Yoga is for hippies. Yoga is for people who are really flexible. Yoga is a religion. These are all things I have heard about yoga and they are all false. Yoga is for everyone. And if you think you do not need it or you are not willing to try it... you probably need it more than anybody.
Yoga is a complete full body workout. No it's not your heavy weights and no you are not going to get your heart rate to your normal cardio rate. But you will get muscle fatigue and strengthen those muscles that surround your bones to make your cardio and strength exercises that much better.
If all you do is run or all you do is lift weights, you are missing a huge component of your fitness regimen. Your other workouts are suffering because you are not focusing on the vital thing we all skip at the beginning and end of every workout... stretching!
Your muscles cannot grow or mature without being stretched. It is soo important that before you set out on a run you are stretching and after you finish a strength session, you stretch those muscles you just spent an hour plus tearing down. Doing a few stretches before and after are helpful but what is really helpful is a full blown yoga class.
It does not have to be a power yoga class or flow. Even if it's just yoga for beginners or a 30 minute class you found on YouTube, it will help you improve your overall fitness just by tuning in once a week. The more the better but let's start with one day. For some people, even that may seem like a lot. Once you start doing yoga, it may seem like everything is really hard and your not flexible so you are not going to get better. WRONG.
The more yoga you do the more your muscles will start to realize what you are trying to do and release and open up and you will become flexible. Give it a try and if you are sitting there reading this saying absolutely not... At least give ROMWOD a chance. This is yoga for CrossFitters and it's very simple, basic and quick. I would highly recommend it for anyone! After you've been doing this for about six weeks (at least once a week), you will begin to seeing the effect it is having on your workouts. Stay with it and do not neglect stretching out your muscles!!
Comments