Benefits of combining Yoga with Strength Training

Strength & Balance

Often a yoga practice will focus on muscles not used in regular training.  Since our bodies often default to the path of least resistance, yoga can provide a balance allowing us to see where we have been compensating and help to balance the body by placing special attention to symmetry. In aligning our body and stacking our bones, we discover our weaknesses as well as our strengths.

Flexibility

The flexibility athletes develop from yoga can help them achieve better sport-specific performance; it also helps them prevent injuries -- particularly to especially fragile body parts, such as the rotator cuff and similar joints. The core and torso, in particular, can be difficult to stretch effectively, but many yoga poses -- including the bow and the cobra poses -- provide a good stretch for the chest and abdominal regions

Breathing & Mental
Yoga teaches us to become aware of the quality and length of our breath. This attention to breath also allows us to strengthen the diaphragm and expand our lung tissue to its full capacity. When we breathe at full capacity, we increase the amount of oxygen that feeds the body and the muscles which also aids in increasing our endurance.

Injury Prevention

Common overuse injuries among athletes include those involving the IT band, knee, hamstrings, hip flexors and shoulders. Often, these injuries are directly linked to lack of flexibility, poor core strength and misalignment. Yoga helps alleviate this tightness, builds a stronger center, and aligns the spine. In order to minimize and/or prevent injury, athletes should concentrate their efforts on these areas used most in endurance sports.

Even if athletes stretch pre- or post-workout, they are usually just stretching the muscles in the same direction and plane of motion in which they will be exercising. Yoga goes beyond simple stretching by working the muscles and joints through all ranges of motion--activating the little-used muscles that support the primary movers. The body must be worked through all three planes of motion in order to remain balanced and healthy. 

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMs)

It can be frustrating for people starting out in any physical activity, as well as athletes who train regularly, to push through the sensation of discomfort. This discomfort can range from slight muscle stiffness to debilitating pain experienced after training (also known as DOMs). DOMS often peaks between 24-48 hours post-exercise and may remain for 5-7 days. This muscle pain is considered to be proportional to the amount of physiological and biochemical damage to bodily tissues, as well as to the psychological reaction to that damage.

Personal experience, clients' experience and studies have proven that practicing yoga can alleviate the effects of DOMs.