Hi guys, It’s Tim Here. As promised I will pen out a few thoughts on how Yoga and strength training complement each other so well.
The reason for this post is two-fold.
Firstly, I genuinely believe they are a wonderful pairing of fitness activities. They genuinely do complement each other really well.
Secondly, Angelina has just joined the Foxwood Personal Training team as our resident Yoga teacher in York!
So now is the perfect time to discuss the merits of combining Yoga and Strength Training. Angelina will also write a similar article from her perspective. But for now, here are my thoughts on the matter.
Strength Training is Amazing
Strength Training is amazing. It is what I love to do every day and what I love to help people with every day. Depending on how it is used it has enormous potential to positively change what our bodies are capable of. It also has the potential to positively change how our bodies look.
However, there is an important consideration here. That is, strength training does have a reputation for creating tight and shortened muscles. Lots of people who solely perform strength training as their mode of fitness training do suffer badly from poor mobility.
If this is taken too far, then of course this has implications in terms of negative postural changes. It also has implications in terms of alterations to the way in which people move and ultimately injury prevalence.
There are steps that can be taken within strength training programme design. These steps are implemented in order to minimise the deleterious effects that strength training might have on flexibility and mobility.
So before anything else, let us take a look at the factors that we need to be considering in order to optimise a strength training programme from this perspective.
Balanced Exercise Selection
Balanced exercise selection can be achieved by matching up pushing exercises with pulling exercises. This is not a perfect solution, since the musculoskeletal anatomy of the human body is rather complicated. However, if we set out an intention that, for every set of a pushing or pressing strength training exercise that is performed, a set of a pulling exercise is also performed; then at least we are of to a good start in terms of making sure we are not developing tightness and stiffness in one part of our body to a greater extent than in another part of our body.
Full Range of Motion
As a general rule we want to be performing strength training exercises through a full range of motion. So think about performing nice deep squats rather than partial squats, for example. By performing our strength training exercises with full range of motion, we are at least preventing our bodies from losing the ability to achieve that range of movement. This is a use it or lose it scenario. If we go back to the example of an individual performing squats…. If that person were to only perform partial squats then there could be a possibility of that person, over time, losing the ability to move into a deep squat position.
So performing exercises with their full range of motion can go some way in preventing losses in active mobility. However, we still can’t get away from the fact most strength training programmes focus on muscle shortening actions that can create tightness in muscles.
Advanced Exercise Selection
We have already talked about balanced exercise selection. This is now taking things a step further with regards to exercise selection and is also following on from our second point regarding use of full range of motion.
So, whilst we do need to focus on using full range of motion whilst performing our strength training exercises; we must appreciate that certain exercises, when taken through their full range of motion, will place the involved musculature under a much greater stretch than other exercises. So from a mobility perspective, not all strength training exercises are created equal.
Stiff Leg Dead Lifts for example, can place a wonderful stretch across the hamstring muscle, resulting in a synergistic strengthening and stretching effect. Lunges can also be beneficial in both stretching out and strengthening the gluteal musculature. An excellent upper body example would be the use of dumbbell flys, which place a fantastic loaded stretch across the pectoral muscles. However, with each of these exercise examples, there will be unique limitations of those exercises which will mean other exercises also need to be performed alongside them when training a particular muscle group or movement pattern. This may well dilute the stretching effect, so we need to implement other strategies if we are to take a holistic approach to our training.
Stretching
As useful as all the above strategies are… we have covered some limitations with each of them. Therefore, we cannot really get around the fact that we should all be taking the time out to perform regular separate stretching sessions.
For me personally, I know stretching is something I have neglected over the years. And I have paid the price of that in terms of postural adaptations, niggles developing and reduced mobility. I also know of many, many other strength training enthusiasts that have a tendency to neglect stretching. It is something that we all know we COULD do in our own spare time, whilst watching television for example. But somehow we all just end up not doing it. In fact, it seems to be a really strange and widespread phenomenon, that people can be totally committed to all other aspects of their training and nutrition, but massively struggle to find the motivation to dial in this one aspect of their training programme.
Yoga and Strength Training
This is exactly where Yoga comes in for me. I am relatively new to Yoga, having been introduced to Yoga by Angelina. However, I love that I get guided through a series of movements that really stretch me out and provide the perfect ‘antidote’ to all that strength training that I do.
I feel better for now having Yoga in my life. I move better for now having Yoga in my life. And with Angelina now in the team this is only the start, as we will be developing some Yoga classes in York.
I would advise all my strength training colleagues and friends to find a regular Yoga class to participate in. If you are in York and would like to start practising in Yoga with Angelina please do get in touch. But even if you are not in York; please do take the time to find a good Yoga teacher near you. It will be time and effort well invested. If you are anything like me, even though you know you need to stretch out more, you know you just won’t do it on your own at home.
Of course, there is so much more to Yoga than simply stretching out. However, that is not my area of expertise. I will leave Angelina to cover the details of Yoga in more depth in a separate blog post.
Yours in strength and flexibility,
Tim
Foxwood Personal Training