FIVE REASONS WHY YOGA AND CROSSFIT GO HAND IN HAND
It’s understandable if you think CrossFit is some kind of fitness cult - I kind of did. CrossFitter's are always bursting to tell you all about how great it is and how you must try it for yourself. So when I was asked to start teaching Yoga classes at a CrossFit gym, I thought I had better try it out for myself and find out what everyone is talking about.
I rocked up to a 6am CrossFit class and I was instantly impressed with how hard everyone was working - especially at that time of the morning. The intensity and speed of CrossFit workouts is kind of crazy and exhausting to watch, let alone try and do! I couldn’t believe the weights everyone was lifting in Olympic weight-lifting style - thankfully I didn’t have to do that in my first session but I was completely out of my comfort zone.
After I got over the initial intimidation of the group’s extreme strength and the fear of having weights dropped on me, I realised how much Yoga fitness could be complementary to CrossFit and CrossFit could be really beneficial to your Yoga practice.
Here are five reasons why I think Yoga can help you with your CrossFit workout and achieve your fitness goals.
1. Flexibility and Mobility
Most of the CrossFitter’s I meet tell me that they’re not flexible enough to do yoga because they can’t even touch their toes. Well, I’m here to remind you that when most of you started CrossFit, I bet you couldn’t do pull-ups or handstands but that didn’t stop you.
Working on flexibility is important for maintaining healthy joints, to give you more motion. Hips and shoulders seem to be particularly tight for CrossFitter’s and Yoga can help with increasing mobility in these areas which will then in turn help you get deeper into squats and give you more mobility and rotation in your shoulders to do handstands.
Key postures for increasing flexibility for CrossFitters:
Vinyasa Yoga is a practice of linking movement to breath, so you move through postural transitions using your inhale and exhale. This breath awareness transfers beautifully to CrossFit to give you more control especially when you’re doing something like a long burpee session where timing of breath and rhythm are crucial.
Yoga also helps you learn how to breathe deeply into your diaphragm, which directly translates into your ability to produce more power and sustain movements for longer durations.
One of my favourite things about Yoga is the focus that it gives you. By focussing on your breathing, you can keep your mind present and on the mat. In CrossFit, you don’t really have time to think about anything else but the mind will still wander. Losing your focus can lead to injury so it’s a no brainer that gaining focus will help with progressing in your CrossFit workout.
Focussing on your breath will help to clear the mind, keep you present and bring a sense of calm to your workout - during both Yoga and CrossFit.
A lot of the time when we lose our balance, it’s because we’ve lost concentration. For me, it usually happens when I start thinking about how great I am at balancing, instead of just focussing on breathing and holding the posture! Yoga can help you achieve the stability needed to perform CrossFit exercises such as high rep pistols or cartwheels.
The physical balance we learn in Yoga will hopefully filter into your real life outside the gym…maybe you’ll land your dream job, relationship, home, and you have time for your CrossFit and new found Yoga addiction…wouldn’t that be great!
Key poses for practicing balance for CrossFitter’s:
5. Yoga really is a legitimate work-out
Teaching Yoga to CrossFitter's is amazing. One minute, CrossFitter's are dead-lifting ridiculously heavy weights and the next minute, you’re sweating away in your downward dog, which can sometimes be harder than lifting those weights!
Yoga Fit and Power Yoga classes will challenge even the fittest CrossFitter’s and you will definitely get a good work out. The best part about Yoga is that after you’ve worked super hard and sweated away, you get to have a gorgeous little five minute nap, which will leave you calm, present and energised instead of feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus…doesn’t that sound good?
So there you have it, five good reasons that Yoga and CrossFit are a match made in heaven. The sooner you start Yoga, the sooner you will feel the benefits in your CrossFit training and it could even change your life…Namaste.
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