Yoga involves a combination of strength, flexibility and balance exercises
To ensure that you are able to stay fit and healthy through regular exercise, you need to incorporate more than just one type of exercise in your workout routine.
Scientific research and expert opinions gathered by Live Science list four types of exercises that are very beneficial in maximising fitness and preventing injury when complemented together.
Aerobic exercises, including running, swimming, dancing and brisk walking, increase your heart rate and make you breathe harder than usual. This type of exercise focuses on improving your cardiovascular system, thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer.
Strength exercises, like push-ups, crunches and weight lifting, use resistance such as dumbbells, resistance bands or your own bodyweight to get your muscles working. They firm, strengthen and increase muscle mass, which is vital for weight loss, as well as joint support and protection.
Flexibility exercises, which come in forms of static stretching and dynamic stretching, help stretch your muscles and improve your range of motion at your joints. Doing this type of exercise frequently keeps your muscles supple and reduces your chances of getting injured during sports and other activities.
Some of the aforementioned exercises might involve some balancing. Balance exercises can be beneficial for everyone, especially older adults, because they help improve an individual’s physical capability to stabilise and control his or her body’s position.
Incorporating all four types of exercises in your workouts does not mean doing them separately. Rather, you should explore exercise moves that combine some of these types together. Yoga, for example, requires strength, flexibility and balance.
A sample exercise routine that includes elements of all four types of exercise might look like this: dynamic stretching to warm up the body, running on a treadmill for aerobic exercise, bodyweight exercises for strength and balance exercises, and static stretching for a cool-down.
