Did you know that fitness practices like pilates, barre, and HIIT can improve your yoga practice?
How?
Yoga itself is a holistic approach to wellbeing. However, incorporating fitness practices can elevate your practice to new heights by amplifying yoga’s benefits and improving your overall fitness levels.
Specifically, combining fitness and yoga can improve your flexibility and balance, breath control, and muscle recovery.
Let’s explore this synergy of yoga and fitness and discover which exercises can help us progress in our asana practice.
The Synergistic Benefits Of Yoga & Fitness
Fitness practices target muscle groups and movement patterns that you don’t normally work in yoga.
So combining yoga and fitness not only creates a well-rounded exercise regimen, but it enhances your strength, flexibility, and endurance.
Let’s take a closer look at these benefits:
Targeting Different Muscle Groups
Muscle imbalance is one of the most common injuries in any fitness practice, including yoga. This occurs when we repeatedly do the same exercises and, thus, use the same muscles in the same way.
Years of solely practicing yoga can cause muscle overuse, leading to fractures, tears, and joint injuries.
Moreover, avoiding all other fitness practices may actually stall your progress in your asana practice.
For example, in yoga, you typically hold static poses or use your body weight against the floor, like holding the plank pose. This is known as isometric muscle contractions, which help to build longer, leaner muscle tone.
However, the problem with only using isometric muscle contractions in your fitness routine is that your body weight limits the resistance potential, meaning you only get as strong as your own weight.
This is why many advanced yogis get stuck in their practice, unable to master asanas that require lots of core strength and stability, like Handstand.
By combining certain fitness practices like strength training and HIIT, you progressively increase the weight load, which helps you take your strength to the next level and move closer to your asana goals.
Improving Cardiovascular Health
While yoga does benefit our lung and heart health, it is not a form of cardio. Fitness practices like HIIT and running are better options for improving cardiovascular endurance and overall fitness.
The cardiovascular benefits of high-intensity exercises like HIIT improve oxygenation and circulation. This stops you from getting out of breath quickly and facilitates a deeper connection with your breath in dynamic yoga practices.
As a loyal yogi, it can be easy to assume your yoga practice serves all your fitness needs, but the truth is it doesn’t.
Engaging in high-intensity and cardio exercises is crucial as it helps you consume and convert oxygen into energy.
This, in turn, can improve your cholesterol and blood pressure levels, reducing your risk of many heart-related diseases and conditions.
Increasing Variety & Enjoyment
Do you sometimes lack motivation to get on your mat and do yet another sun salutation?
While yoga may make us feel ten times better each time we come to our mats, our practice can sometimes feel monotonous.
So, if you’re struggling to keep your yoga routine up, I recommend introducing a few fitness sessions into your week.
The fusion of yoga and fitness introduces variety and novelty into your routine, preventing monotony while fostering more enjoyment.
As you explore new movements and challenges, you cultivate a heightened sense of body awareness and self-discovery. This can enrich your yoga practice with a fresh sense of curiosity and exploration.
Yoga and HIIT
As a very Yang practice, HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) injects energy and intensity into your movement routine. So this fitness practice can be ideal for yogis who prefer relaxed and passive yoga styles like yin and restorative yoga.
Moreover, HITT is known for its benefits on cardiovascular health. So doing regular HITT sessions alongside more dynamic yoga styles like Vinyasa yoga can enhance cardiovascular endurance.
The result?
Better breath control during sun salutations and Vinyasa flows!
While HITT challenges your body to push past limits, yoga teaches you to find calm amidst intensity. Thus, yoga and HITT complement each other perfectly, allowing you to cultivate a more focused and resilient yoga practice.
Yoga and Pilates
Pilates is often compared to yoga as both movement practices share some similarities. However, they have complementing differences, too.
Pilates is known for its focus on core strength and stability, which are required to execute intermediate and advanced yoga poses.
Pilates hones in on deep core engagement and controlled movements, which can help you master challenging yoga asanas like Chaturanga and Headstand.
That’s why many yogis who do regular Pilates sessions notice more strength and precision in their yoga practice.
Yoga and Barre
Barre is a fitness practice featuring elements of ballet, yoga, and Pilates, so naturally, it is a favored exercise among yogis. It offers the familiarity of yoga while targeting different muscles you would not normally engage in your Hatha or Vinyasa class.
Barre is also a strength-building practice that may help you move closer to those challenging asanas you’ve been trying to master for months.
For example, if you engage in regular Barre classes, you’ll likely notice you can hold yoga asanas for longer and more efficiently, thanks to the increased core engagement.
As barre helps build functional strength, it is a complementary practice for yogis who regularly practice Ashtanga, Vinyasa, or Power yoga.
Yoga Fusion Practices
You might have encountered yoga fusion practices online or at your local gym. A popular fusion class is Yogalates, which combines both yoga and Pilates. Yoga barre fusion is also becoming increasingly popular.
So what is best? Should you do yoga fusion classes or keep yoga and fitness routines separate?
Well, it’s entirely up to you.
Yoga fusion classes can be a great way to ease into other fitness practices.
Suppose you’re not interested in fitness and prefer to focus solely on yoga. In that case, fusion classes can serve as a way to boost your overall fitness level without doing anything too out of the ordinary.
They are also an excellent way to mix things up and move your body differently from usual without going too far from the elements of yoga that you know and love, such as mindfulness and breath awareness.
Final Thoughts
By harnessing the synergistic benefits of yoga and fitness, you can cultivate a stronger, more resilient body, prevent repetitive strain injuries, and keep things fresh and exciting.
Try it out for yourself with our new selection of barre, Pilates, and HIIT classes.