Most people who lift weights understand the benefit of adding cardio activity to their exercise routines. Over the years, they have been taught that the human body needs balance, and that their muscles need time in between weightlifting sessions to recover and rebuild. Although most weightlifters probably don’t think about integrating yoga into their workout routine, it can give their body a welcome break from weightlifting. In addition, yoga is an excellent way for a person to reduce stress and refresh themselves mentally.
For the weightlifter who has thought about adding yoga to an exercise routine, but still needs some convincing- take a look at the following seven reasons why this ancient practice can be an excellent way to complement weightlifting sessions.
- Yoga Will Increase Your Range of Motion: Because weightlifting typically involves repetitive movements that involve a short range of motion, muscles will eventually tighten and shorten. Over time, one’s range of motion will also become limited. By doing yoga poses, tight muscles can be stretched out, which will help one regain range of motion and to decrease any stiffness that may be present.
- Yoga Can Help One Mentally: During classes, yoga teachers often stress to their students to be kind and forgiving to their bodies and not to beat themselves up if, for some reason, they just can’t perform the poses as well as they feel they should. Yoga instructors also emphasize that a student should concentrate on his or her own practice and not be competitive with those around. These are also excellent principles that can be applied to weightlifting sessions. Don’t beat oneself up if the weight lifted the other day is not the same weight that can be lifted today. Instead, acknowledge that some days it just won’t happen. Sometimes we cannot perform our best and there is nothing wrong with that. Attending yoga classes is a gentle reminder of that premise.
- Group Activity: Body building is typically an activity done alone, while yoga is usually practiced in a group setting. For weightlifters, who are constantly working out alone, yoga can be a nice way to include group activity into a workout routine.
- Yoga Teaches Balance: Many yoga poses are all about balancing. Since weightlifting doesn’t really work on developing balance, integrating yoga into one’s exercise program can help in this area. In addition, when balancing, the muscles involved are being toned and strengthened at the same time, which will also help weightlifting success.
- Shake Up the Routine: Humans tend to be creatures of habit. Unfortunately, when we do the same type of exercise every day, the body will eventually reach a plateau where someone will either stop losing weight or fail to gain muscle. For that reason, it is important to change up workout routines every now and then. A vinyasa yoga class, where practitioners flow from one pose to the next, is an excellent complement to a weightlifting program- as it will not only work out muscles and increase flexibility, but it will also add cardio training.
- Breathing: Yoga instructors focus a lot of attention on the breath and remembering to breathe as one moves through the poses. This practice of focusing on the breath will also help when lifting weights.
- Yoga Helps Build a Strong Core: Having a strong core is very important when lifting weights. Not only does a strong core help perfect proper lifting form, it can also protect one from injuring the low back and lower extremities. Many yoga poses, such as plank, side plank and warrior III, are excellent for strengthening the core.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/05/01/yoga.strength.training.jampolis/index.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/yoga_bodybuilding_benefits.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/betteru23.htm
http://www.mensfitness.com/training/build-muscle/6-recovery-strategies-for-a-workout-aholic
http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/6-yoga-poses-rock-solid-core?page=2
http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/strong-foundations-building-and-maintaining-strong-low-back
