What would you say to those Novus Ordos who say such a thing? Those who say they don't meditate or any of that but just "do it for the exercise/stretching"?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/IsicZoEHhgU[/youtube]
According to Father Ripperger he knows of people who became possessed because they practiced Yoga.

Yoga and martial arts are very similar in many ways. The primary similarity is the emptying of the mind. This is done by using oriental methods from pagan religions, mostly Hindu. This is always diabolical.

Completely and utterly divorced from Eastern "spirituality", I don't see how one can object to yoga poses.  They're stretches. That's all. They're possible to perform by any young child, or any adult (who hasn't grown stiff).  It doesn't require alchemy, magic, or lighting incense to Buddha to strike a yoga pose. Just flexible muscles.

  What's problematic is the accompaniment of eastern spirituality and philosophy. If truly divorced from those, there's nothing wrong with it. Not sure that such an arrangement could be arrived at by going to a yoga "class", if that's what you're talking about, but if they already know how to "do" yoga, and are just practicing it at their home for exercise, I don't see the problem.

Look, anyone with children had done "yoga poses" without even knowing it. Down on your knees with your forearms touching the ground?  Yoga pose. No one got possessed from it.

It's superstitious to think that a particular arrangement of the muscles invites possession.

What's wrong is the eastern type meditation, and that's wrong even if you're holding a rosary and sitting upright in a chair.

I have no qualms with one doing physical exercises for the health of the body, but I do have a problem with the opinion that Yoga is just a harmless form of it...

From Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

Yoga (/?jo???/;[1] Sanskrit, ??? Listen) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. There is a broad variety of Yoga schools, practices, and goals[2] in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.[3][4][5] Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and R?ja yoga.[6]

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, it is mentioned in the Rigveda,[note 1] but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and ?rama?a movements.[8][note 2] The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads[9] and Buddhist P?li Canon,[10] probably of third century BCE or later. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE,[11][12] but only gained prominence in the West in the 20th century.[13] Hatha yoga texts emerged around the 11th century with origins in tantra.[14][15]

Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west,[16] following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century.[16] In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world.[15] Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core.[17] One of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and metaphysics, and is closely related to Hindu Samkhya philosophy.[18]

Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma, and heart disease.[19][20] The results of these studies have been mixed and inconclusive, with cancer studies suggesting none to unclear effectiveness, and others suggesting yoga may reduce risk factors and aid in a patient's psychological healing process.[19][20]

Interesting article here:
http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=1339

Trying to Separate the Physical from the Spiritual Aspects of Yoga – for Profit’s Sake?
Posted on August 29, 2011 by SBrinkmann

BY writes: “You mention yoga pretty often on your program, and there’s one thing that I’ve never heard from you, that you might want to include in your arguments. It will help you when talking to people who want to do the physical part only. The physical is Hatha Yoga and the meditative is Rajah Yoga. There is an old saying in yoga itself – “No hatha without rajah; no rajah without hatha”. This clearly says that it is impossible to divorce the physical from the meditative, according to the philosophy itself. If they say it can’t be done, then it definitely can’t be done.”


Indeed, this very same maxim can be found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipka, which is a basic text on Hatha yoga dating back to the 15th century: “There can be no Raja Yoga without Hatha Yoga and no Hatha Yoga without Raja Yoga. Hatha is the preparation for Raja and Raja is the [ultimate] goal of Hatha Yoga.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar with these terms, Raja yoga stresses the meditational aspects of yoga and is practiced to attain self-rule while Hatha yoga emphasizes the postures, breathing and cleansing processes believed to help one achieve spiritual perfection.

Raja, which means “royal” is considered the “highest” or “royal” yoga because it is through this practice that one reaches the supreme attainment of consciousness or “self-realization.” However, yogis agree that Raja yoga and its lofty mental practices are difficult for the average person. For this reason, it relies on the external practices of Hatha yoga to prepare the practitioner for the more difficult inner practices of Raja.

As Swami Jnaneshvara explains on his website:  “Note that the goal of Hatha Yoga is not merely physical fitness. While the text describes asanas (postures), purifying practices (shatkarma), mudras (finger and hand positions), bandhas (locks), and pranayama (breath exercises), it also explains that the purpose of Hatha Yoga is the awakening of Kundalini (subtle energy), leading in through Sushumna (the central energy channel), and advancing through Raja Yoga to the deep meditative absorption called Samadhi.”

The bottom line is that every serious practitioner of yoga knows that the spiritual and physical aspects of yoga are inseparable.

Consider this comment from Subhas Rampersaud Tiwari, professor of yoga philosophy and meditation at Hindu University of America. He was speaking about the sun salutation which is one of the best-known series of body postures in Hatha yoga.

The sun salutation is literally a Hindu ritual, he said. “It is a whole series of ritual appreciations to the sun, being thankful for that source of energy.”

Swami Param of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy said that to think of the sun salutation as a mere physical movement is tantamount to “saying that baptism is just an underwater exercise.”

While millions of Americans might be practicing yoga to stretch and strengthen their muscles, yoga experts say they are co-opting an ancient spiritual philosophy and thereby degrading and commercializing it. In fact, this is what prompted the Hindu America Foundation launched their Take Back Yoga campaign.

As Param said, the very American practice of things like hip-hop yoga, yoga for pets, and using Hindu deities as fashionable knickknacks in their homes, is “hurtful and insulting” to Hindus.

This trivialization of yoga into a kind of exercise program, which is being done largely for the sake of attracting a lucrative Christian market in the West, really has to stop – for the sake of both Christians and Hindus.

What would you say to those Novus Ordos who say such a thing? Those who say they don't meditate or any of that but just "do it for the exercise/stretching"?

The people that do yoga go to yoga instructors and meet yoga practitioners all who are into the "spirituality" the mindset of yoga.  It is like a Catholic going to a non-denominational bible reading group.

From the physical point of view, I would tell them that yoga is a waste of time versus weight training. One month of proper weight training can show on your looks better than 10 years of yoga. The most efficient means of shaping the body is weights, takes less time to get the results than anything else, leaving you time for other activities, work, study, rest, recreation.

With weight training I had 6 pack abs at 50 years old and never did a sit up (they came free with the back work, the biceps also came free with the back work, as do the triceps with the chest work). I could spearfish down to 45 feet on lung only without jogging or doing treadmill type machines (weights give you wind, better lung capacity). If you use your head, you can fine tune weight training down to practically no time per day and look good, have strong bones and be healthier than all the yoga instructors. Yoga is a waste of time.