How Lifting Weights Can Improve your Yoga Practice
Written by: The Fit Works Team
Ever think, I wish I could have held that warrior pose a little longer? If you are like many yogis, sometimes it is difficult holding poses or even allowing yourself to get into some movements. As important as flexibility and good alignment are in yoga, so is muscular stability. That is why many yogis are turning to strength training to improve their yoga practice.
Why do we need muscular stability for yoga?
1.Prevent Muscle Loss
As we age, we lose muscle mass beginning as early as our 30’s. What is worse, if we stop moving our body, we could lose 30 percent of our muscle mass. When people combine weight training and yoga it prevents your body from hitting any plateaus. Sometimes when we take the same yoga class, we work the same muscles and forget that we have hundreds of other muscles that need working out too. By lifting weights a few times a week, we are able to maintain our muscle mass, and get stronger in different areas helping us as we age.
2. Prevent Injuries
Strength training can also prevent yogis from injuries. By strengthening all areas of the body, we can perform at a higher level. Weightlifting helps increase your range of motion as well as reduce fatigue. It improves muscle function, increases performance and efficiency, and helps the body handle stress. When you combine a safe weight training program with your yoga classes, you will see improvement in balance, stability, and stamina.
3. Build Stamina
Many yogis will take a 90-minute yoga class. However, it can be one of the most difficult classes if you do not build up your stamina. Stamina, which can be used to describe both physical and mental pursuits, is defined as the ability to push yourself to your maximum potential for a given length of time. Incorporating strength training in your weekly workouts will get you in that 90-minute class in no time. Instead of thinking cardio, try incorporating tension in your workouts. Increase your weight limits, set tension on your bike rides, try adding push-ups after your yoga session. Cardio is great, but to build stamina you need to get your muscles working. Plus, its amazing for your heart!
3 Weightlifting Exercises to Improve your Yogi Game
If you want to improve your warrior poses:
Squats & Deadlifts: These are great exercises to strengthen your legs and improve your balance. If you are new to weightlifting, try using just the bar to start and slowly add on weight as you get more comfortable and build stamina.
If you want to improve your chaturangas & crow poses:
Arms & Chest: Incorporate a push/pull method. With a simple pushing and pulling workout you will create a more balanced physique. Balancing push and pull moves will help you not to overwork and stress your muscles and give you plenty of recovery time between workouts. Try the Bicep Curl to Overhead Press, the Overhead Triceps Extension with an Alternating Forward to Lateral Raise.
If you want to improve your balancing poses:
Core muscles: There are many different core and ab exercises that can be used to help improve your balancing poses such as the cable machine crunch, rotary torso machine, or the abdominal crunch machine. These exercises are also a great time to work on your breathing. Think, inhale, and exhale.
As with anything, incorporating a new workout into your daily schedule and routine is difficult, however, our advice is to try it out for a few weeks and see the difference in your yoga practice. If you are unsure where to start, at Fitworks we offer a wide range of programs and services that can help get you started. We also include a complimentary goal setting session in our free 7 day pass that can be used as a time to get to started on a weight training routine aimed at helping your yoga practice.