How do you incorporate yoga, pilates, and kickboxing to your program?

Mariela

Cathlete
Some yoga workouts focus on strength, some on core region, some on flexibility... I wonder if I do weights one day, can I do yoga for strength the next day or should I leave a day in between. Same for pilates and kickboxing. How do you incorporate them in your week without training for strength the same body parts on consecutive days? Is kickboxing considered cardio always?
 
I teach a fairly easy yoga class (for me), but when doing serious power yoga I leave a day in between. Same thing for pilates. Also, I consider kickboxing strictly cardio but that is because I am accustomed to it. If you are new you will probably be sore, but that should gradually decrease and it will be mainly cardio!
Cari
 
Hi Mariela,

I incorporate kickboxing as one of my cardio's for the week, sometimes twice a week depending on the rotation, using a combo of step/hi-lo/kickboxing as my cardios, and I incorporate pilates separately as an evening (secondary) workout, 2x/week. I don't do yoga, but I do a stretching video (30-60min) on Sunday's as my "active rest" day.
It's hard sometimes to figure out where to put it all, which is why pilates is an evening (2nd) workout for me.

Donna
 
Too little time...

It's tough to fit everything in! I bought those Windsor pilates videos from the infomercial and I never have time to do them. They claim to tone your entire body...yeah right. For me, the pilates tapes weren't time effective. I could feel my abs working, but the video was too long-I'd rather do a tough, fast ab-specific tape. That's just my opinion.

Yoga is great though after a tough workout. I do 15-20mins of yoga after runs or spinning. It's good to stretch and relax. Your body feels melted afterwards- a nice feeling.

As for toning, I don't think pilates or yoga (unless you're doing advanced yoga) are considered weight workouts. They're more for stretching/relaxation, and toning is a secondary benefit.
I count kickboxing, spinning, running, etc as cardio- toning your legs, abs and/or arms are secondary benefits. It's not really weight work though. If you're sore, I'd just skip the weights for that day.

My advice is to find time-effective workouts that you like. It may take time to realize that you might get better benefits if you tried a different workout, video, etc. Some CIA videos have toning and/or yoga after the cardio, which I love since you get it done.
You could make a chart and write your goals: maybe 4 cardios, 2 weight days, and 2 stretch days and try to complete it all by the end of the week.
Good luck!
 
I don't think there's a clear answer. There's such a range of workouts in all three as you noted. Plus you have to know your own body. It's not the end of the world if you overdo or underdo for a few weeks, until you find what works for you. You may have to modify some workouts, or cut certain things out.

Periodization helps. Learn to emphasize certain aspects of your fitness for a period of time. You can't work on everything at once.

Debra
 

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top