yoga question

[kariev]

for those of you who do yoga regularly or instruct i have a question about breaking up workouts. I know its ok to do so but i wanted to know if one was better then the other. I do power yoga and the dvds i have that i like the most last 90 minutes. So i was thinking of splitting the workout up into 3 30 min workouts (of course for the final 2 days it would be a repeat of 2 previous 30 minute sections):

monday: 30 min cardio/30 min power yoga
tuesday: 30 min cardio/30 min yoga
wednesday: 30 min cardio/30 min yoga
thursday: 30 min cardio/ 30 min yoga
friday: 30 min cardio/30 min yoga

so this would be 150 min total of yoga and 150 min of cardio

or............

mon: 45 min cardio
tues: 90 min yoga
wednesday: 45 min cardio
thursday: 90 min yoga
friday: 45 min cardio
and then the following week would be 3 yoga workouts and 2 cardios

this would give me 135 min of cardio (on weeks i do 3 cardio sessions) and 180 min of yoga (on the weeks i do 2 yoga sessions) or 90 min of cardio on the weeks i do 2 cardio sessions and 270 min of yoga for the week i do 3 yoga sessions.

All that said, do you think that one would be more beneficial then the other in terms of flexibility/cardio health/muscle tone or would they pretty much be the same?

 

[JodelleFitzh20]

Depends...

Hey girl...it depends what your goals are.. If your goals are to become stronger and better at yoga then I would do the second one you mentioned. If your goals are to get more cardiovascular work and see more gains in the cardio area then I would do the first one. The first one is more geared toward general fitness and cardiovascular with little time for strength building and endurance. The second one is geared toward more gains as far as flexiblity and strength in your yoga practice since you are able to do it longer. By doing yoga seperate from cardio, you'll have more energy to put towards your practice, whereas if you do cardio before your yoga, you might burn yourself out too early to give yourself 100% to the yoga.
As far as fitness either program is acceptable, but it really depends on what your goals are....whether cardiovascular and calore burning is more important, or whether getting better at yoga is your goal. As a yoga instructor, I like either program, because I'm just thrilled you are making time for one of the greatest things you can do for your body - yoga!

 

[kariev]

thanks so much Jodelle! I'm still not sure which one to do but i'm leaning more towards the second one since i enjoy a longer yoga practice. on the same note though i love doing some cardio daily for overall health but i don't have time to do it on days that i would be doint 90 min of cardio. i have until monday to decide LOL

 

[Vee]

I think you could do one way for a a few weeks and then switch to the other. I like how my body responds to yoga after cardio. I am more flexible. However, I also like long power yoga sessions as they build up endurance.

 

[kariev]

thanks vee. i think i will do the second one for the next month and see what happens. even though i like the first one, i think i may burn out faster on it simply by doing the same thing everyday.