alternating yoga and weight rotation

[kristieschultz]

Hi all,

I am new to power yoga and I just love it. But I also want to keep going with my Cathe weight training tapes which I also enjoy(MIS and PH and someday soon I'll purchase PS and S&H). I've been doing a rotation of 3 days of power yoga and 4 days of cardio for 6-8 weeks, then switching to a weight rotation with at least 2 days of weights and 3 or 4 days of cardio. This seems to be working well for me.

My question is has anyone else been doing this? If so, did it work for you or not?

I was scared that I would lose strength during the yoga rotation but I only lost a little if any. But I gained a great deal of flexibility. I think I'm going to keep this up for awhile because it really keeps me motivated and I don't get bored with it. I found that when I was doing weights all the time, even changing up rotations etc, I was just getting really bored with weights. I enjoy doing the weights much more now if I know it's only for 6 weeks then I go back to yoga.


Thanks for any and all comments,
Kristie Schultz

 

[lorax]

Hi Kristie!

Like you, I love power yoga. I usually will do 1 week of only yoga and cardio in between my weight rotations. For example, I just finished a 4 wk CTX rotation and this week I'm doing 3 days of power yoga and 3 days of 1 hr each Cathe cardio tapes. Then next week I'll begin a S&H rotation. I try to also fit 1 day of yoga into my regular weight/cardio rotations although I've found that when I've been lifting heavy or each body part 2x per week, my yoga poses suffer a bit because my muscles are so fatigued from the weight work. So I try to do my yoga on Sunday and then the rest of the week is devoted to weights/cardio. I suppose that's why Bryan Kest has said that yoga and weights aren't a perfect marriage and he recommended lifting lighter if doing both. I just can't bring myself to do that though, I like lifting as heavy as I can.

Anyway, IMO if you like the results and are having fun, keep it up!

Lorrie

 

[KathyH]

Hi Kristie! Like you I too love yoga and it's sometimes difficult to try to incorporate it into your rotation. However, I started doing this rotation as of last week and really enjoy it.

Sun: MIS (lower body only) legs & abs + 30 min. cardio
Mon: Rhythmic Step
Tues: Yoga (usually 60 min.)
Wed: MIS (upper body only)
Thurs: Kickboxing (60 min.)
Fri: Hi-lo + Pilates (90 min.) or you can do Yoga again
Sat: REST!!

This rotation gave me at least strength training plus yoga plus pilates. This way I'm not losing any of my strength gains. Try this and see if you like it. Best, Kathy

 

[kristina]

RE:

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Feb-27-02 AT 07:46PM (Est)[/font][p]Hi Kristie. YOu have some great suggestions. I am not really strict with "rotations" so probably not much help. Just my own two cents, though, I have noticed that power yoga develops a different kind of lean strength than weights do. Especially around the joints (knees, ankles, shoulders, etc.) Although my feeling is you really can't go wrong no matter what you decide, I wouldn't get completely away from your weight training for more than 3-4 weeks if you are trying to BUILD strength, only because that long of a gap you might loose a week or so of progress from you last weight training cycle. Just my own experience.
Don't you just love yoga? It's SOOOOO much harder than it looks.

 

[Colia]

Hi Kristie!

I too have found yoga to be enjoyable, and a great way to keep working out without all the high impact detriments. Here are some of the ways I've tried to 'get it all in':

1. Some weeks I'll do Firm-style tapes to combine weight/cardio in one day - or you could do CircuitMax, BodyMax as well. This gives me more days to do longer yoga workouts.

2. I'll do shorter, more intense cardio sessions, followed by a shorter yoga session. This allows me to get more yoga sessions in per week and keep the weight days separate. David Swenson's Short Forms has separate 15, 30, and 45 minute routines that are great for this sort of thing. Also Baron Baptiste's Unlocking Athletic Power is only 30 minutes long so is nice to tack on. I've not done any of the Rodney Yee tapes, but others have said that segments of his Power Yoga tapes can be used in this way as well. If you are working on the Primary Series, you could also just do the standing sequence - the yoga folks say it's better to do shorter, more frequent sessions, than a few longer sessions, so you might want to try and incorporate some shorter sessions in your off-yoga weeks, using a method something like this.

3. You could consider MIS/PH as something of a cardio workout, and add a yoga workout or two those weeks - since these are mostly endurance workouts, compared to SH/PS.

Just a few ideas to throw in the pot - be sure to check out Eoin Finn's Power Yoga tape - it's pretty new and is a very nice mix of poses - he's a bit high on the 'woo-woo' factor, but very pleasant - filmed on a Vancouver, BC beach and a great all-around workout.

Cheers!
Colia