Yoga vs Gym: Which One Is Better For You?

The yoga vs gym dilemma is always present either among avid gym-goers or among yogis looking to spice up their routine.

Especially in times of prolonged periods of lockdown, fewer people had access to the gym and proper exercise equipment. This is what made less demanding bodily practices, like yoga, even more popular.

Yoga and gym are usually viewed as different exercises with very different purposes. However, If you’re looking to apply a holistic approach to your exercise routine, you probably considered mixing them.

How to combine yoga and gym, and whether you should do it or not – discover those in this article.

Yoga Vs Gym – Which One Is Better?

Because these two types of exercises stem from very different backgrounds, there is a great division created between them.

You may even notice that different types of social groups choose the gym over yoga or vice versa!

The gym was popularized by the bodybuilding practice, which has its focus on sculpting the body with weights. Regular exercise helps control your weight, improves your health and mood, and strengthens your muscles.

A very common misconception is that the gym focuses only on body aesthetics. By properly exercising in the gym, you reduce your risk of heart disease, improve sleep, blood flow, and even mental health.

On the other hand, yoga is a practice with its roots in ancient India. Yoga practice consists of different body postures combined with mindful rhythmic breathing and meditation.

The main purpose of yoga is mental and physical well-being, improved flexibility, and overall balance.

Even though they are different, it doesn’t mean one is better than the other.

Both gym and yoga are exercises that have your health and well-being as an end-goal. Both can help you improve your mental health, help prevent diseases, improve your sleep, and help with your focus.

Now you may ask – but why not just stick to one?

The different benefits that gym exercise and yoga bring you are exactly what makes them a match made in heaven. However, this applies only if you combine them properly.

To explain how that is achieved, we first have to first weigh the benefits of both gym and yoga.

Yoga Vs Gym Benefits

The benefits of yoga practice include:

Improved strength
Improved mobility and flexibility
Fights off stress and improves relaxation
Improved mind-body connection
Helps ease back pain
Improved balance
Better mood, digestion and mental health
Improved blood flow
Improved focus
Anyone can do it no matter the age
It can be done virtually anywhere
Not expensive

The benefits of resistance (weight) training in the gym include:

Improved strength
Helps you burn fat
Builds muscle
Boosts your metabolism
Improved heart health
Improved blood sugar levels
Strengthens the bones
Improves mobility
Boosts appetite
Improves mood, sleep and mental health
Boosts your confidence

Yoga and Gym Together

Now that we discussed the benefits of each type of exercise, it’s time to consider the benefits of mixing them together.

While strength training is great for building muscle, not stretching the muscles, warming up the joints, or lacking focus can lead to injury.

Contrary to popular belief, building muscle doesn’t involve mindless lifting of weights. One has to be very present during each exercise.

This allows the person exercising to properly breathe and count all the reps while simultaneously keeping the right form. You’re better off not exercising at all than to exercise with poor form.

Apart from that, there’s one more mistake that gym-goers make very often.

Most put so much of their effort into lifting the weights properly that they skip stretching or cooling down altogether. This is a huge mistake, as it leads to stiffness and decreased mobility over time.

There’s no point in having a perfectly aesthetic body that’s lacking mobility.

To increase mobility, you need to expand your range of motion, balance, and focus. This is where yoga helps greatly.

Incorporating yoga in your weekly exercise routine can help you regain focus, improve flexibility, and perform better in your exercise routine.

Vice versa, if you’re a yogi looking to improve your physical strength, don’t hesitate to include resistance training into your routine.

Of course, If you’re just a beginner, it might be helpful to hire a personal trainer. In a way, there’s a higher possibility for injury in the gym than on the yoga mat.

Incorporating weight training can help you build more muscle and burn off stubborn fat. Gym workouts will help you burn more calories during the day, which improves metabolism.

Most yoga poses have their easy and more advanced versions. Resistance training strengthens the bones and improves stability, which helps you progress in your yoga practice.

Can We Mix Yoga and Gym Together?

The answer is – yes, absolutely. It’s even advisable to incorporate both of these exercises into your routine.

Practicing both yoga and gym exercises helps you achieve a more holistic approach to your exercise routine.

Gym exercises tend to be more aggressive, as they demand movement, pulling, pushing, running, and other types of resistance from your body. This resistance and pressure are necessary in order to create muscle hypertrophy, so your muscles can grow and develop. [1]

The whole purpose of weight training is to push the muscle to its healthy limit in order to achieve muscle and strength development. With that, an adequate gym routine requires proper rest periods and stretching of the muscles.

Yoga exercises have a more gentle approach. The whole purpose of yoga practice is never to push your body to the limits.

If you can’t achieve a certain pose in yoga, there’s always a milder version of that pose you can do. This is because the purpose of yoga is to connect to your breath and achieve both physical and mental balance.

That being said, yoga and weight training complement each other like yin & yang. Incorporating both of these exercises helps you achieve optimal levels of strength and well-being.

Can Yoga and Gym Be Done Simultaneously?

Doing both of these exercises promotes a discussion on when to do which.

How you organize your exercise routine will largely depend on your end goal and your current exercise routine.

We’ll start off by saying that you can’t go wrong by attending yoga classes and going to the gym on separate days.

Most gym-goers tend to tie the days of the week with certain muscle groups. This allows each muscle group to rest properly before you exercise it again. [2]

If your lifestyle and routine allow you to separate gym and yoga days, then, by all means, do so. Strive for at least three gym visits and two yoga visits per week.

This is because three exercises per week is the minimal amount of exercise needed to make some progress. Of course, this is more applicable for circuit training, as muscle-group training typically requires more gym visits.

Yoga can be done even on a daily basis. Nowadays, our hectic lives mostly don’t allow for consistent yoga and meditation practices.

The best advice we can give you is to create a routine you can stick to. That’s why about 1-2 weekly yoga classes are a good place to start.

Depending on your schedule, you may want to include yoga in your morning or evening routine. You can easily try out yoga at your home, as there are plenty of videos online to learn from.

Is It Bad to Workout After Yoga?

Yes, this is bad. You should work out before your yoga practice if you decide to do both on the same day.

As we already mentioned, the best possible scenario would be to do yoga and gym workouts on separate days.

However, if you don’t have the time to spread your exercise routine, you need a different plan. This plan typically includes doing both yoga and lifting weights on the same day.

It’s really important to properly combine these two types of exercises. If you have to do both on the same day, do your workout before the yoga practice.

You should avoid doing yoga before a workout for a reason obvious to avid gym-goers.

For a workout to be done successfully, the muscle needs to contract.

It can be very dangerous to stretch the muscles before a workout. This is because a stretched muscle might not be able to contract as effectively during the reps.

Forcing a muscle to contract quickly after doing stretches may lead to a pulled muscle. This is why you should avoid doing static stretches before your workout. [3]

Instead, try doing some dynamic stretches, which focus more on warming up the joints and muscles.

This is also why it’s not recommended to do yoga before a workout. There’s no point in cooling down and stretching before a workout when you should warm-up instead.

Rather, do your yoga practice after a workout. Yoga after an intense workout will help you cool down, stretch the muscles, and improve blood flow.

To sum up, this is what your day of gym and yoga would look like:

Dynamic stretching and/or short cardio (10-20 minutes)
Weight training (30-90 minutes)
Yoga practice and/or static stretching (20-90 minutes)

Why Yoga Is Better Than Gym?

We already disclosed the information on why one is not better than the other. Yoga is not better than the gym – these two exercises complement each other.

It’s also true that both gym workouts and yoga have a long list of benefits.

However, there are some things that the gym lacks that may make yoga a better choice for some people. Some of those include:

Anyone can practice yoga – We can’t really say the same thing about the gym. Older people or people with blood pressure problems will have a hard time benefiting from intense gym workouts.
Yoga eases pain – On the other hand, the gym creates DOMS. [4] People suffering from chronic pain may choose yoga over the gym.
Yoga helps you deal with the stress – This one is tough, as gym rats will argue that the gym helps with stress too. However, combating stress with yoga may be attainable for more people.
Yoga teaches focus and proper breathing.
Yoga can be done from anywhere – To do workouts, you’ll need some equipment, even at home.

Can Yoga Replace Gym?

Even though yoga has some benefits that gyms lack, you can’t really replace the gym with yoga.

This is because you can’t achieve the same muscle strength and endurance with yoga as you would with lifting weights. After all, there is a reason why dumbbells and gym equipment are used in muscle training.

However, this can depend on your fitness goals. If you have modest strength goals, then yoga might be enough for you.

This is because yoga is not only sitting and meditating. In fact, during yoga, you go through numerous poses where you test your ability to hold your own body weight.

Also, there are some more intense yoga styles that can be quite challenging. Power Yoga/Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Bikram yoga are considered intense styles of yoga. [5]

You could also want to try out some yoga poses that help with muscle strength. Some of them are Paripurna Navasana, Chaturanga Dandasana, and Utkatasana. [6]

Yoga is also great for anyone looking to ease into their exercise routines after a prolonged sedentary period.

Finally, it’s really ideal if you are able to combine gym training with yoga practice. These two exercises complement each other and will help you reach maximum results.

The Takeaway

The great Yoga vs Gym comparison only reveals that these two types of exercise are not rivals. They are companions. When paired adequately, they can do wonders for your health.

Incorporating yoga practice into your routine will help you with better performance in your gym workouts. It will improve your balance, mobility, and your ability to focus.

Similarly, including weightlifting in your routine will help you progress on your yoga journey. Together, gym and yoga can help you achieve a more holistic approach to your exercise routine.