Individuals who add yoga with intensive cross-trainning perform better in both exercises.
Cross-training is something that people of all ability levels should think about. Whether you’re a triathlon or a weekend gym goer, your body benefits from diversity.
It’s tempting to spend all of your time and attention on a goal, hobby, or concept. With so many options and styles in fitness, choosing your favorite and not looking back often appears to be the most practical option. But, varying your workout routine to include different types of exercise will help you enhance your overall athletic abilities. This is known as cross-training.
Cross-training may appear daunting, but when broken down, it is actually very doable. Cross-training is essentially the combination of different workouts. Putting this into practice might be as simple as alternating from high-intensity to low-intensity activities one day to the next. Exercises compound on one another, according to research, so completing one type of exercise will make you better and stronger at doing another.
Yoga may not be the first thing that comes to mind when considering activities to supplement your existing workout program, but yoga is a wonderful method to work on areas that many people neglect during a workout—how many times have you skipped stretching at the end of your routine?
There are numerous advantages to incorporating yoga into your regimen, including enhanced flexibility and mobility, strength, and injury avoidance.
Who Is Yoga Good For?
Yoga can assist all athletes, professional or amateur, as a type of cross-training. It is especially advantageous to athletes who practice the same sort of exercise all year to lessen the impact and risk of injury and add variation to the workout regimen.
“Often we are caught up on growing stronger or setting that new PR, and in doing so, we overlook the importance of yoga and stretching in our training cycles or programming,” says Sharon Ng, yoga instructor and founder of Pineapple Yogi Retreats. Yoga is the missing puzzle component.”
Yoga may assist everyone from runners to powerlifters.
How Frequently Should You Include Yoga Into Your Cross-Training Routine?
There is no perfect answer to how frequently you should cross-train with yoga, so consider your goals and what is realistic for your training plan. While regular yoga practice has many benefits for mental peace, Flexibility, and balance, performing yoga even once a week is a great start.
Yoga doesn’t have to be time-consuming, either. Setting aside 10-15 minutes each day for breathing exercises and a few poses will help reduce tension and anxiety while also improving balance.
Participants in one study improved their muscle strength and endurance after practicing yoga once a week for 12 weeks. Whether you start with ten minutes per day or three times per week, you’ll likely see a difference in your other workouts if you practice yoga consistently.
Yoga’s Advantages as a Cross-Training Method
Yoga has a wide range of benefits, whether you want a lower impact muscle strengthening workout, a calm mind for mental focus, or to gain Flexibility and balance to supplement your existing workout program. Here are five good reasons to start rolling out your mat:
Increases Flexibility, mobility, and stability
Cross-training and yoga need Flexibility, which refers to the length of your muscles, mobility, the way your joints move, and balance, and can assist in increasing your range of motion. This helps you maintain proper form when performing exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts, which can improve your results.
According to Ng, “Consider your body to be a brand new rubber band—it may feel tight, stiff, or constricted at first. Nevertheless, with yoga and stretching, that brand new rubber band, or in this case, our bodies, become more supple and adaptive, with a broader range of motion to bounce back. The importance of consistency and practice cannot be overstated!”
One study looked at the effect of yoga on collegiate players’ Flexibility and Balance. After a 10-week period, the group that got the yoga intervention showed significant improvements in Flexibility and Balance. The findings suggest that yoga can improve overall athletic performance in activities that need enhanced Flexibility and balance.
Increases Strength
When you consider getting stronger, your thoughts may immediately turn to the weight room. Using your own body weight and holding different yoga positions for longer periods of time, believe it or not, creates a lot of strength and stability in your muscles and joints.
While you may be used to faster-paced workouts or larger weights, slowing down can be difficult not only emotionally but physically. This added challenge allows you to train your muscles in a different way than you could in your typical workout class or weights session.
Adding yoga to cross-training aids in the concentration of your breathing
Breathing is important to yoga. It can be used in various forms of exercise to help you physically and psychologically prepare for the work at hand. Breathing not only relaxes the body but learning to control your breath can help you during strength training and other endurance activities.
Encourages active recovery and injury prevention
Rest days are necessary for aching muscles, tendons, and ligaments to recuperate and repair. Pushing yourself too hard without taking breaks can put you in danger of injury. Furthermore, excessive high-intensity exercise keeps cortisol, the hormone responsible for initiating the body’s fight or flight response, elevated even when not exercising.
While training, it is typical that your cortisol level is high, but maintaining those levels can lead to overtraining symptoms such as chronic fatigue, mood changes, anxiety, a weakened immune system, and a lack of drive.
“Incorporating yoga into your cross-training regimen will assist in preventing injuries and also aid your body in faster recovery,” says Ng. Yoga reduces stress hormones by activating your body’s rest and repair system, facilitating faster recovery.
Aids in the integration of the body and mind
Yoga teaches you to tune into your body and become your own authority on what feels good, when to push yourself, and when to ease off. These abilities are applicable to the weight gym, track, or wherever else you work out.
Yoga also helps to develop bodily awareness. Better body awareness increases your mind-body connection and allows you to tell your body what you want it to do. This awareness transfers into making quick form modifications from your coach, trainer, or even yourself, whether lifting weights, practicing pilates, or running.
Is it dangerous to add yoga to cross-training regime?
While there are dangers of damage with any practice, yoga has a decreased risk of injury due to its low-impact nature. People with hypermobility (joints that allow for excessive mobility) are more likely to get injured when performing particular yoga poses.
Lower back, neck, knee, wrist, and shoulder strains are common yoga injuries. However, these problems are generally preventable if you proceed gently and work with a skilled yoga instructor.
Avoid or adjust any poses that may not feel nice or natural for your body throughout your yoga practice. The essential thing to remember is to pay attention to your body—if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
To Conclude
While yoga is a popular technique to cross-training with other fitness routines. However, it’s important not to push your body too far in ways it’s not used to.
If you have second thoughts about your ability to begin a yoga practice, always visit a doctor or physical therapist.