| Blending Traditional Workouts
with Yoga and Meditation by Shannon Leavitt Yoga has been my salvation, both physically and spiritually. As a personal trainer for 15 years, I trained both myself and others in the traditional fashion of focusing on building strength and endurance. When I discovered the power of adding yoga to workout regimes, the experience was like...eureka! I felt that I had stumbled upon the missing link to creating wholeness in fitness-- albeit a 5,000-year-old missing link. Where had I been? Ordinary strength and aerobic workouts are undeniably effective and quite essential to fitness. However, they can be limiting. When these workouts comprise one's entire fitness plan, they hold the potential for boredom and, perhaps, even to an over-emphasis on the physical plane to the exclusion of the spiritual one. My thought is: Why not focus on both planes at once? Why not create a more holistic workout? Blending strength training and yoga builds inner, as well as outer, strength. Meditation to create inner awareness is the foundation of the most effective exercise programs. Meditation is the ultimate stress reliever, because it teaches you a new way of being with life. The breath focus inherent to most beginning forms of meditation draws you inside of yourself and away from the externally driven perennial demands of your brain. With consistent practice, meditation takes the complexity out of life by encouraging a connection to yourself and your spiritual source. A mind calmed by meditation and run from inner source can focus better and is thus able to prioritize life more easily. Strength training and yoga are effective workout partners, because they stimulate the body with a variety of exercises that are actually complementary and result in a more balanced and healthier body. While strength training builds strength by isolating and contracting muscles against resistance, yoga induces flexibility and suppleness by working several muscle groups at once. Together, they prove a viable means for meeting most of the commonly recommended health goals, including decreasing body fat, increasing lean mass and bone density and managing stress. Combining yoga with a more traditional strength-training program is an ideal way for those with time restraints to include two important disciplines in one workout. The comprehensive nature of a blended workout reflects the "get more done in less time" mentality of today's average stress-filled lifestyle. Although it's obvious that lives run by burgeoning task lists lack a healthy balance, the pervasiveness of this chaotic, often externally driven lifestyle is a reality. Adding meditation and yoga to your workout creates a combination of mental and physical strength. Shannon Leavitt, NASM, is a personal trainer and registered dietitian and holds a Masters degree in nutrition science. She recently released her first fitness program on DVD and VHS, YogaLift. YogaLift is the first true inner and outer strength workout, and was recently named by Mpls/St. Paul Magazine as the "number one resolution to make for New Year's in 2004." More information is available at www.yogalift.com Copyright © 2004 Shannon Leavitt |
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May 2004 |
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