I have worked out in a gym much longer than I have been practicing yoga. When I think back to my time in the gym before yoga I realize that I wasn’t working out as efficiently as I could due to a lack of knowledge and coaching. So here is how becoming a yogi has made me better in the gym.

Breathing

When practicing yoga you develop a refined sense of your breath. You learn to observe, control and deepen your breath. You begin to discover ways that your breath gives you strength beyond what you perceive yourself capable of. This doesn’t end when you finish your yoga practice. You can use these tools to help you maintain body awareness in the gym too ensuring that you stay safe in your exercises and to give you the ability to lift more or do more reps.

Improved range of motion

Yoga is touted with being one of the best ways to improve flexibility. And while it does so much more than that it certainly is a means to getting deeper in your squats. A lot of athletes don’t think they need more flexibility. Yet if you remove the weight in some of their exercises and ask them to show you their range of motion they likely won’t get very far with their body properly aligned….and they expect to do it properly with weight?! You will feel so much more power in your movements when you move with more ease through a full range of motion. And less likely for injury to happen when compensation is at a minimum.

Core strength & awareness

I’ve seen strong athletes with apparent, defined abdominals struggle to hold a side plank. It’s not that they don’t have the core strength to do so but they also need to fine tune how they use their core. Once we learn to stabilize from the core we can develop more strength and power in our movements. I see this in myself when I spin. When I’m aware of my centre and I draw in (like I’ve practiced so many times in yoga) it allows me to use less effort to push harder.

Energy locks

In yoga we refer to energy locks as Bandhas which means to lock, to hold, to tighten. There are three bandhas in the body and one that ties them all together. I won’t go into much detail here about how to find them or what they do. For that you are going to have to give yoga a try. To understand them you need to imagine that energy can move out of the body (not very useful when training) or stay within the body (more energy in to push harder or longer). Here’s an example that you can try if you’ve ever done prowler runs. Try a set with your chin forward then try a set with your chin drawn into your chest (i.e making a double chin). In the later you should feel stronger, faster, and the exercise slightly easier. Remember it takes practice to refine this just like anything else.

I love being in the gym, pushing myself, and I also love yoga, taking care of myself. I cannot imagine doing either one of these without the other anymore. If this has piqued your interest maybe it’s time to set the dumbells down and roll out a yoga mat!