For those who practice yoga

jharris

jharris

Cathlete
Hi,

I am trying to incorparate Yoga into my routine. I have never done much stretching, yoga type workouts in the past. I love the crunch dvd I have and this has made me want to add more. I don't want voice over workouts or slow moving. I tend to loose focus if stretches are held for to long.
I have these 3 dvds that I would like to incorporate:

The Studio Yogini Workout -Ellen Barrett
Crunch Yoga/Pilates Blend - Ellen Barrett
Body By Bethenny - Bethenny Frankel/Kristin McGee

How do you mix yoga into your current routines? How often can you practice yoga? Is it ok to do after weight training since it uses body weight for the moves? My current exercise schedule is 5 days a week, with a mix of cardio and weights.

TIA

Jenn
 
Yes, you can practice yoga after a weight workout. I like to do my yoga after a cardio. I do it every other day (when not worn out and not during ttotm.) Shiva Rae is fabulous and Yoga Today with Sarah Kline is great (and free online!)
 
I workout with cardio and/or weights 6 days a week, and I usually end each workout with a 10-20 minute yoga-style stretch. Also, on one day each week I tack on a "full" yoga workout, which lasts anywhere from 60-90 minutes. I don't have any problems doing yoga the same day as weight training. Maybe that's because I gravitate to the yoga for flexibility and relaxation, and not the hard core yoga. But so far it works for me.

Do you subscribe to Netflix? This is a great way to try out yoga videos. Also, there are some fairly good free yoga videos on You Tube, like Polly's Yoga is Yummy for Runners.
 
I workout in the wee morning hours, so I do yoga at night to relax me from the day, and then end with meditations. It's really helped my sleep issues.
 
I do 4 cardio and 3 weight lifting workouts a week. I incorporate 3 yoga sessions a week, usually the same day as strength training. I also HIGHLY recommend Yoga today blog/ downloads. They are free/ cheap and excellent ways to get the stretching and body weight strength work ti counter other workout styles.
 
I bet you would like other Studio dvd's by Ellen Barrett. They are not yoga but a blend of mind/body fusion. Fusion Flow is one that has alot of stretching.
 
Jenn,

Why do you want to do yoga?

What type of yoga you would do and how you would combine it with strength or cardio depends on the answer to this question.

Physical yoga can help you with flexibility, stress management, rehabbing from injuries, managing ailment symptoms, building strength and muscle endurance, improving balance. Some yoga dvds are oriented to be all-round so they have bits of everything. Some yoga dvds can be focused on just one of these goals.

I usually like to do strength focused (power style) yoga on weight training days (after weight training or as a warm up for weight training) or instead of weight training (If you do 3 weight sessions per week you may consider doing 2 and resorting to a power yoga session or pilates/yoga fusion in lieu of the 3rd). The reason for doing strength yoga with weight training is that if you are battling DOMS or allowing muscles to recover between weighted workouts, then doing intense strength focused yoga between weight training may not be best. I like doing balance and flexibility focused yoga between weight days or on cardio days. After cardio my flexibility is at its best. Flexibility focused yoga helps my muscles recover faster from weight training.

If you are doing shorter yoga sessions (45 minutes or less) that are a mish-mosh of everything (strength, flexibility etc) or not very intense, then you can do it on the same day as any type of workout.
 
This is how it all started I recieved Ellen Barrett Yoga/Pilates Blend in a trade and I really enjoyed it. Much to my surprise. This intriqued me to add a couple others. I went with Ellen and Bethenny because I like thier personalties.

I mainly do cardio, circuits and some weights. Weight work is mainly light to moderate 5,8,10,12lb dbs. 45lb on the BB. I am not a person who likes to stretch, I have a hard time just hanging out doing something relaxing after a workout such as a stretch. After reading about how good yoga and stretching is I thought I should try and add it in.

I like workouts that move rather quickly, nothing held to long where I fall into boredom and wonder what the heck am I doing here. I also don't like voice over. I want an instructor to speak to me. I want to feel stretched but worked out, want a challenge but also something doable. I'm not looking to buy a bunch of workouts, just 3 for now but don't know how to really work them in to a rotation.

Jenn
 
I do yoga 2-3 times a week, mostly at a studio but sometimes I use a dvd. I also do weights and cardio. If the yoga workout includes a lot of chaturanga (sp?), that will get the shoulders pretty good, and I find that sometimes I don't want to follow such a yoga workout with upper body work the next day. Lots of lunge type poses can get the legs sore, but that doesn't seem to happen as often. If my legs are sore from a weight workout, though, I might avoid yoga the next day unless it's a more yin yoga practice. I just went to one of those for the first time on Tuesday. It was quite nice, a light flow series and then some stretches held for quite a bit longer than I normally hold stretches. I think the boredom factor of holding long stretches is less in a studio, personally.
 
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