ADDING YOGA TO STRENGTH TRAINING

Yoga not only improves mobility and balance for everyday living (especially critical as we age), but also supports fitness performance and longevity. While strength training focuses on building muscle, yoga offers several complementary benefits to enhance your movements, recovery and overall wellbeing. 

Freight House is one of the only gyms to offer fitness and yoga classes as part of your membership. Learn more about the benefits of including both in your routine, and then sign up to join us!

Reduce risk of overtraining

Sometimes strength training can lead to muscle imbalances or overtraining if you’re focusing too heavily on certain muscle groups. Yoga helps promote muscular symmetry by moving the body in all directions and addressing areas that might be neglected in a typical strength training workout, such as the hip flexors, shoulders and lower back.

At Freight House, our strength training classes focus on a different muscle group every day, so you can get a full-body workout throughout the week without burning out any one particular area. 

Improve mobility & flexibility

Yoga helps increase flexibility in key muscle groups, which can enhance your range of motion during strength training. For example, flexibility in your hips, shoulders and spine can help you achieve deeper squats, improve your deadlift form and better activate muscles during lifts. More flexibility also means you're less likely to pull a muscle while lifting heavy.

Strengthen core

Many yoga poses, such as plank and boat pose, focus on engaging and strengthening the core. A strong core is essential for proper form and stability during strength training, especially when performing lifts like squats, deadlifts and overhead presses. Yoga helps you engage your core muscles in a controlled and intentional way, which translates directly to more power and control in your lifting form.

Build control & focus

Breath work is a foundational element in yoga that helps build the mind-body connection, regulate the nervous system and enhance movements. This practice can also be applied to strength training to improve your focus, core stability and endurance. In fact, you may already use one form of breath work: bracing, which helps support and protect your spine during heavy lifts, like squats and deadlifts. 

Help recovery & injury prevention

After an intense strength training class, yoga helps stretch and release muscle tension. Our yoga classes, offered Monday–Thursday and First Fridays, target the muscles trained during our fitness classes to support muscle recovery. Poses that involve deep stretching, like downward dog and forward fold, help lengthen tight muscles, prevent imbalances and reduce the risk of injury over time. 

By adding yoga into your strength training routine, you can keep at the top of your fitness game for life! Contact us to learn more or book a class today.