Both yoga and aerobic exercise provide physiological benefits, but in different ways. Yoga helps to build strength, increases flexibility and improves balance. However, it does not provide a cardiovascular workout. Aerobic exercise such as swimming, biking and running has little effect on strength and flexibility. However, it burns significant calories and conditions your heart muscle, so that your heart works more efficiently to pump blood throughout your body.
Cardiovascular Exercise
The main difference between yoga and aerobic exercise occurs in the effect each exercise has on the heart muscle. Cardiovascular exercises such as running and swimming elicit intense demands on the large muscles of the body, which require more oxygen to perform exercises. The increased need for oxygen causes the heart muscle to work harder, and as your heart adapts to the stress, it becomes more efficient. The slower pace of yoga does not require as much oxygen. Therefore, it does have the same conditioning effect on the heart that aerobic exercises do.
Calories
Another key difference between yoga and aerobic exercise liess in caloric expenditure. The average 50 minute Hatha yoga class burns approximately 144 calories, according to the American Council on Exercise. A 50 minute ashtanga class, the more vigorous style of yoga, burns slightly more at 237. Compare this to 50 minutes of running or swimming at 355 and 507 calories, respectively. Aerobic exercise burns considerably more calories than yoga.
Strength
Yoga does tend to boost muscular strength and muscular endurance, according to the American Council on Exercise, particularly in the chest, triceps and abdominal regions. Yoga also helps to develop strength and endurance in many of the core muscles, especially the obliques and the erector spinae. Cardiovascular exercise will help develop muscular endurance, however as a rule, aerobic exercise does not encourage the development of muscular strength to the same extent that yoga does.
Flexibility
Aerobic exercise has little impact on the development of flexibility, whereas yoga significantly improves it, according to a 2010 USA Department of Health study published in the "Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies." In the study, 108 physically fit firefighters took yoga classes over six weeks. None of the participants had practiced yoga prior to the study. Researchers marked significant improvements in trunk flexibility, and the study participants also reported less musculoskeletal pain overall.
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