When thinking of yoga, I used to ask the question: “Isn’t this just stretching?”
The reality is that yoga is also great for isometric strength and balance. I’ve had a lot of muscular imbalance issues between my right and left leg, and yoga combined with single leg training has done much to offset these imbalances.
The other great thing about yoga is you can jump right into the simplest poses without any warm up.
You may already be performing stretching before your resistance training workouts, but you should consider adding or replacing your stretches with some yoga poses.
I like to start with simple stretches that don’t require me to push my flexibility too hard, then I begin to perform harder stretches; and as I perform harder stretches, I like to mix in some single leg balancing poses.
I continue in this manner until I have stretched my hips and shoulders in every major direction.
Usually toward the end, I will do a dynamic stretch by keeping my legs straight and repeatedly try to touch the floor then returning to an upright position. I get closer and closer to touching the floor with each try until I touch it. I move in a controlled manner.
Once I’ve completed this series, I begin a resistance training workout. These days it is mostly calisthenics.