Get Fit with Jordan: it's important to stretch with yoga

For those of us that already workout, it’s important to remember all we ever do is shorten the muscles during high intensity cardio workouts or long strength sessions in the weights room. Stretching exercises encourage lengthening of your muscles and their associated tendons to normalise your muscle length tension ratio. So with that in mind, this week’s blog is all about flexibility.

Yoga – the full low down

There’s many ways to get or keep yourself flexible but I wanted to touch on yoga today. Yoga has become seriously trendy thing to do, with little boutique yoga studios popping up all over the city. The cool thing about yoga is there are many different types and disciplines so there’s something for everyone. Hatha, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Bikram and Ashtanga to name a few. Speaking of trendy, let’s not forget Bikram yoga. It’s been around for a while now and many celebs have reportedly got in shape doing this type of yoga. There are many kinds of hot yoga, not just Bikram, done at varying temperatures, and it’s certainly a popular choice for anyone wishing to get their share of some zen. Hot yoga will help you build strength and improve flexibility, and due to the heat it will help you burn a shed load of calories at the same time.  Beware though, for a newbie, be prepared to take a while to adjust to the heat and try not chicken out, your body will soon get used to the temperature. And remember to stay hydrated!

Hang in there…

Another cool trend starting to hit the fitness world is anti-gravity yoga, also known as aerial yoga. This is where you perform a number of yoga and pilates based moves from a hammock suspended from the ceiling to get an all over body workout. But if you don’t fancy hanging from the rafters like spider man, why not try a Les Mills Body Balance class? This class combines yoga, tai chi and pilates and classes last either 45 or 55 minutes. There’s a relaxation at the end which helps relax the mind as well as the body and there’s also lots of options throughout for both mums with babies on board or for the brand new participant. Body Balance is set to an inspiring soundtrack and focuses on new yoga – long held deep poses with a focus on strength, core and breathing.

Runners tip

There’s less than six weeks to go now until the Great Scottish Run and improving flexibility should be as much a part of your training schedule as building endurance and speed. Increased flexibility means you’re less injury prone, enjoy a greater range of motion and recover more quickly. Yoga, pilates and Les Mills Body Balance are all ideal as part of your training plan so if you’re not making flexibility a focus just now, it’s time to start!

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