If your yoga class feels like a low impact aerobic workout, you are completely missing the point.

No one in the West really explains how yoga actually works. 8 years ago, I found myself on a plane traveling all the way to India where I was to meet this superhuman yogic medical doctor, right? He could do crazy yoga moves, and this guy's in his 70s. Once I learned this, oh my God, it changed everything. So here's the big mistake most people in the West make. You see, if you go to most, uh, yoga classes, you're going to see people do more of an aerobics workout, and this is not what yoga is about. Let me explain to you this. When you contract your muscle, what you do is you reduce the blood flow going to that muscle, and it forces your muscle to use whatever oxygen supply and energy reserves it has stored. And what it does eventually is creates a state called intermittent hypoxia. It lowers the oxygen and energy for a brief period that causes a positive stress on the muscle, and it makes it more efficient. It makes it grow stronger, more resilient to stress. And that can only be possible if you hold that pose to your maximum effort and control your breath. So you hold your breath in various ways into the pose. This dramatically improves your flexibility, your energy levels, your stamina and fitness compared to if you go to a normal yoga class where you're just flowing from one pose to the next. Real yoga is a meditative practice where you hold each pose to your maximum possible effort whilst controlling your breath.