So you are practicing yoga, and you work out in the gym daily. What now? Should I do yoga before or after a workout?
When most people hear “yoga,” they think of stretching and breathing exercises. But yoga has many benefits beyond just physical health. It also helps with mental clarity, stress relief, and overall well-being.
Yoga is excellent for anyone who wants to get fit and healthy, but it’s even better for people who already exercise regularly. Yoga is often recommended to complement weight training because it improves muscle strength, flexibility, and endurance while reducing injuries.
In this blog post, I will reveal all the pros and cons of yoga before or after your workout.
Should I Do Yoga Before or After a Workout?
The short answer to whether you need to practice yoga before or afterward is “after.” You’ll likely feel less flexible after working out if you do intense yoga practices like Ashtanga or Vinyasa. This is because muscle tissue is usually weaker after exercise.
But there are many benefits to practicing yoga even after a rigorous workout. For starters, you might feel better about yourself afterward. And while you’re still sore, you won’t be able to perform your best during your next session.
Why Shouldn’t We Do Yoga Before Our Workout?
Many people believe that doing yoga before exercising helps improve flexibility and reduce injury risk. However, there isn’t enough evidence to support this claim. Many experts say that doing yoga before exercise could hurt performance. Here are several reasons why you shouldn’t do yoga before exercising.
1. Pre-Workout Stretching May Be Unnecessary
Stretching before exercise is often recommended because it reduces muscle soreness after workouts. But recent research suggests that pre-exercise stretching may not be necessary.
A study published in Sports Medicine found that athletes who did yoga had similar levels of muscle soreness compared to those who didn’t stretch.
Another study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found no difference in muscle soreness among participants who stretched before performing weight training exercises.
2. Doing Yoga Before Exercise Could Hurt Your Performance
Yoga is a complex form of physical activity that requires balance, coordination, strength, and endurance. Because of this complexity, it’s possible that doing yoga before exercise might impair athletic performance.
3. Some People Are More Likely to Get Injury During Yoga
In addition to being physically demanding, yoga poses require specific postures that may increase the likelihood of getting injured. For instance, one pose, “The Plank,” places excessive pressure on the spine and lower extremities.
This pose is commonly used to prepare for pushups and squats. You may want to avoid this pose if you’re prone to injuries.
Why Should We Do Yoga After Our Workout?
1- It Increases Flexibility
Yoga is one of the best ways to stretch tight muscles and improve your range of motion. Static stretches are typically done after exercise, while dynamic stretching is done before exercise.
A study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning found that performing yoga post-exercise increased flexibility by about 10%.
The researchers had participants perform exercises designed to target specific muscle groups. They measured how much each participant could bend their knee, elbow, wrist, and ankle.
Then, he performed either a yoga session or a rest period. The next day, the participants repeated the same tests.
The results showed that those who did yoga after a workout experienced more significant increases in flexibility.
2- It Can Reduce Muscle Soreness
Yoga is an incredible way to improve your overall health. However, it doesn’t just help you feel better physically; it allows you to recover faster.
A study published in Frontiers in Physiology found that doing yoga after a workout could reduce muscle soreness.
This is because yoga increases circulation to your muscles, helping them receive more oxygen and nutrients.
The researchers recruited 16 healthy men and women and asked them to do one set of 10 repetitions each of leg presses, squats, lunges, and calf raises.
They repeated this exercise three times per week for four weeks.
Half of the participants did a 30-minute hatha yoga session immediately following their intense workouts. The others just performed light stretching exercises.
Afterward, the researchers measured the strength of the subjects’ quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, biceps, soleus, and tibialis anterior muscles.
The researchers found that those who had done yoga experienced less muscle soreness than those who hadn’t.
3- It Can Serve As a Cooldown Exercise (Especially After Doing Cardio)
Cardiovascular exercise causes your heart rate to go up and pump out more blood. This makes it work harder and becomes stronger.
As your body recovers, your heart slows down and becomes less efficient. However, doing yoga after running or cycling helps reduce the impact of physical exertion on your heart, allowing it to recover faster.
When you run, cycle, or swim, your heart pumps faster than at rest. It pumps about 10 times as hard during high-intensity workouts.
Your heart can sustain such levels of effort because it gets plenty of oxygenated blood flow while it works. But once you stop exercising, your heart needs to slow down and return to normal function.
If you don’t allow enough time to pass between tough sessions of exercise, your heart won’t recover fully. Instead, it continues to work overtime and overwork itself.
Overuse injuries are common among athletes who continue to train too soon after a heavy workout.
The same happens when you jump into a hot tub or take a long relaxing soak. You’re essentially trying to cool off your overheating body, but your heart isn’t ready to slow down just yet.
So you end up with what’s called post-exercise hypotension. Blood pools in your legs and feet, causing you to feel dizzy and weak.
In contrast, practicing yoga allows your heart to relax and recover. Rather than forcing your heart to work hard, yoga teaches you how to adapt to changes in your body without pushing yourself beyond your limits.
Because yoga doesn’t require you to perform at peak capacity, it reduces the risk of injury and lets your heart recover faster.
4- You Will Feel Great
Yoga is excellent for improving your mood, your sleep quality, your ability to focus, your energy levels, and even your immune system. But what about doing it after working out?
A recent study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that people who did a short session of yoga post-workout reported less fatigue, better concentration, and greater happiness than those who didn’t do anything active after exercise.
The researchers believe that this effect could stem from the fact that yoga helps us relax our minds, allowing us to process information more efficiently and effectively.
FAQ’S Corner
WHY DO WEIGHTLIFTERS PRACTISE YOGA?
Weightlifters mainly use their larger muscle groups. Therefore, they can benefit from practicing yoga to improve their body’s ability to balance and strengthen their joints and the smaller stabilizing muscle groups. This helps prevent injuries and will improve their posture.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STATIC AND DYNAMIC STRETCHES?
Dynamic stretching involves movement and is preferably done as a warm-up before a workout. Static stretching does work on one muscle group at a time and can be done as a great cool-down after your workout.
AREN’T THERE ANY BENEFITS TO DOING YOGA BEFORE WORKING OUT?
Start focusing on the mind-muscle connection and take that focus to your workout. Get your breathing going and pump up that heart rate. The only possible benefit might be using yoga as a warm-up session before your gym workout.
Conclusion
My opinion on this topic is clear. If you want to maximize your total fitness routine, then be sure to include some yoga exercises after your workout routine.
This is beneficial for your overall recovery, mobility, flexibility, and your overall well-being.
Remember that yoga has numerous health benefits no matter when you practice it, but doing it in this sequence will give you the best results.
Do you practice yoga?
Do you prefer practicing yoga before or after your workout?
Please share your experience with us in the comment section below.
