There’s no doubt about it, CrossFit is one of the best forms of exercise for burning calories. If you’re bored with your usual routine, you may be looking to inject something new into your workout. Interestingly, low-intensity yoga complements high-intensity CrossFit perfectly. When practiced together, you can enjoy the physical intensity of CrossFit and the psychological benefits of yoga.
Yoga is all about flexibility and endurance. Building these skills will undoubtedly make you a better athlete – particularly when they’re combined with the strength and power built from CrossFit. Practitioners of each discipline are discovering that by combining the two, they can enjoy an increased performance in both. Whether you practice in yoga pants or sports shorts is totally up to you! In this article, we explore the benefits of implementing yoga into your CrossFit training.
Increased Flexibility
To excel at CrossFit, athletes need good flexibility in the muscles and joints. Through regular yoga practice, you can increase your flexibility and range of movement gently. Implementing yoga into your CrossFit training will stretch the ligaments and lubricate the joints for greater flexibility. In a single yoga session, you can work every one of your joints through their range of movement – providing the cartilage with nutrients and oxygen-rich blood. Not only will better flexibility improve your CrossFit performance, but it will also reduce your risk of injury. When the muscles are flexible, they’re less likely to tear when you do something extreme in your CrossFit class.
Increased Strength and Endurance
Both yoga and CrossFit can improve your strength and endurance. However, they go about this in different ways. With this in mind, practicing both disciplines together can improve your performance in each one. Typically, CrossFit uses equipment to increase strength and endurance, while yoga uses body weight as resistance. While each method builds strength, they target different muscle groups. When both disciplines are practiced together, you can target areas of the body that would otherwise be missed. With CrossFit, your endurance is measured by how much weight you can lift. In yoga, it’s measured by the length of time you can hold an asana. For people that are used to showing strength through weight-lifting, the importance of yoga can be overlooked. However, once you implement yoga into your training, you’ll discover the level of strength needed to stay still!
Before any workout, it’s important to prepare the muscles and joints with stretches. Instead of your regular warm-up stretches, why not use yoga? This way, you’ll combine both disciplines without eating into more time. To avoid injury, just make sure you’ve targeted the key muscle groups before getting started.
Increased Energy and Motivation
As well as benefiting the physical body, yoga can have an impact on several aspects of life and wellbeing. With yoga, you can learn how to set goals and achieve them. Regular practice will improve self-control and encourage self-awareness. Both of these attributes will help keep you motivated during your CrossFit training.
Yoga can help you to create an enhanced vision of life. Later, this can be used to motivate you to achieve your goals when CrossFit gets tough. Practicing yoga in the morning can increase your energy levels and allow you to tackle your training with a positive attitude.
Improved Balance and Breathing
Many yoga poses require strength, stretching, coordination and core engagement. With regular practice, you can build these areas and use them to benefit your CrossFit. If your routine includes overhead lifting, good balance is essential! The core-strength built through yoga will certainly benefit each heavy lift.
Breathing techniques are an integral part of yoga. While some are more focused on breathing than others, all yoga routines are centered around breath control. By adding yoga into your CrossFit training, you can learn a variety of new breathing techniques that can be used throughout your training.
Increased Relaxation
Another benefit of yoga is relaxation. After an intense CrossFit session, your adrenaline and heart are pumping so fast that it can be hard to slow things down. A restorative yoga routine can be the perfect way to wind down and relax. Yoga can also help with the muscle tightness and soreness associated with CrossFit. Using yoga after your workout can help your muscles to loosen up and recover quicker. Practicing a short yoga routine before bed will ensure you enjoy a good night’s sleep. This will allow your muscles to repair themselves and help you to wake up feeling refreshed and recharged.
Increased Metabolism
If you’re aiming to lose weight, you’ll benefit from implementing yoga into your training. Many of the twists and bridges used in yoga can increase your metabolism and promote weight loss. Not only can this help you burn calories faster, but it can also augment your energy and increase the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
Increased Concentration
Regular yoga practice can increase your concentration. When using yoga, you’ll be able to ignore external distractions and concentrate on the task in hand – whether that’s CrossFit or something totally different! In CrossFit, good concentration can drastically improve weightlifting and boost your performance. If you often lose focus midway through a session, use yoga to channel your energy and concentrate solely on the exercise you’re performing.
In Summary
As you can see, there are many benefits of implementing yoga into your CrossFit training. Today, CrossFitters worldwide are reaping these benefits and enjoying better focus, strength, energy, and motivation – and that’s just to name a few! If others can reap the benefits, you can too. All you need to get started is a yoga bra and some flexible leggings.