Yoga and Martial Arts: Precursor to Functional Fitness
What if I told you that there was a way to supercharge your strength and assist in your function all while developing cool skills?
Strength training is a popular form of exercise that involves resistance training to build muscle and increase the functionals strength you have to do manly things like flip tires and buck haybales. (Because farmers need to be jacked too.) While it is an effective way to improve overall fitness, it can also lead to muscle imbalances and injuries if not done correctly. To a lot of people, the only training they know is limited ranges of barbells and locked in place machines. This is where yoga and martial arts come in. By incorporating these practices into your strength training routine, you can enhance your ability to build strength and become an ACTUAL ATHLETE.
Yoga is a practice that focuses on flexibility, strength, and balance. It involves a series of poses that stretch and strengthen the muscles, while also improving posture and alignment. Many of the poses, routines, and flows work to teach your body to move through and hold specific patterns and positions in a fluid and controlled manner that begets strength and stability of muscles as well as allowing you to transition from states of stillness to action much more efficiently. By incorporating yoga into your strength training routine, you can improve your flexibility and range of motion, which can help prevent injuries and improve your overall athletic ability.
One of the key benefits of yoga for strength training is that it helps to balance out the muscles. Many strength training exercises focus on specific muscle groups, which can lead to imbalances and overuse injuries. Yoga, on the other hand, works the entire body, helping to strengthen and stretch all the muscles. This can help prevent injuries and improve overall performance. When you look at how flexibility and mobility coincide with lifting, you begin to see those positions, specifically within powerlifting usually require the body to be able to derive power from disadvantageous angles. Many people fail to understand that flexibility is tantamount to a muscle being able to adequately recruit fibers within a position or angle which necessitates being comfortable in that position. This is why if you’ve ever tried to lift your leg out in front of you slowly and hold it like martial artists do, you realize it feels like there’s a load of weights on your leg and its just not strong enough to go higher.
Speaking of martial artists….
Martial arts is a practice that involves a combination of strength, speed, and agility. It involves a series of movements and techniques that require power and precision. By incorporating martial arts into your strength training routine, you can improve your power and agility, which can help you become a more athletic person.
One of the key benefits of martial arts for strength training is that it helps to develop explosive power. Many strength training exercises focus on slow, controlled movements, which can be effective for building strength, but may not translate well to explosive movements required in sports and other activities. Martial arts, on the other hand, involves quick, explosive movements that can help develop power and speed.
By combining yoga and martial arts into your strength training routine, you can reap the benefits of both practices. Yoga can help improve flexibility and balance, while martial arts can improve power and agility. Together, they can help you become a more well-rounded athlete.
One way to combine yoga and martial arts is to incorporate yoga poses into your martial arts practice. For example, you can start your martial arts practice with a series of yoga poses to warm up and stretch the muscles. Alternatively, you can incorporate martial arts movements into your yoga practice, such as adding punches and kicks to your yoga poses.
In conclusion, incorporating yoga and martial arts into your strength training routine can help enhance your ability to build strength and become a more athletic person. Yoga can improve flexibility and balance, while martial arts can improve power and agility. By combining these practices, you can become a more well-rounded athlete and improve your overall fitness.
I’ll hopefully be able to bless you guys with more fitness content in the coming weeks, but for now, look up some Yoga and Martial Arts training workouts and give it a try. My personal favorite is Saturnomovement and FightTips.