Is Yoga A Sport?
Yoga Is Not a Sport – Said My Doctor
I started Yoga with a few irregular sessions in a yoga studio in North Shore Auckland and online. At the time, my two favorite physical activities were running and hiking.
During Covid, I was lucky enough to be stuck in a dream spot in South Australia. The world was at a standstill, but our small coastal village didn’t have strict lockdown rules, so I could walk daily for long hours on South Australia’s endless dunes and along the dramatic limestone cliffs of the Robe coastline.
After a few months of these long walks alternated with long running outings and online yoga sessions, my lower back completely locked up.
It was my second back blockage in just a few months, so I decided to go see my doctor. This doctor, known for being quite old-school, asked a few investigative questions about my physical activities and immediately named the culprit: Yoga.
“Mademoiselle, Yoga is not a sport.”
I was left speechless. I didn’t have the words to explain to him that certain forms of yoga could be just as demanding as certain sports. He added that Yoga was just stretching—which was fine, but that I needed to build muscle.
I had some reservations about his diagnosis, but he was the doctor; shouldn’t I listen to his wise expert words? Yes, but I decided to do my own investigation.
Walking was my great passion and had allowed me over the last few years to discover wonderful places, from the Australian Blue Mountains to New Zealand’s volcanic beaches. Nature and long walks were my therapies, and I certainly didn’t want to risk getting my back blocked any longer.
Freedom was always an essential point in my life, whether through long-distance relationships or traveling instead of getting a 9-to-5 job in a city.
After these two setbacks, the concept of freedom appeared completely different to me: real freedom was the freedom of movement—a body free from injury.
Thanks to this doctor, I started a long journey to discover my body and, above all, in quest of an answer: Was Yoga a sport?
The following article is just a summary, not exhaustive, but I think quite a complete look at what my experience through the practice of yoga led me to explore.
But actually, what is a sport?
What is a sport?
In reality, there is no single official or universal definition of sport. The concept is complex, evolving, and varies according to the institutions that codify it.
Let’s take the official definition from the Council of Europe:
“Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organized participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels.”
Based on this definition, Yoga certainly fulfills one out of the three points: the expression or improvement of physical condition.
The other two points are more nuanced. Regarding the “social” aspect, yoga studios might not seem like the most relevant places for developing social relationships, but a shared passion for yoga can easily be the starting point for beautiful communities.
Furthermore, there are more and more yoga competitions in India, and just this year in June, the very first international Yogasana competition took place as an official sport! Of course, turning a centuries-old spiritual practice into a competitive sport is highly controversial—but that is a fascinating debate we will dive into in a future article.
So, dear Doctor, yes yoga is a sport! Okay, I had won against this doctor, but as I practiced yoga more and more, the term “sport” became far too restrictive for this ancient practice.
Yoga is not only stretching
The second thing this doctor had affirmed with certainty was that Yoga is just stretching.
If yoga were summarized as a Yin Yoga class, then yes, Yoga is indeed stretching (and not just any stretching—very long and very painful stretching for those who have already had the courage to take a Yin Yoga class).
But let’s take the most common form of Yoga in India and around the world, Hatha Yoga. How is this form of Yoga much more than stretching?
Hatha Yoga doesn’t simply seek to loosen the muscles; it engages the entire body in a deep strengthening work where the statics of the postures demand an unsuspected physical strength.
Holding Warrior Pose or Plank Pose for several breaths makes your thighs shake and your abs burn far more than any passive stretch.
Most importantly, in Hatha yoga, we let each movement be led by the breath. You aren’t just stretching; you are learning to discipline your mind, channel your energy, and calm your nervous system in the middle of an effort.
It is this unique alliance between muscular power, guided breath, and mental concentration that transforms a simple sequence of movements into a true global discipline.
The Muscle Myth: Beyond Bulking Up
Can Yoga make you gain muscle?
Contrary to traditional weightlifting that isolates muscles using machines or heavy weights, Hatha Yoga exclusively uses body weight to create a natural resistance.
When you hold a posture statically (what is called isometry), all your muscle fibers are recruited deep down to stabilize the joint.
Postures like Chaturanga (the yogic push-up) or Crow Pose intensely solicit the triceps, shoulders, and abdominal wall. Better yet: yoga stretches the muscle at the same time it contracts it.
The result? You don’t develop a bulky muscle mass, but long, dense, functional, and incredibly toned muscles.
But hey, as a woman, weightlifting has more and more proven to be essential for women ageing, let’s talk more about this in a future article about how to combine Yoga and weightlifting.
Yoga beyond the mat
The more I practice yoga—and most serious practitioners would agree—the more I realize that while yoga starts on the mat with the body, it is so much more.
For me, the mat eventually became an unfiltered mirror—a sometimes uncomfortable place where you are forced to face yourself, along with your impatience, your blockages, and your deepest fears.
But that is exactly where everything shifted. By learning to handle the discomfort of a posture, my whole perspective changed.
The mental well-being I found there began to infuse into everything: my stress management, my relationships, and how I breathe through life’s unexpected moments. It changed every single aspect of my life.
This is what we call Yoga off the mat.
And it is this journey—how the benefits of Yoga practiced on the mat can be experimented off the mat—that I want to share with you on the next article.
I would like to end this article with a word for this doctor I’ve known since my childhood and is now retired : thank you for allowing me to embark on the most beautiful journey, exploring Yoga and my body. I have lived pain free ever since I practiced yoga seriously and cautiously, this is true Freedom. Merci Docteur!
Last posts
Yoga Is Not Everything
When I chat with students or people who would like to start Yoga, I sometimes hear: "I need to do yoga." This use of the word "need" makes me thoughtful. [...]
Beyond the Postures: Svadhyaya and the Practice of Looking Within
I am a child of survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the late 1970s, nearly two million people were killed through mass [...]
Teaching Yoga in a Resort in Cambodia
I moved to Cambodia with a naive dream: to connect with my roots. Being born in Paris to Cambodian parents, growing up in France, and studying in Germany. I was [...]
Is Yoga A Sport?
Yoga Is Not a Sport - Said My Doctor I started Yoga with a few irregular sessions in a yoga studio in North Shore Auckland and online. At the time, [...]
My First Vipassana Retreat
On a quiet night beneath the Bodhi tree, Gautama Buddha closed his eyes—not to escape the world, but to see it so clearly that suffering itself dissolved. My journey from [...]
Yoga in Mumbai : where Modernity Meets Traditions
“The most powerful practice is often the simplest one — repeated with patience, humility, and presence.” An oasis of Peace and History Sometimes, things just fall into place. A bubbly [...]
My first Yoga Training in Bharat, India
“In the land where yoga was born, the silhouette of Shiva in meditation and asana whispers a timeless truth: mastery begins in the body, but blossoms in the mind.” Arrival [...]
Ode to my gurus
In Sanskrit, Guru means "the one who removes darkness". In a less formal and poetic sense, a guru is simply a teacher or a guide. On the French Wikipedia page, [...]
Born in Paris, Made in India, rooted in Khmer blood
“Mouvement without consciousness is the ruin of the body.” Every movement we make carries weight. When practiced without attention, even the strongest body can accumulate strain and imbalance. Through mindful, [...]