Yoga

Yoga, in addition to stretching, is a hugely beneficial and underutilized resource in the fitness and health industry. Yoga, unlike stretching, focuses on building muscle, rather than lengthening them. Yoga primarily focuses on overall strength surrounding body weight.

Most yoga exercises utilize balance and points of contact to build stabilizing muscles, such as your core. When standing normally, you are utilizing two points of contact, your two feet. When you begin to alter these points of contact, you are able to test and challenge your body. When you are doing a handstand, you are still using two points of contact, however it is different than if you were to standup straight. If a handstand were as easy as standing, everyone would be able to do it! By training your body to adjust to additional point of contact combinations, you are able to create a highly functional movement routine that prepares your body for daily tasks and bizarre weight distributions you might find yourself in throughout the day.

Yoga focuses on a training aspect called time under tension. This is a method of strength training that is frequently used for conditioning and body building. Time under tension refers to the amount of time that a muscle is under strain, which should typically be about 15-25 seconds per exercise. This is echoed in yoga by the flow and movement, as well as the time the position is held. By putting a body weight strain on your muscles, it trains them to support and stabilize the body.