Yoga before cardio, that is.
I admire people who get really sweaty during yoga. My brother says his mat is slippery by the end of his workout. There’s a guy in my class who’s positively dripping mid-way through and has to towel off several times. And he’s not one of those hard-bodied experts. He’s just above average, like me.
I usually do cardio before going to yoga class. A three- or four-mile run, or 40 minutes on the elliptical. As a result, I’m already pretty sweaty by the time I get to class, and because I usually perspire for quite a while after a workout, I do so during yoga as well. So I never know if it’s the yoga or the post-workout ooze-fest.
Yesterday I left the house late and so went straight to yoga instead of running beforehand. I thought it would a good experiment to see just how intense the class is by measuring my no-cardio sweat level.
The experiment went well. Because my muscles weren’t already fatigued, I was able to push myself a lot more. By 20 minutes into the class, I was schvitzing. By the time we did Half Moon Pose, sweat was dripping off my nose onto the floor (I can’t turn my gaze up yet). Afterward, my legs were like Jell-O, but I still had energy to run. Three miles, woohoo!
Today I’m sore all over – my shoulders, parts of my back, my butt, and my quads. Hurts so good.
I will have to try the yoga then cardio thing again.