Cardio warm up before yoga?

agottier223

I recently added yoga into my weekly fitness routine. Last week I did a Fitness Blender yoga/stretching workout and at the beginning there was an easy, low impact warm up. Today I found a beginning yoga sequence on youtube with no warm up. Should I be doing a light cardio warm up before starting yoga? What do you do?

j_winx

If it's a stretching yoga and not a power or flow yoga class, no I don't do any cardio before. If the goal is to stretch/relax/meditate. If the goal is to get your heart rate up then some cardio before won't hurt but not necessary.

jbee27

If you are doing flow style yoga (which I would guess you are, as most fitness yoga is flow style), then it should be a slight cardio workout itself, as you move(flow) somewhat rapidly between poses

robininfl

We warm up in yoga, starting slow, but there is an idea of "yang to yin" that I like, so cardio warmup, vigorous yoga, then moving to the slower stretching poses at the end is what feels best to me.

KiyaK

Most yoga classes/videos should have the warmup built in. That said, literally anyone can upload a video to YouTube, so there's no way to guarantee that the person you're watching is qualified. ALWAYS listen to your body & never do something that hurts just to force yourself into a shape. If doing a cardio warmup first makes you feel better then do it, but it's probably not necessary.