Yoga is an ancient relaxation technique that provides a balance of mind, body, and soul. Weight-lifting is an extremely strenuous workout for the body. Combining it with yoga might seem unheard of but it is definitely one of the best things you can do to your fitness routine. Here are some of the reasons you should consider pairing yoga with strength-training:
- Improved Muscle Appearance: While yoga is one of the best workouts to achieve a visually appealing body shape, it does very little to improve muscle shape. Weightlifting helps not only to have a more prominent muscle appearance but also provides a metabolism boost, which helps with weight loss, increases bone density, and helps maintain joint flexibility. Being a two-way road, yoga helps in having a faster muscle recovery of the tears and stress faced by the muscles during weight training. Yoga is a great way to provide an after-workout process of rehabilitation.
- Strength and Mobility: Our body consists of two kinds of muscles which are paired together- agonist and antagonist; agonist's muscles cause a movement to occur through their own activation while the antagonist's muscles oppose it by controlling and slowing it down, returning the limb to its initial position. Yoga is extremely helpful in improving the flexibility and mobility of the antagonist's muscles so that during the workout, the paired muscles do not compete against each other during strength training.
- Controlled aggression and calming of the soul: Strength training that makes use of progressive loading requires you to get psyched up before each workout. Lifting heavy weights helps you to develop controlled aggression. Yoga can help in achieving mental stability and mastering proper breathing techniques and helps the individual to not be stressed or chaotic by the end of the workout. The learned controlled aggression can also help in doing and holding challenging yoga poses with ease.