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The good news is that all of these side affects of weightlifting can be avoided with a consistent yoga practice. Additionally, weightlifters who ignore smaller stabilizer muscles can develop poor posture and be susceptible to injuries. To sum up, a consistent weight lifting routine can cause tight muscles that reduce your range of motion and leave your feeling sore. Chest and shoulder opening postures combined with core strengthening poses and exercises in yoga class are key to improving posture. Through a consistent yoga practice, your posture may be greatly improved. When combining both, I prefer weights first and then finish with yoga. Have you ever seen a buff guy have huge chest, shoulder, and bicep muscles but hunched forward? This happens a lot due to neglect of the opposing muscle groups in the back. Honestly, when I do yoga first and then lift weights I tend to skimp a bit on the weight lifting. Working larger muscles through solely weightlifting not only puts you at risk for injury, but also can have a negative affect on your posture.
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Through a consistent yoga practice, you will be able to balance and strengthen joints and smaller stabilizing muscles, which helps prevent injury. Muscle imbalances can cause injuries such as dislocations and muscle tears. If you focus on the larger muscles groups and ignore the smaller stabilizer muscles, you’ll have muscle imbalance. If your workout consists of weightlifting only, you may be putting your body at risk for injury. Yoga draws oxygen into muscles, helping them perform better and more efficiently. While we all love a freezing cold ice bath, yoga can be quite beneficial to flushing out lactic acid in over-worked muscles. It’s no secret that muscle cells accumulate lactic acid from heavy weight training. Holding postures in class helps release tight muscles, encouraging flexibility. In yoga class, you flow through a variety of poses that encourage mobility and decompress tight areas of the body. In general, strength training shortens and tightens muscle tissue. There are endless ways yoga can improve your weightlifting routine, but here are what we think are the four most important ways: On the other hand, Yoga is very limited in building muscle size and strength, but it has excellent endurance and flexibility results. However, it is minimal when it comes to building endurance or flexibility. Yoga is considered an extra form of improving strength, endurance, and balance. Weightlifting is typically great at building muscle mass and strength. Having a weightlifting routine and a consistence yoga practice can have a profound effect on your physical fitness efforts. Yoga and weightlifting actually go hand-in-hand. We are not trying to convert you to be a yogi we want you to add yoga to your fitness routine. If weightlifting is part of your life, this is for you.
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