I see a lot of confusion around matching yoga with cycling workouts. In this article, I will explain if you should do yoga before or after the peloton?
As a whole, you should do yoga after the peloton class because it reduces muscle stiffness, which is important for the workout to generate power. However, some short peloton yoga classes like yoga anywhere or chair yoga can be done before the cycling to activate glutes and postural muscles.
Keep reading to learn more about when is the best time to do yoga after the cycling class, and in which cases you should consider doing it before the rides.
Peloton Before Doing Yoga
Combining the peloton with yoga workouts helps not only to burn more calories but also to reduce muscle soreness and speed up recovery.
Can you do a peloton before yoga? Overall, you can do a peloton before yoga because it will help to warm up and make the muscles more elastic. Better muscle perfusion gives you deeper stretch and a better range of motion, which allows you to stay longer in the yoga poses.
What I like about doing yoga after the peloton is that I get much better results, which helps me to feel more relaxed.
Why doing yoga after the peloton is important? Doing yoga after the peloton is important because it helps to downregulate allostatic load and increase parasympathetic activity in the central nervous system. This not only leads to lower stress levels but also enhanced recovery.
However, please remember that there is a fine line between deeper stretch and overtraining.
Let me explain.
When I do peloton before my yoga class I feel more grounded and supple (comparing to when I hop on the mat without any previous workout).
However, after my muscles are already warmed up I always find myself stretching more than I’m used to, which leads to feeling soreness the day after.
You don’t feel any discomfort while you stretch because of the elevated levels of endorphins, which act as a painkiller. That’s why it feels like can stretch further, without any boundaries.
How Long Should You Do Yoga After The Peloton?
Overall, you can do 20 to 45 minutes of yoga after the peloton class, depending on your fitness level and flexibility. Doing more than 45 minutes can lead to overstretching and feeling DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) on the next day.
It also depends on what type of peloton class you did. If you went for 60 minutes full-body Bootcamp, I would not recommend doing 30-minute power yoga straight after. Instead, try doing something less intense and more restorative.
On the other hand, if you did a 30-minute low-impact ride as a part of your daily ritual, I would recommend doing a 20-minute yoga focus flow to open your hips or a slow flow to add light upper body training.
To learn more about different types of “peloton yoga“, check out my article.
When Should You Do Yoga After Peloton?
In general, you should do yoga after peloton class when you have lower back pain, feeling stiff after all day sitting or when you want to improve your flexibility. Adding more yoga not only helps to improve mobility but also prevents any back or hip problems.
I don’t always do more classes after cycling. Not because it calls for extra time spent on exercise, but also I noticed that I don’t feel better when I do it more often.
It’s the opposite.
If I would add yoga every day after cycling class I would be walking around sore and weak.
How Often You Should Do Yoga After Peloton?
Overall, you can do yoga after peloton once to twice per week, depending on your mobility and experience with yoga. People who are used to yoga can handle it more often, whereas people who just getting started may feel more tired.
Stretching, just like any workout induces muscle damage and elevates lactic acid, creatine kinase, and myoglobin levels. That’s why you’re sore.
The good news is that the body gets more efficient in “lactate clearance”, which is the elimination process of those compounds. So you feel less achy as you do more yoga.
For beginners, this will take longer to adjust because their bodies didn’t get used to the training.
To learn more about “best peloton recovery classes” and why you need them, check out my article.
What Yoga After Peloton?
Overall, the best yoga class you can do after a high-intensity peloton class is restorative yoga because it helps to down-regulate cortisol levels and kick start parasympathetic response. On the other hand, after doing light cycling class is good to add power or focus flow yoga.
Also, remember that yoga classes can be filtered by difficulty level, and even when the name “power” suggests it’s hard, in reality, you can choose beginner-friendly classes.
What About Doing Peloton After Yoga?
As a whole, doing 5 to 10-minute yoga classes before the peloton workout helps with muscle activation (glutes, hips, stability muscles), as well as helps to restore the length-tension relationship in the muscles. This can be beneficial before the endurance rides.
Is doing peloton before yoga important? Overall, doing yoga before the peloton ride is important, especially for long-distance cycling because it helps to maintain a strong core and postural musculature. This assists in the right posture and reduces any lower back problems.
And people who struggle with lower back pain after long-distance rides, often do so because they fail to maintain muscles active.
What Yoga Before Peloton?
Overall, before the long-distance peloton ride, you should do flow or slow flow yoga because they help to engage most of the muscles in the body, without overstretching. Stretching too much before cycling reduces muscle and tendon stiffness, which inhibits optimal power.
Studies have shown that “higher tendon stiffness and plantar flexion force were related to faster turn and sprint times” (Houghton et al. 2013). This means excessive stretching reduces the stiffness and lowers the optimal force transmission.
Conclusion
As you can see, doing yoga before or after the peloton will depend on the goals you have and individual circumstances.
For people who need more flexibility, I recommend doing 20-30 minutes of gentle yoga class immediately after the peloton ride.
For people who train for endurance events, I recommend adding 10-15 minutes of full-body yoga before the ride.