Hi everyone! My name is Aja and I am a Yoga teacher and flight attendant. I have been practicing yoga for 7 years and have been teaching for 1,5 years now. Next to yoga, I am also an avid gym goer who’s into strength training. Aesthetic Wolf reached out to me to share some tips and poses to help those who want to take their boring stretching routine to the next level!
In the beginning, I started practicing yoga to improve my flexibility and regain the strength I had when doing gymnastics as a kid. Later, I realised that yoga combines strength, flexibility and balance and to get stronger I felt I needed a better strength training practice. So, for the past couple of years, I have been following plans made by my friends at Livin’ Toned and I strongly believe that it has helped me advance in both my fitness and yoga performance!
A little word on yoga, it is an ancient practice created to unite the body, mind and soul. The physical practice of yoga (which we call asana) can bring you many benefits such as increased flexibility, strength and better breath control.
HOW DO I COMBINE YOGA AND STRENGTH TRAINING
One of the main focus points of yoga asana is prioritising a healthy spine! I incorporate lots of twists into my practice, both in seated and standing poses. At the gym, I try to add some twists into my warm-up routine to prevent any strain on my back muscles, especially on days where I do a lot compound lifts like squats and deadlifts.
Sun salutations* are the perfect exercise for warming up the muscles because it works out the upper and lower body. Start in standing pose, fold forward and touch your toes while you exhale. Inhale and look forward while your upper and lower body are in a 90 degree angle. Exhale and go into plank. Lower your body to the mat and stretch out your arms, coming into upward facing dog, deep inhale. Exhale and lift up your hips while your hands and feet stay on the mat. Try to match your breath to each pose and stay in downward dog pose for 5 breaths each time. You can repeat this up to 5 times.)
During my classes, I love to add hip opening poses for hip flexibility. These yoga poses can feel very straining in the beginning, but make sure you start slow and controlled and exhale when you go deeper. At the gym, I add hip openers such as lizard pose, pigeon pose and bound angle pose* to my stretching routine to create more space in my hips, which in turn improves my range of motion in the gym and puts less strain on my joints! A simple squat pose like Malasana before starting to squat weight can make a huge difference.
If you’re looking for a more gentle way to incorporate yoga into your daily routine, you can start with some yin yoga poses. These poses are usually forward folds and backbends, that help stretch the fascia, our body’s connective tissue. By staying in the pose for 2 to 5 minutes, it releases any deeper tension. It’s perfect to reconnect to my breath, which in yoga is called Pranayama. This also creates more awareness in my body and trains my mind-muscle connection.
Some of my favourite yin yoga poses are wide forward fold, and child’s pose of course. These are very gentle and I do them at the beginning or end of the day, when I’m still in bed. It’s hard to find excuses not to do yoga when it’s so easy and accessible!
I hope I was able to inspire you to add some yoga to your practice! Don’t hesitate to contact me via Instagram @gaindeyoga if you have any questions or would like to join me in a yoga class!
Good luck
Xxx Aja
* You may also find the full explanatory videos on our Instagram page @aestheticwolf