Sam talks to us about why yoga is an important part of the health and wellness mix

We recently added yoga as a daily workout option to my 28 program and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Why? Because it is the perfect compliment to HIIT training. This sounds a bit cliché but it genuinely is the yin to your yang when it comes to holistically taking care of your mind and body.

I don’t see yoga as being the easy alternative. I see it as the perfect compliment. Yoga lengthens your muscles, opens up your joints and improves your mobility and flexibility, all while engaging your muscles and working your cardiovascular system. You still burn calories practicing yoga but instead of working at a high-impact, high intensity level, you move your body in a gentler way with a strong focus on your breath and connecting with your body on a deeper level.

Meet your latest yoga instructor, Zoe from 28 by Sam

It’s no secret that I love HIIT training. It is efficient, it gets the endorphins pumping and it enables you to be fit, lean and strong. That is important to overall health but it is not how our body should move for every single workout. Balancing out your higher intensity and high impact workouts with exercise that is gentler on both the body and mind, like yoga, is proven to give better results in the long term.

This is something that I am genuinely implementing into my own routine. I am aware of the fact that I am fit and strong, I can lift and I can run, but my flexibility is poor and I don’t free my mind and slow down enough. So for me, substituting 2 of my higher intensity workouts per week with two yoga sessions has had an invaluably positive impact on how I feel, how I recover, how I sleep and my mental health. With a bit of luck, I’ll be touching my toes by Christmas.