Yoga has been around for over 5,000 years and is currently more popular than ever before. It is estimated that over 20 million people now practice yoga in the US according to Huffington Post, which is close to 9% of the adult population. This is a type of exercise that can bring huge benefits for many different types of people with varying fitness goals. Among the people who should consider adding regular yoga sessions to their lifestyles are weight trainers, due to the following reasons.
A Better Understanding of Your Own Body
Lighting heavy weights while failing to understand your own body is a recipe for disaster. Some weight trainers do this for months or years without realizing it is a problem, sometimes eventually leading to a severe muscle imbalance or other problems lurking under the surface.
One of the first main benefits for any newcomer to yoga is a better understanding of their own body. It quickly becomes evident with these exercises which parts of the body are weak, tight or otherwise in need of some help.
Naturally, you will also begin to understand when you can push your body more and when you need to take it easier. It is also worth mentioning the power of meditation. Some 8% of Americans meditate, and yoga is a good way of getting started on it, although it can also be treated as a form of exercise without meditating. While this might not seem like an important point for weightlifters, meditating can help you to focus and to become more energized, learning to channel your energy where you need it to be.
Less Risk of Injury
There’s no reason to deny that lifting weights can be an extremely hazardous hobby. Figures from a few years ago published in the New York Times showed that close to a million Americans ended up being treated for a weight training accident between 1990 and 2007. While massage therapy can be a big help in this regard, yoga can also help to reduce this risk in a few different ways. For a start, it gives you better balance and a greater range of movement. Regular yoga will also help to balance out any weak areas, as it is a useful way of building overall core strength.
This is part of the reason why it could be such a useful activity for professional athletes with a stringent training routine. A good example would be boxer Anthony Joshua, who, as of November 2017, holds the 12th longest combined title streak in modern boxing history and is also odds-on to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award according to bookmaker Betway. Joshua’s punishing training schedule is designed to make him fit and strong while avoiding injury in the run-up to big fights.
It is important to remember that there are different types of yoga. While the ancient Hatha yoga is the most well-known, the likes of Iyengar yoga, Bikram yoga, and Ashtanga yoga are all different. For example, Bikram yoga is a series of 26 postures carried out in up to 108-degree heat and with 40% humidity.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Stretch and Relax Muscles
In this respect, the first big benefit of yoga is that it loosens and lengthens muscles that might otherwise become too short and tight. For someone who is new to weights, this will also give them a strong and stable base from which to lift weights safely and with confidence, especially in difficult areas such as shoulder muscles.
The way that yoga postures help muscles to stretch and relax also means that blood flows to them more easily, allowing them to heal, recover, and grow over time. As we have seen earlier, there are different types of yoga that can be chosen depending on your needs at any given time. In fact, lightweight boxer Chris Algieri attributes much of his success to yoga, which he started practising to improve his flexibility, according to Mind Body Green.
Post-workout stiffness and soreness can be effectively eased in this way. 30 minutes or so of yoga is an enjoyable and beneficial way of ending a home workout session that will leave you feeling better the next day. You can get started on this easily with the help of a few basic yoga accessories from Amazon.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Importance of Breathing
Breathing correctly is something that many weight trainers don’t place enough importance on, or even think about at all. On the other hand, it is a huge aspect of yoga. A lot of lifters have a tendency to hold their breath when they are working with heavy weights. In yoga, however, breathing correctly is so vital that it is one of the very first things that newcomers tend to learn if they go to classes with a yoga teacher.
This means that you will quickly become far more aware of the importance of your breathing. This in turn makes it easier to get oxygen into the body and to train more effectively for longer. Breathing is so crucial to the overall aims and principles of yoga that there are specific breathing exercises called pranayama that you can try. These exercises are said to improve your vital life force and boost your immune system.
Yoga may not be right for everyone but anyone who lifts weights should definitely consider giving it a try sometime soon.
George "Ironthumb" Romasanta on Google+