Gym goers are often obsessed with strength, physique, and body sculpting, which is certainly not something to be ashamed of; after all, if you have a great body, you should work on it and flaunt it! Now, the best way to build muscle is with weight training exercises, but there’s also a downside to focusing on workouts that build muscle strength.
As you gain bulk and those beautiful bulges get more pronounced, you tend to neglect other aspects of exercise, resulting in reduced flexibility, stiffness, and poor balance. While die hard bodybuilders and yogis may always seem to be at loggerheads, you should take the middle ground, using weight training and yoga to sculpt the perfect body.
So, let’s break those stereotypes of buffed men and women being raging bulls with high testosterone levels, or of yoga enthusiasts primarily being women, or effeminate men! Here’s how yoga can increase the gains from your weight training and fitness routine.
Yoga For Weight Training
Increased Flexibility
“Flexibility is absolutely important to building sculpted muscles, as it gives you a much greater range of motion in repetitions”
While your primary goal is to get buff, would it really hurt to be flexible? Aside from being able to show off some incredible backbends, you’d also be able to try out practically every pose in the Kama Sutra! Doesn’t sound so bad now, does it? Jokes aside, flexibility is absolutely important to building sculpted muscles, as it gives you a much greater range of motion in repetitions. This allows complete muscle development and it lowers the risk of developing short, stunted muscles.
We certainly don’t need proof of yoga’s tremendous power to boost flexibility, but there are several studies that show how the practice can increase flexibility in as little as 10 weeks of practice. Reduced flexibility is an inherent drawback of sporting bulging biceps, but with yoga this problem can be significantly reduced.
Reduced Injury Risk
“Increased flexibility and stretching of the muscles and ligaments from yoga reduces the risk of exercise related injuries commonly associated with weight training”
In your enthusiasm to build muscle and get a six pack, it’s not unusual to push yourself too far, lifting heavy weights and doing squats, curls, and pull-ups. While this may be great and it certainly feels satisfying, over-exercising and pushing yourself relentlessly will invariably lead to muscle pulls, cramps, sprains, and more serious injuries. The pain and discomfort then sets you back a few months, derailing those fitness goals.
In such a scenario, yoga is the best compliment to your weight training routine as even the simplest poses like the Phalakasana (Plank Pose) and Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose) will help to stretch and limber the muscles you use in your workout. The increased flexibility and stretching of the muscles and ligaments also reduces the risk of exercise related injuries, thereby improving your performance in the gym.
Balance and Control
“Regular yoga practice promotes greater kinesthetic awareness & improved balance, which allows you to pull off moves that would otherwise be pretty risky, if not impossible”
Studies have shown that weight lifting also boosts intelligence, so you don’t have to worry about being all brawn and no brain. But, you do need to strengthen the mind and muscle connection for reflexive strength training. Researchers have found that regular yoga practice promotes greater kinesthetic awareness and improved balance, which allows you to pull off moves that would otherwise be pretty risky, if not impossible. It basically opens a whole new world of opportunity in your gym too. Doing those barbell squats and ab crunches with perfect form will be a piece of cake if you’re also practicing yoga.
Strength Gains
“The combination of weight training with yoga works wonders for strength, as yoga involves static contraction or isometric holds that increase endurance as well”
Yes, this is perhaps the only point you’ve been waiting for, and if it can encourage you to take up yoga, we’ll be happy. Fitness enthusiasts who are focused on building strength often go for explosive strength, rather than endurance, lifting heavy weights in swift or ‘explosive’ motions. This helps build muscle as it causes microtears, leading to hypertrophy. While this will give you a ripped and muscular body over time, it does not really help with either strength or endurance.
When a yoga session is combined with weight training, it actually maximizes the benefits of both practices, as yoga also strengthens muscles, but it involves static contraction or isometric holds. In case you want to push your fitness goals to the next level and take up bodybuilding this will come in pretty handy, as you will have greater endurance and control that allows you to strike and hold difficult postures that actually highlight the muscles.
In case you now think we are on a crusade to propagate yoga, and deride gyming or bodybuilding, we are not. Yoga enthusiasts have as much to gain from taking up weight training or light resistance training, but we’ll save that for another day!
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