Knowing exactly what is good for you would make your life so much simpler and easier to live. Wouldn’t it?
[the_ad id=”6147″]Often times you don’t know what is right or suitable for you and you end up making the wrong choices. Among many wrongly taken decisions the choice of picking the right fitness regime for you ranks quite high in that list. With a new gym cropping up on almost every street and people going mad about lifting heavy weights you clearly get caught up in the obsession for a muscular, well-toned body, sometimes compromising on your health and end up becoming another victim of the hype.
So how do you figure out which is good for you? Weight training or Yoga?
Firstly…
First and foremost just sit back and think with a cool head. Most of the time wrong choices are made when one does not think through them clearly. Choosing the right fitness regime requires careful consideration. You need to prioritize your needs. So just listen to yourself. What is it that you want?
Understand Your Body Type
Understand your body type and its requirement. You don’t always need to build muscles. Sometimes all you want is to just lean out and tone your body. Training yourself in the gym can only work out positively for you if you have the right trainer. Sometimes the lack of one leaves you with very little option but to rely on yourself. Health issues generally pop up when you don’t have enough knowledge about weight training and you do what everyone else is doing. You end up lifting too much weight where you sometimes pull a muscle or strain your back too much. This could pose health issues for you in your later life. How much weight you should lift, what machines you should use are all determined taking into consideration your weight, height, gender and body type.
While some of you at some point of time or the other might have thought, ‘’ugh! This gym stuff is so boring, I should have joined a dance class instead!’’ And others must have found all that stretching in Yoga as challenging and befuddling as playing the twister board game with your friends. So before you fill out either your gym or yoga membership just reflect on what would continue to sustain your interest even after 5-6 months down the line?
Secondly…
Make your call based on your medical history and current condition. Weight training is good for you in case you are aiming towards improving your bone density or keeping glucose levels in check or improving tissue and muscle strength. But people who have diseases such as angina, heart failure, really high blood pressure and Marfan syndrome (disease affecting the body’s connective tissue which weakens its strength) are dissuaded from heavy weight training.
Now when you come down to the health benefits of yoga, surely it outnumbers those of weight training. Yoga is great for your overall physical and mental health. Yoga is something that people as young as 5 to those as old as 65 can sign up for. Doing yoga not only makes your body super flexible but also improves your posture greatly. With all that stretching, you might just end up feeling like Mr. Fantastic or Elastigirl. Yoga helps to reduce stress, anxiety and relaxes your mind. Yoga makes you happier and you generally end up feeling more positive and refreshed! So if you are more of the tranquility loving kind, you might want to opt for Yoga.
And Lastly…
When in Doubt, Pick Both
Dieticians and health guru suggest that the best choice would be doing a combination of both Yoga and weekly two days of weight training. Weight lifting improves your resistance greatly and yoga, your flexibility. Both of them complement each other perfectly. It’s like when chocolate meets strawberry! A match made in heaven surely.
In weight training you build muscles by lifting extra weights but in yoga you lift your own weight. Therefore, what happens is there is no extra mass, only the muscle you have gets better toned leaving you with a fit and lean physique. By doing a combination of both you manage to strengthen your core, improve resistance and also tame your mind and body.
So in the end whether you choose Yoga or weight training, ensure that you do it on a regular basis. Also monitor your diet for faster results. Nothing could ever be achieved without discipline and hard work.
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