Why Yoga is the Missing Piece of Your Workout Routine
In our experience, mentioning "yoga" often triggers one of three responses: people either love it, dismiss it as "not for them," or find it too "woo-woo" due to elements they aren’t familiar with. Some perceive yoga as too slow or lacking intensity. However, we believe they just haven't found the right class yet. The beauty of yoga lies in its diversity—there are so many styles and approaches that there's truly something for everyone.
In simple terms, yoga literally means union. It’s about uniting movement with breath or uniting the mind, body, and spirit. If that’s too spiritual or woo-woo for you, yoga can simply be a workout to help you lengthen and strengthen your muscles. There are so many benefits to yoga. Each style offers something different depending on what you need at any given time. In general, here are some of the benefits of yoga:
Improved flexibility: Yoga poses help stretch muscles, which allows for more ease of movement and relief of everyday aches and pains.
Strong muscles and bones: If you’ve ever done yoga, you know how challenging some of the poses can be, and if you hold them for a longer length of time, it takes a lot of strength from your muscles to be able to sustain those poses. Have you ever noticed some people at the gym who bulk up sometimes look like it’s difficult to perform everyday movements like bending down and picking up their gym bag? It’s because they are building strength without also improving mobility and flexibility. But by adding yoga to your strength training routine, you can build strength and flexibility simultaneously so those everyday movements can be made with ease. Plus, any time you do weight-bearing exercises when strengthening your muscles (in the case of yoga, your body is the weight you are using), you also strengthen your bones, helping to prevent diseases such as osteoporosis.
Improved posture: As we talk about in our Core U program, poor posture can lead to bone damage, reduced blood circulation, fatigue, and loss of muscle strength. Yoga emphasizes the importance of proper technique and posture in poses, which helps strengthen your back, chest, and core muscles.
Joint protection: Yoga poses help your joints use their full range of motion. This helps circulate synovial fluid, allowing your joint cartilage to stay lubricated and prevent it from wearing out. When your joint cartilage wears out, that can lead to conditions like arthritis.
Boosts heart health: There are types of yoga that move through poses quickly, increasing your heart rate and creating a great cardio workout. Yoga can also help lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. As you’ll see next, yoga can be used for stress reduction, which, in turn, can help prevent heart disease.
Reduced stress: Some forms of yoga encourage you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the moment. This can help bring your heart rate down, allowing your body to be in the “rest and digest” state it prefers.
Now that you know some of the benefits, even if you’ve tried a class before, we hope this encourages you to try another one. There are many different types of yoga, so consider trying something different to see which one resonates best with you. Here’s a quick overview of the different types:
Kundalini Yoga: This type of yoga is a specific series of poses paired with breathwork and chanting to help unlock “life force energy” to reduce stress and negative thinking.
Vinyasa Yoga: This type of yoga synchronizes poses with the breath to create a continuous flow. This would be for anyone who likes more movement and less stillness.
Hatha Yoga: This type is a more balanced approach that includes a mix of poses, breathing exercises, and meditation.
Ashtanga Yoga: This type involves moving through a series of poses in a specific order. It is considered a more physical, challenging practice.
Yin Yoga: Poses are held for a minute or maybe even up to five minutes. It’s an excellent practice for when you need to stretch after a tough workout, or you’re interested in something a little slower-paced.
Iyengar Yoga: Multiple props are used in this type of yoga, which makes it great for people of all ages and skill levels, as well as anyone with physical limitations. It’s usually less intense and emphasizes detailed alignment while holding positions for longer lengths of time.
Bikram Yoga: A form of hot yoga, these classes consist of a set series of poses performed in the same order. Each class is 90 minutes, with 26 postures and two breathing exercises, and the room must be 105° Fahrenheit with 40 percent humidity. Additionally, instructors do not adjust students.
Power Yoga: This type is a quicker, more active practice. It strengthens muscles while also increasing flexibility.
Here at The Union, we offer a variety of yoga classes. Join us for our restorative yoga classes on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evenings. These classes are slower-paced to help you increase flexibility while allowing you to relax your mind and body. Our Friday class is vinyasa style focusing on synchronizing your breath as you flow from one pose to another. Our Saturday morning class is more of a power yoga style where you’ll work on strengthening your muscles and working up a sweat. If you want to try an even faster-paced yoga class that involves choreography set to music, some weight lifting, plus a little high-intensity interval training mixed in with the yoga poses, join us for our Thursday morning WARRIOR Rhythm class.
We encourage you to try yoga for its many benefits and variety of class options. Whether you’re a runner, athlete, powerlifter, or just someone wanting to move more, yoga is a great workout to add to your routine to help with your flexibility, balance, and strength.
