My personal Bias is towards Yoga her is why

1. decreased injuries to do to greater muscular balance and increased flexibility

2. longer and stronger muscles lead to increased power

3. bonus benefit of decreased stress.

4. non-competitive atmosphere (for a change)

5. better scenery (read more women... that is if that is what you are into)

6. Added benefit of better breathing

7. does not interfere with trianing days in the same way as lifting days do, thus can be continued through the entire season

8. works as as a workout or as a recovery thing depending on how hard you go at it.

9. Can be done in the comfort of your home (would eb willing to give you recommendations on good tapes)

10. Can build core body strength in a manner that weights aren't very good at.

The reasons why I would reccomend weights:

1. if force is your strength limiter. Yoga will help but not to the degree as weights... (you could also concentrate on hills though)

2. If you cannot find a good yoga instructor (a bad yoga class can be close to worthless, and it is easier to find a good trianer or someone to get you through the ropes on weights)

3. you like the weight lifting environment better (some people just don't lke yogs... hey no problem)


good luck

Could you recommend some yoga tapes? Thanks.

I would reccomend anything done by rodney Yee. (or Yi.. can't remember) I would reccomend getting them on DVD cause they fit 3 videos on one DVD... I got my through amazon (they don't have them in stock but they have partener stores that do have them) I have the AM/PM yoga and yoga for legs, abs, upperbody

I would use these in addition to yoga classes not as a substitute... good luck

   I received a "Yoga for Athletes" DVD for Xmas. I have played with it briefly and intend to incorporate it more into my training. For me, I am leaning toward yoga or Pilates vice weights. I have a good background in weight training from long ago wrestling days and more recently hanging out with my platoon/company commander peers in the weight room. At one point I was up to 335 bench and 475 squat. Trouble was, I was also up to 180lb at 5-7% body fat. My racing got substantially slower. Its hard to run under 1:20 for 1/2 marathon when your legs are relative tree trunks. I quit lifting 3 years ago and with substantial emphasis I have managed to get my body weight back down to my old 165 at 5-7% bodyfat.

That said, if you have never really done weights, they will help tremendously in maintaining your muscle at your age. You won't have a tendency to bulk up due to your endurance training. You might look at mixing both. My wife gets great results with her trainer. She goes twice a week, with one session focussed more on weights and the other on Pilates. She's got great tone and flexibility both. She feels much better on that program than using one or the other exclusively. If I didn't retain the tendency to bulk up after all those years of lifting I'd get on her program.

Thats a lot of rambling, but I hope it helps...

This is difficult to say without knowing your limiters and strengths. If you have difficulty generating force but are quite flexible and have a strong core, then weights wins out hands down. Most people aren't in that boat however. Personally, I'd lean towards yoga. I'm entirely too lazy to try and re-list all the great points listed by others, but the 2 main reasons I started doing yoga was to improve my flexibility and core strength. There are a great many other benefits to be gained through yoga, but those two are the key points that initially attracted me as a triathlete.



With regards to resources, I've heard excellent things about "Power Yoga With Eoin Finn". I've never seen the video myself, but have the wonderful advantage of actually having him as my yoga teacher. He's awesome, and I would imagine that any video made by him is truly excellent. Check it out at: http://www.vancouveryoga.com/videophotos.html

Another video I've heard really good things about is John Scott's "Primary Series". John is a UK based Ashtanga teacher, and from the description on his website, the DVD sounds amazing. You can check it out at http://www.johnscottashtanga.co.uk/

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To be honest I don't do either. But if I had to choose bewteen the two I would be leaning towards the Yoga. Numerous studies have shown that lifting weights in the gym does little to improve performance in a specific endurance sport, whether this is swimming cycling or running. It would seem, given this information, to be a waste of time.

Therefore, if time challenged and improved performance is what is desired, then I would go with the Yoga. Here at least there is some connection with performance improvement as Yoga is focused on core body strength and core strength is associated with improved efficiency in endurance sports. Also the mental and spiritual break/enlightenment has also been shown to lead people to greater levels of performance.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I agree with the other posters that Yoga is probably the better way to go. Along with reasons others have given, I'd add that a huge benefit of <some> Yoga is its restorative properties.

I say 'some' because there are kinds, Bikram(sp?) and Power Yoga that are a great workout, but, from what I've heard, can be exhausting. On the other hand, Iyengar(the only one with which I have direct experience) can be done in such a way as to really put energy back into your body. Just a few of the excercises that worked in this way for me were the various twisting poses, inversions, and different breathing excercises.

If you're training IM distances, then you probably don't need to add another workout from which you need to recover(weights).

On teachers... It's really hard to get any kind of Iyengar certification, so the ones who have it tend to be quite good. It's what I'd look for.

Have fun.

Pilates methods seem to be somewhere in the middle ground between Yoga and lifting. You might check it out. My wife loves it and looks great.

I have been using the book by Brook Siler titled the Pilates Body. I find she has a very good description of the specific goal of each exercise and how to achieve that goal. Now that I have posted this, I feel I should go do the routine to better myself as well.

Ryan