practice on my own though. Definitely easier to learn from a video than a book. Our cable provider has a lot of free On Demand Yoga programs that are very good. For this reason, I've never bothered to by a video. I did buy a couple of books for additional explanations once I had the basics, but none that I can heartily recommend.

What I like most about Yoga is that it combines stretching with qigong. A must for those with limited training time.

[Jonathan Forrester]

As I recall from studying martial arts history - after the Buddah crossed the mountains from India into China, he found the monks there weak and unable to maintain the postures necessary in order to meditate for the length of time required to reach enlightenment (a little different from the article). He immediately initiated exercises in order to get them into superior physical condition.

It may be that some of these exercises were some of the Indian warrior exercises that were just performed but never formally "taught" over the centuries (kind of like warm up for class - you learn them, but they are never really taught). Then someone came up with taking them and making a formal study of them. Pretty sure that Yoga originated in the India region which would definitely account for the similarity between systems.

[Theo de Jong]

I see a lot of simular positions between Karate & Yoga, the only diference I see, are the benefits. For example:
- Zenkutsu Dachi (forward leaning stance) & Virabhadrasana (warrior pose)
- Cat push up from the GoJu Ryu and the sun salutation from Hatha
- The Ba Duan Jin (chinese or Hachi Dan Kin - Japanese) has also connections with Yoga
- etc....