Hitting the mat after invigorating activity helps your body recover and repair. Plus, mixing yoga with different kinds of strength and cardio training calms and centers, so you leave the gym not just buff but mellow.

With the prep pose below, you’ll prime your muscles to produce more power; afterward, use the post pose to capitalize on the pliability of your muscles to stretch and restore. Both the warm-up and cool-down take 5 minutes or less. (For postures that complement other gym activities, including weights and spinning, see the new Winter edition of YogaLife magazine.) 

Your Machine: Treadmill

While the surface of a treadmill is more forgiving than the rugged outdoors, it’s not stress-free. “Treadmills encourage you to overstride,” which can lock up your pelvic muscles, among other problems, says Douglas Wisoff, a physical therapist in Boulder, Colorado. These poses balance you out no matter where you put in your miles.

Prep Pose: Lying Big Toe

To release hip, lower-back, and hamstring tension before you walk or run, lie on your back, then bring your right leg up at a 90-degree angle. If you can’t grab the big toe without taking your shoulders off the floor, place a strap or towel around your right foot. Make sure your left leg is grounded into the floor, then gently pull the raised right leg closer to the body. If your back starts to round, keep the left knee bent with the sole of the foot on the floor. Internally rotate your leg slightly by rolling your right thigh inward to stretch your iliotibial band and the outside of your thigh. Again, make sure your left leg is grounded into the floor, then gently pull the right leg closer to your body. Concentrate on reaching the leg up as well as pulling it in toward your head and chest. Hold for 5 to 10 breaths. Repeat on the other leg.

Post Pose: Half Hero Variation

This is an intense quad and psoas stretch that will ward off thigh cramps. How intense? Sandra Safadirazieli, instructor at Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, California, calls it “ouch-asana.” So go easy; don’t overdo it. Start on all fours facing away from a wall, with your feet touching it. Bend your left knee back to the base of the wall so that your shin is against the wall and your toes point to the ceiling. From here, begin to lift your torso and feel a stretch in your left quad. To deepen it, take your right foot and step into a lunge, making sure your right knee is stacked over the ankle. “This will access your quad even more,” Safadirazieli says. To deepen further, draw your tailbone toward the floor and place your hands on your front thigh or straighten your arms overhead. If you are tight, you can place your hands on blocks on either side of your front foot. Hold for 5 to 10 full breaths in each phase (if you do both the leg up the wall and the lunge), and then slowly draw your left leg back down before switching sides.

Your Sport: Swimming

If you think gliding through the pool will keep you in the injury-free waters, think again. “Even though swimming is non-impact, you’re still doing quick repetitive movements that create imbalance,” says Argie Tang, founder of Yoga for Athletes in Colorado and former yoga instructor to Olympian Mark Spitz. The forward motion of most strokes can lead to a hunch in your upper back while the basic kicking motion can overwork your front, back, and outer leg without working the inner thigh. Use these yoga moves to take the flow out of the pool to give you more room to breath, open up your shoulders, and strengthen your gams.

Prep Pose: Extended Side Angle

Stand in Warrior II. Bring your right hand down to the inside of your right foot and extend your left arm forward. Rotate your left arm by pulling your shoulder onto your back as though you are tucking your shoulder blade into your back. Lift your left hand so you lift your arm while keeping your shoulder externally rotated, lengthening up and over your head. Open your chest by turning from the bottom of your waist to separate your ribs and top of your hip.

Look up at your fingertips. Make sure you don’t collapse on the right side of your waist by pulling up and away from your hips. It might be helpful to use a block under your right fingertips, directly under your shoulder. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths. By stretching to the side you’re bringing length to the obliques and separating your hips and pelvis from your ribcage. Creating space in your diaphragm will allow the lungs to have more room to function efficiently before a swim.

Post Pose: Wall Clock

Stand with your right side aligned with a wall and your feet hip width apart, parallel. Bring your right arm up so your palm touches the wall above your head. Hold your left hand lightly on your right lower ribs to remind yourself to move from your shoulders. “The tendency is to move from the lower back, which pressures kidneys,” Safadirazieli says. Now, imagine your right hand as a clock hand, bringing it from 12 o’clock to 1 o’clock, holding for 5 breaths. Repeat for 2 o’clock. When you reach 3 o’clock, press your palms firmly against the wall to connect to your shoulder blades and encourage your chest to open up from swimming’s forward motion.

This move is also good for preparing for backstroke, Safadirazieli says. For a deeper stretch turn your palm to face up, building the external rotation in your arm and opening up your pecs and chest. Bring your hand down behind you and switch sides.

Post Pose: Bridge Pose Pulse

Lie on your back with your knees bent, heels close to your butt, and feet parallel, shoulder distance apart. Place a block or pillow between your knees. Push yourself up so your back is arched and your head remains on the ground. Rock your upper body side to side slightly so you can interlace your fingers and place them on the ground beneath your lower back. Straighten your arms and squeeze your shoulders together. On your exhale, squeeze your butt and lift your pelvis up and hips as far as you can. On your inhale, release to your beginning bridge. Repeat this motion for 25 breaths. The pulsing movement will open your upper body by stretching your pectoralis major and anterior deltoids while stretching your hip flexors. It also takes the strain off your lower back due to swimming by strengthening your butt to support the repetitive kicking of your legs. By using a block and strengthening your inner thighs, you create a balance of strength through your upper legs, instead of solely relying on your hamstrings and quads, as many swimmers do, Tang says. To release, raise up to your tiptoes and slowly roll your spine down to the floor.

 

Stretching in the Sauna

Few things are more divine than a long hot steam or sauna. Whether you crave misty or dry heat, “if you’re in there anyway, why not enhance the whole experience by taking advantage of the body’s more relaxed state?” says Baron Baptiste, founder of Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. “When the body hits a certain temperature in the heat, it releases a nerve reflex that actually relaxes the muscles,” says Baptiste, who takes his yoga boot campers to American Indian sweat lodges. Sweating intensely dilates your blood vessels and cardiovascular system so blood flow increases, and you also release toxins. So the next time you’re heating it up, try this routine before you hit the showers.

Reverse Namaste

Bring your hands behind your back, in between your shoulder blades. Press your palms together so that your fingers are pointing up, thumbs on the outside. “This is great to get into the interior deltoid muscles and to open up the pectoralis minor through your chest and shoulders- usually the tightest muscle for most people,” Baptiste says. Keep your shoulders back and elbows out. Hold for 10 breaths.

Seated Head to Knee pose

From a seated position, extend your right leg and bring your left foot to the inside of your right thigh. Square your torso towards the top of your right thigh. Exhale as you begin to fold forward with your hands on either side of your right leg or reaching for your foot. Anchor your sitting bones into the ground and actively firm your quads. “This will be an active isolation for the hamstrings and will start to release nicely after a few breaths,” says Robin Whitney Levine of New York’s Intelligent Yoga. Make sure you keep your back flat by lifting your sternum and lengthening your abs. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths. Inhale while lifting your chest. Once upright, exhale and release your quads last to protect your hamstrings. Repeat on the left side.

One-Legged Downward Dog variation

Come into Downward Dog with your feet and hands shoulder-width apart, hips lifted up, head hanging to the ground. Now bring your feet up closer to your hands, and lift your right leg up to the ceiling. Hold for 3 breaths “This inversion will bring extra blood flow to your brain, relaxing and shifting you chemically,” Baptiste says. Switch sides and hold for another 3 breaths.

NOTE: If you’re lying down in the sauna, make sure you have support for your head by rolling up a towel and placing it comfortably under you. Keep your chin lower than your forehead to lengthen your spine. Your knees should be bent, feet hip-distance apart, and heels slightly wider than your toes.  This helps soften the groin and lower back, says Sandra Safadirazieli. Place your hands on your belly to watch your breath or rest them by your sides, palm facing up. If you’re sitting, do it cross-legged and focus on lengthening your spine and keeping your pelvis level.

>>> For more ways to improve your gym workout, see the Winter edition of YogaLife, available on newsstands now. Or subscribe.