Secret Voodoo Yoga Training Boost
What black magic is this?! I have found the perfect formula for exercise, one which allows me to do tough workouts and almost completely escape the soreness and overtrained feeling that often accompany them. I cannot believe I haven’t managed to discover it before now. The secret? I follow a powerful workout with a yoga session.
There are numerous types of yoga and levels of exertion to match. I’m pairing a soft vinyasa style flow with a hard run, bike, aerobic and weight program. The two marry together to enhance the benefits of both.
With the hard style workout, I sweat and build heat, strength and capacity. In the past, I would simply step off the treadmill or come in from the road and head to the showers. I might do hard yoga on alternate days or soft yoga during a recovery, but I was always tired, hurting and pushing too hard, too fast.
The yoga to follow seems to completely work out the poisons that used to dog me for the two days following a tough program. I can do more daily and I can do more weekly, all without the aches and the strain I used to feel with the hard stuff alone. Where once I would have awakened to find myself aching, my soreness a badge of effort on my part, I now do twice the work with nearly no painful effects.
And the tough workout before the gentle stretching gets my body warmed up and limber for the stretches to come. I’ve seen my flexibility grow phenomenally over a short time and some of my old injuries are becoming less of an issue. Some of this is no doubt attributable to a continuous practice, but I believe that some of the results are directly related to the extended “warm-up” before practice.
Another benefit is the ability of yoga poses to correct posture imbalances and stress within the body. Instead of coming back to my desk with a back tight from the pounding of a run, I feel energized. The poses and relaxation help me to realign my limbs, my spine, to release any held tension. And the level of fatigue from the workout helps me to better relax into a posture, to stretch gently and not push for a result.
And so, like magic, I’m doing twice the work (and feeling capable of doing twice the work) and reaping twice the reward for a small additional effort. Now that I’ve found the secret, I wouldn’t think of giving it up.