I'm glad you posted. I used to absolutely LOVE swimming and I swore by it. I still do it from time to time - mostly in the sea now. I'm lucky enough to live on the beach. I got into triathlons and would come out of the water ahead of the pack and then get my ass handed to me on the cycle and run. :-)
Swimming is the one thing that fixed chronic back pain for me which I acquired from rollerblading half pipe in my late teens and repeatedly falling on my ass in the transition from pretty high up. It trashed my lower back. Swimming fixed that - as long as I kept swimming. And the trouble is that I've moved around a lot and I've had periods of a year or more without a pool. And inevitably my back issues would come back.
Also with swimming, if I tried to do anything else that required using my full posterior chain (like deadlifts) I'd injure myself. I was fit and pain free, but I couldn't really push it when doing heavy lifting work.
Yoga, for me, has some major advantages over swimming. Firstly I can do it absolutely anywhere. I got this incredibly thin travel mat that you can stuff into a small backpack and I take that to hotels with me. As long as I can stand up straight and spread my arms wide, that's all the space I need. So I'm able to do it no matter where I'm living or traveling to. Secondly, it has massively improved my ability to lift heavy random stuff at awkward angles without getting injured, and with more strength than before. Nothing else has done that for me including lifting, swimming, etc.
Since you sound interested, I'd like to offer a few more tips:
Avoid classes. The social aspect of yoga can be a bit weird. You'll find people who think they breathe through their eyelids. Others that want to hug you a lot. There's the subtle pressure associated with the various biz models around classes. There is a hierarchy you'll discover. You'll also find that hot yoga is brilliant in it's business model because you can't do it at home - you have to go to a hot yoga class. Which is seriously limiting if you travel. I've mentioned the beachbody 3 week yoga retreat here which is what I use. But I'm sure there are a bunch of other apps and resources that are great, so find something that gets you from zero to yoga and then just keep doing a routine that works for you.
I have two routines that I do using the beachbody app. One is 20 mins and one is 30 mins. The 20 is called "flow on the go" and it's super fast and flowy. The 30 minute routine starts off slower and is more meditative. Depends what mood I'm in or I'll just randomly pick on.
I'd also recommend that you don't do yoga if you've been drinking heavily the night before. For some reason when I was starting out, I'd get injured doing that. Just a mild injury. I can only surmise that it's because my body was in an inflamed state from the hangover. THC/CBD the night before is totally fine and I find it actually makes yoga quite enjoyable the next morning. YMMV.
I still mountain bike, stand up paddleboard, hike, occassionally do short runs while I'm hiking. But yoga makes all of that far more enjoyable, has reduced my injury rate and improved my balance, flexibility and strength.
Don't get sucked into the whole zen, mindfulness, meditation circle, speaking slowly in droning tones bull. Yoga is amazing. It's the cults and cultists that make it expensive, inconvenient, weird and just kind of awful. With yoga you get meditation free. As long as you're breathing and focusing on the breath while doing the movements, doing a flow or holding a pose, you're already meditating. The rest is just window dressing.
Thanks for the tips! Very helpful details. Wow I also did maintain bike (used to be my everyday life in the past).
My mom tried "hot yoga" and quit immediately, i was laughing, lost interest back then, now Covid makes swimming pool less attractive to me so i'm interested in yoga, at least I used to like gymnastic kind of things (e.g. round off)
Yeah I didn't even think about Covid, but agreed, that does make it challenging. I'm tempted to go to a hot yoga class just so I know. But I can't imagine being in an enclosed heated room full of people sweating and breathing heavily for an hour. I don't even like doing yoga on my own indoors.
Swimming is the one thing that fixed chronic back pain for me which I acquired from rollerblading half pipe in my late teens and repeatedly falling on my ass in the transition from pretty high up. It trashed my lower back. Swimming fixed that - as long as I kept swimming. And the trouble is that I've moved around a lot and I've had periods of a year or more without a pool. And inevitably my back issues would come back.
Also with swimming, if I tried to do anything else that required using my full posterior chain (like deadlifts) I'd injure myself. I was fit and pain free, but I couldn't really push it when doing heavy lifting work.
Yoga, for me, has some major advantages over swimming. Firstly I can do it absolutely anywhere. I got this incredibly thin travel mat that you can stuff into a small backpack and I take that to hotels with me. As long as I can stand up straight and spread my arms wide, that's all the space I need. So I'm able to do it no matter where I'm living or traveling to. Secondly, it has massively improved my ability to lift heavy random stuff at awkward angles without getting injured, and with more strength than before. Nothing else has done that for me including lifting, swimming, etc.
Since you sound interested, I'd like to offer a few more tips:
Avoid classes. The social aspect of yoga can be a bit weird. You'll find people who think they breathe through their eyelids. Others that want to hug you a lot. There's the subtle pressure associated with the various biz models around classes. There is a hierarchy you'll discover. You'll also find that hot yoga is brilliant in it's business model because you can't do it at home - you have to go to a hot yoga class. Which is seriously limiting if you travel. I've mentioned the beachbody 3 week yoga retreat here which is what I use. But I'm sure there are a bunch of other apps and resources that are great, so find something that gets you from zero to yoga and then just keep doing a routine that works for you.
I have two routines that I do using the beachbody app. One is 20 mins and one is 30 mins. The 20 is called "flow on the go" and it's super fast and flowy. The 30 minute routine starts off slower and is more meditative. Depends what mood I'm in or I'll just randomly pick on.
I'd also recommend that you don't do yoga if you've been drinking heavily the night before. For some reason when I was starting out, I'd get injured doing that. Just a mild injury. I can only surmise that it's because my body was in an inflamed state from the hangover. THC/CBD the night before is totally fine and I find it actually makes yoga quite enjoyable the next morning. YMMV.
I still mountain bike, stand up paddleboard, hike, occassionally do short runs while I'm hiking. But yoga makes all of that far more enjoyable, has reduced my injury rate and improved my balance, flexibility and strength.
Don't get sucked into the whole zen, mindfulness, meditation circle, speaking slowly in droning tones bull. Yoga is amazing. It's the cults and cultists that make it expensive, inconvenient, weird and just kind of awful. With yoga you get meditation free. As long as you're breathing and focusing on the breath while doing the movements, doing a flow or holding a pose, you're already meditating. The rest is just window dressing.
Best of luck.