Yoga

So far in my Body Conditioning and Injury Prevention class I have done two yoga sessions. The format of our class is two days a week. One day is lecture in which we have been discussing the bones and muscular system. The other day is a studio session. During these sessions we do yoga and ab workouts. These sessions are very interesting. I have never yoga before so everything we do is very new to me.
I really enjoy yoga. I would say that 70% of the yoga I enjoy and the other 30% is a bit uncomfortable for me to do. When I say uncomfortable I mean that I am tight in certain areas and find some positions to be difficult for me to do. I have been trying to recognize which positions are difficult so that I can work on them and get better. The one area on my body that I have the most difficulty with is my hips. Even when we are in the lotus type position to start the yoga session it is impossible for me to keep my hips down. Most of the positions I enjoy, however, and I can really feel the stretching going on in these positions.
I can tell that I will get a lot out of yoga. The flexibility aspect of yoga will really help me when it comes to my MMA workouts. One thing I have always noticed is that people that weight train seem to do it at the expense of all flexibility in their body. I know that to be an all around athlete, and a healthy athlete, flexibility is something that you cannot ignore.

     For example, in Sanshou, one of the fighting forms I have been learning, you must be able to do kicks.  In order to be able to strike a person high, you need to be flexible enough to be able to get your leg up high.  Furthermore, in ground techniques it can help to be flexible as it will allow you to escape certain holds and submissions.