“I don’t like weightlifting, just yoga…I don’t wanna get ‘bulky!'”

“Yoga’s for women…dudes lift.”

“Gyms are for meatheads.”

“Yoga’s stretching for Birkenstock-wearing, granola-munching, tree-hugging super-hippies.”

***

Ever heard – or thought – some of the things above?

Don’t lie.

I mean, maybe it’s been a long time since you’ve spent any amount of time thinking about – let alone referencing – Birkenstocks, but I feel pretty confident saying that if you’re not into yoga, or not into weightlifting, or either, at some point you’ve thought or said something along the same lines. It’s just how many of us are as human beings; if we don’t quite understand something we have a tendency to generalize or over-simplify the significance it has to other people.

But as someone that’s been an avid weightlifter for about 15 years and a very active and growing yogi of a year-and-a-half, I often find myself thinking about how I wish people in both camps would realize the sheer exuberance and physical/psychological benefits that can be found in both corners of the fitness world.

***

Recently, I discovered that a quick online search of “Yoga and weightlifting routines” yields minimal (helpful) results, solidifying my thought that very few people seem to want to blend both approaches to fitness into their personal workout routines. The longer I practice both, the more I’m realizing that this is a missed opportunity for so many people.

For me, weightlifting represents a number of mental and physical challenges that continuously change and evolve. Whether you’re trying to bench press 315 pounds or trying to reach 5 pull-ups, the only way to get there is to be present, patient, willing to fail, and willing to prepare your body with proper nutrition and rest so that it can meet those challenges.

Whenever I think about why I love yoga, I realize it’s because it offers a lot of the same mental and physical challenges as weightlifting. Want to hold a headstand? You have to be present, patient, willing to fail, and willing to prepare your body with proper nutrition and rest so that one day you figure out how to pull it off.

Yet, even though at their core both weightlifting and yoga require similar repetition, patience, practice, and consistency, often you’ll see weightlifters passing judgement on yogis, and (to a lesser extent, but at times) yogis passing judgment on weightlifters.

But what happens when you actively embrace both? That’s what I’ve been doing for the last 18 months or so – and I’ve never felt better, stronger, or more at peace in my entire life.

***

In late 2015 I tore my left calf while running a simple route during a flag football game. At the time I was a pretty-lean 205 lbs, benching 315 lbs, deadlifting over 400 lbs, and happy, overall, with the strength I’d built over the years by consistently hitting the gym.

But tearing my calf at 31-years-old while running a simple “go” route during a non-contact football game led to a new realization about my body: I was strong, and I did a pretty good job, overall, of taking care of my body, but lost somewhere in all of the weightlifting was my athleticism.

I became so engrained in this daily routine of pushing and pulling heavy weights that my body had plenty of strength but little durability and flexibility. I’ve always worked out, in part, so that I could feel like I can go on a hike, run, bike ride, or join a sports league and feel as of I could hold my own. It’s never been about trying to be the strongest, fastest, or having the most endurance of any person around, but being “strong” in everything. But somewhere along the lines I started tilting a little too far into the “strength” category while sacrificing athleticism and endurance.

After a couple months of minimal activity while my leg healed, I decided that I wanted to rethink my approach to fitness in 2016. Knowing that I was in my early 30’s, I started to think about whether big bench press numbers were still important to me? Or if I still felt the need to squat or deadlift solely to try and topple previous personal records? What did I need to do to rebuild my body so that it still felt strong, but also athletic and capable of enjoying many of the outdoor activities that my current home state – Colorado – has to offer?

That’s when I found myself looking more into yoga. At the time, I knew very little about yoga outside of its ability to improve flexibility, aid in detoxification, and offer growth in both physical wellbeing as well as overall mindfulness. And, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that while those were already small parts of my weightlifting routine, they needed to become more prominent parts of my life overall.

Initially, and I’m ashamed to admit this now, I had a lot of the same doubts and mulled over many of the same stereotypes that a lot of young(ish) males have about yoga. Couldn’t I just stretch at home? Do I really want to be “that guy” in the middle of a yoga studio? Am I really into hippy shit like chanting “OM” at the end of class or pretending to meditate when I’m really laying there thinking about food or the game on Sunday?

But then I realized my fitness goals have always been about challenging my assumptions and what I think the limitations of my mind and body are. So why not try being a little less macho and a little bit more mindful, show up to a class, see what it’s all about, and base my opinions on experience instead of assumptions?

Soon thereafter, I found myself in my first yoga class. I remember showing up and having no freakin’ idea as to what I’d be doing. I was, for the first time in a long time, sort of terrified before a “workout” and feeling a bit powerless in that I’d have little control over what would be coming next.

Once the class started, I remember watching the instructor carefully discussing all of the different poses and going through how to hold them. I, like most people in their first yoga class, desperately peeked around the studio to see how other people were holding their poses just to make sure I didn’t look like some bumbling meathead making a fool out of himself in the back of the room.

After the first class, I remember feeling totally shell-shocked. I was a sweaty, drippy mess, my arms and legs were trembling after a “workout” for the first time in a long time, and I came to realize that all of my assumptions about yoga were completely wrong. It absolutely kicked my ass…and I was hooked.

***

One class became a dozen classes. Soon I moved onto the “advanced” classes that my studio offers. Before long, I started to notice a few things about my mind and body:

1. I was building muscle memory and the poses were becoming much more familiar. Note that I did not say “easier,” because I believe yoga is never “easy,” it just becomes more familiar with time and practice.
2. I was shedding body fat like crazy. In about three months, without really adjusting my diet, I dropped from 205 lbs to 193 lbs. A ~5% loss in body fat just by adding yoga to my weekly workout routine.
3. My weightlifting routine and cardiovascular conditioning massively benefitted from yoga. Power yoga, which is what I’ve been practicing, forces you to use so many smaller muscle groups that aren’t generally “hit” during straight-forward concentric and eccentric muscle contractions, and with time those smaller muscle groups help stabilize the larger muscle groups performing static lifts. Also, when you move onto advanced yoga classes, holding poses for long periods of time elevates your heart rate significantly; before long I wasn’t just “using” the Stairmaster at the gym, I was upping my pace to levels I’d never tried before and finding it a much more enjoyable and fulfilling part of my “gym” routine.
4. And maybe best of all…I started sleeping better and longer than I did before I started my practice!

There’s something about yoga – and any yogi will tell you this – that helps you “release” anything that’s stressing you out prior to entering the studio. If you’ve had an awful day at work or you’re dealing with personal issues, you’ll be surprised at how you feel before entering the studio versus how you’ll feel the minute you step out of it.

Yoga forces me to slow my mind down to stop and embrace the “good” in life while minimizing the importance of any negative experiences. I think that’s in part because of the sense of community that yoga provides in addition to the demand for focus and discipline that comes with your practice. It’s hard to dwell on “so and so’s” negative words or actions when, for an hour or so, you’re solely focused on balance and overcoming seemingly impossible physical challenges. Yoga demands so much focus that if you get caught thinking about anything else outside of what’s happening on your mat, you’re figuratively and literally going to topple over.

***

Now, a year and a half into practicing yoga, I basically rotate “yoga days” with “gym days,” and I’ve completely updated my “gym” routine to compliment my yoga practice, and vice-versa. Gone are the days of heavy bench pressing, barbell squatting, and deadlifting, and now I focus more on lower-weight, higher repetition training, mostly combining plyometric exercises, bodyweight training, HIIT training, super sets, drop sets, negative sets, “static hold” sets, etc. Less volume, more repetition and variability. Thanks to both yoga and an altered lifting routine, I’ve never felt stronger (throughout my entire body), more flexible, more athletic, or peaceful both mentally and spiritually. As an added bonus, as of today, I’ve dropped from that “bulky” 205 lbs. to a much more comfortable and athletic 188 lbs.

So, yogis – you can practice yoga and lift weights to build additional strength and reap the benefits of a blended approach to fitness. And weightlifters, you can work on building muscle and flexibility (and durability, and detoxification, and mindfulness) and also reap the benefits of a blended approach to fitness.

All it takes is a willingness to be present, patient, willing to fail, and capable of challenging your own assumptions.