CrossFitters often ask why they have to attend a yoga class. They think that the level of the flexibility work must be a couple of key stretches pre and post workouts. The fact is that yoga goes well with CrossFit for some other reasons, as well.
Yoga offers athletes with strength, flexibility, improved mental strength, faster recovery, as well as, much better performance. An increasing number of CrossFit boxes are offering free yoga classes for their members. By integrating Yoga and CrossFit, athletes can enhance their:
- Breathing
- Flexibility
- Agility
- Balance
- Alignment
- Injury Prevention
- Body Awareness
Yoga Goes Well With CrossFit
Photo Credit: www.cujoconditioning.com
CrossFit and Yoga have got various mental needs. Maybe because of their different needs, this combination, results in a much more balanced individual. CrossFitting yogis can be competitive but peaceful, aggressive but calm and conscious of not just the effectiveness of their technique, but also the movements and balance of their body.
Variety
One of the CrossFit philosophies is the range of challenging moves. Even though yoga does not usually include the high-intensity aspect of the CrossFit workout routines, it can utilize our bodies in another way. Today you might be focusing on the fast movement within the snatch. The next day in yoga, you have a shoulder workout making use of the side plank for balance, then some intense poses to enhance flexibility. These will help you to correctly carry out the snatch with no injuries.
Yoga complements your CrossFit workout routines and enables you to perform all phases of the movement or lift with less effort and mobility.
Balance
Balancing postures in yoga affect not only the physical facets of dexterity and coordination. Even though those facets of balance are crucial for our health and they let us do functional training in and out of the gym, just as important is our to balance our exercise days along with our active rest. Balance is having a meeting point between strengthening and stretching our muscles. It’s the capability to relax our mind.
Awareness
When we do CrossFit workouts, we focus on form, but due to the speedy movements and quickness of the workout, we might not be conscious of how the body feels throughout the movement. In CrossFit Yoga, you target not just how your body moves, but exactly how it feels while it moves. For instance, if you feel a bit of pain in your right shoulder throughout a push press, yoga could target the similar motions, performed slowly with awareness. If you notice exactly whenever your shoulder tweaks, it allows you to adjust to ensure that you can carry out the movement with no pains and aches. Or possibly it is because of insufficient flexibility. As you get more mindful of your body, it will likely be simpler to figure out ways to help the body function much better all the time.
Yoga is an excellent match for your CrossFit workout. It may take your workout to a higher level while calming the mind and reduce your stress, at the same time.
Even though you have started CrossFit, does not imply that you need to stop the rest. Yoga is an excellent match with CrossFit. While yoga is much peaceful, quiet, and reflective, CrossFit is aggressive, noisy and competitive – these opposites might be exactly what you need to keep your body and mind in balance.
Check out this interesting article from Shape regarding this workout and learn some of the moves.
The Yoga-CrossFit Mashup Workout
[quote style=”boxed”]Who says Yoga and CrossFit can’t go together? The combination may seem unorthodox, but it turns out the two workouts go together like chia seeds and Greek yogurt (or peanut butter and chocolate!). Behold, the CrossFit-yoga mash-up.[/quote]
It is advisable to carry out yoga workouts either following a workout or during your rest days. A common schedule for CrossFitters is 3 days on, and 1 day off. You may use the ‘rest’ day for yoga. Parts of your muscles may become very tight engaging in CrossFit, and yoga can help counter that. It won’t just relax you after your workout; it will speed up your recovery and alleviate soreness the following day. On the other hand, doing yoga before CrossFit is not advisable. Muscles tend to be more relaxed in the intense stretching, which means you will not be able to lift just as much or increase your performance for an hour or so after a yoga session.
Dangerously Fit boot camps offer yoga classes, and we also have CrossFit training. So if you would like to know more, just visit our website for more details.
