How to Build Strength with Your Yoga Practice

Yoga is known for being a great way to increase your flexibility. If you’ve ever seen yoga experts practice, you may be amazed by how they can get their bodies into such intricate poses. 

However, a lot of people don’t realize that flexibility isn’t the only thing required to hold these poses for so long - you need a lot of strength, too.

Asana, the physical practice of yoga, can actually be considered a strength-building activity. When you’re moving and holding your bodyweight in various poses, you can end up giving your muscles quite a workout. Don’t let the long, lean bodies of many yoga experts fool you - they’re packing a lot of muscle in there!

While basic yoga poses can help improve your strength, there are some things you can try to build up that muscle even more. Keep reading to learn how to build strength with your yoga practice.

Modify the Poses

Modifications are typically used to make a pose more doable for a beginner. For example, if you struggle with a lunge, you may lower your back knee to the ground until you have built up enough strength to hold yourself up properly.

However, modifications can also be used to make a pose more difficult, which often requires more strength. For example, going from a two-legged to a one-legged pose can get certain muscles working even harder. So, consider experimenting with different modifications to your yoga postures if you want to get stronger.

Push Yourself - But Not Too Much

If you do want to try modifying your poses, make sure you don’t push your body beyond its limits. You may end up hurting yourself, and you can’t work on building up your strength if you have an injury.

So, instead of immediately upping the difficulty of your yoga practice to an extreme degree, aim for difficult but doable. You just need to increase the intensity of your workout so it’s higher than normal. If you do this progressively over time, you should be able to steadily and safely improve your strength.

Slow Down

You may think faster is better because you can complete more poses in a given period of time, but this isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to building up strength. You need to have a lot more control over your muscles when you’re slowly moving through poses, which can give you much more of a workout.

Keep this in mind the next time you try a pose that you’d normally rush through. Do your best to slow it down, especially during the most difficult parts. Over time, you’ll build up that muscle mass and forget you ever struggled with these poses in the first place.

Change Up Your Routine

If you’re constantly doing the same yoga sequences, then you’re only going to maintain your gains, not push them further. Your body adapts to the load you put on it, so you need to change up your routine if you want to improve your strength.

Consider trying a new yoga class or even switching up your instructor every so often. This can be a great way to learn new sequences and keep your muscles guessing. Besides, changing up your routine can make yoga more fun and interesting too!

Looking for a new yoga class? Click here to book one at cedar + sage today!