Training for various events is becoming more and more popular among the fitness community. Whether you’re competing in Cross Fit, Marathons, Martial Arts, or Tough Mudders, you’re pushing your body to its limits on a regular basis. Learn how our guest blogger mixes in yoga as a cross-training activity to compliment her intense training.
My Recipe for Balance: Add equal parts of aggressive and lovely
My yoga practice provides the perfect balance for my new favorite activity. I am taking classes in Krav Maga, which is Israeli Combat fighting training. This is hard core, tough training that uses the total body.
I attend yoga on the days following my classes and the stretches and poses are the perfect way to care for my muscles. It’s almost like having a massage as I go through my yoga practice, each pose, each flexing, a way to celebrate all the things my body can do. Yoga is perfect. It keeps me flexible and strong in between tough punching and kicking. Great balance!
Diana Fletcher, Life Coach and Writer, Diana Fletcher Life Coaching
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Diana! We at Pretty Hard Work have experienced the restorative benefits of yoga too and love what it does for our minds and bodies.
At Pretty Hard Work we do our fair share of intense training and workouts. We love pushing our bodies to their limit, then watching ourselves surpass those limits repeatedly. It give us great satisfaction, energy and motivation. Recently, we started including yoga in our training programs. And while yoga can be intense on its own, we have also noticed the benefits of using it as a cross-training workout to our more vigorous activities.
Our guest blogger, Chelsea Logan, came to a similar conclusion. Learn how she uses yoga to compliment her workout routine and why she encourages everyone to do the same.
Yoga as Cross-Training
I started to incorporate yoga in my workout routine several years ago. I used to be an athlete and now do high interval training as a way to stay in shape. Yoga has helped me recover faster between workouts and also elongates my muscles so I don’t “bulk up.”
I have been able to maintain a muscular, lean, and feminine frame by doing yoga 2-3 times a week. I have also found yoga to be instrumental in lowering my stress levels. It has become easier to incorporate the feeling of serenity into my everyday life.
Chelsea Logan, CEO & Chief Visionary, Satissimi
As working Moms, we have also come to appreciate the flexibility of a yoga routine. When obstacles arise that prevent us from making it to the gym, or our favorite class, we can count on our Yoga DVDs to be there for us. Taking it to the mat has never been easier and on those challenging days it’s often just what we need from our exercise routine.
Head on over to the Pretty Hard Work Store to check out our favorite yoga companions!
Looking back across the evolution of the human race, many of the instinctual movements we performed on a daily basis when hunting, gathering, or even farming have become obsolete in today’s world of desks and computer screens. But, just because the world around us has changed, doesn’t mean that our need for movement or exercise has lessened. Learn from our expert guest blogger how getting back to our instincts is the best type of intense training to stay in shape!
When working out your legs it is also important to help your muscles recover and heal. Intense training programs to strengthen your legs, or repetitive activities like running can often cause pain in your hips, knees, and ankles. Contrary to my original assessment… no, this isn’t just a sign of age. Learn how to help sooth your joint pain by using a foam roller to massage your muscles and release the tension on your joints.
Rest and recovery are an important part of your intense training routine. Learn why taking the necessary downtime from your training will help decrease your recovery time and how to know when your rest time is long over-do.
Here at PrettyHardWork we do enjoy our yoga classes immensely. Unfortunately, we have found ourselves putting our yoga practice on the back burner when we enter into a more intense training of some sort. And we miss it. Dearly. So, we turned to the experts, seeking a permission of sorts, to find out, “are there benefits to practicing yoga during an intense training routine?”
Learn why maintaining your yoga practice supports a number of training activities and why it would be beneficial to include it in your routine.
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