I lift. You lift. We all lift. Raise your hand if you do yoga? Probably not many. I’ve been to a yoga class only a handful of times, and I even wrote about trying one. It was okay, but it’s never been my thing. Because, you know, yoga.
If only there were a style of yoga that was quick, not boring, and designed with lifters in mind. Neghar Fonooni answered the call with Wildfire Yoga, a program designed for short, engaging flows in about 5–20 minutes. It’s not your standard yoga; it’s a flow series built to deliver the minimal effective dose.
Yoga: For People Who Lift
The first time I stepped into a yoga class, I was 18. I’d been lifting weights for a few years for high school sports and I could try classes for free at the local gym. I was the youngest, least flexible person in the room by a mile, watching women who were older and more flexible move into positions I couldn’t even imagine. I wasn’t truly “yoga flexible,” even though I’d always stretched and mobilized while playing sports.
That hour of discomfort made me rethink things. I’d spent years as a competitive athlete who didn’t want to admit that older women could do something I couldn’t. So I started straddling both worlds—lifting and yoga—trying to down dog and deadlift, trying to feel at home in my own body. In my mid-twenties I officially became a meathead, chasing strength and worshiping barbells, and I began to lose touch with my yoga practice.
I trained 1–2 hours a day and just couldn’t find time for yoga. I’d grown so into lifting that yoga felt superfluous, even unimportant. A few years later, though, I started seeking emotional and mental balance and realized what a disservice I’d done by abandoning yoga. Sure, deadlifts and squats were great, but something was missing. I’d become so serious about training that I’d lost touch with my body. Yoga felt like the missing link, but with my schedule, there wasn’t room for long sessions. I’d gained muscle in the off-season, making some poses harder and more awkward.
I felt uncomfortable in many yoga classes, not having a typical “yoga body,” and some poses challenged my oversized delts and legs. A 60–90 minute class could feel tedious, and I’d often get bored, distracted, or anxious. I wasn’t a yogi in the sense I saw around me, but I knew I needed yoga in my life. I was a meathead yogi—the strongest person at my gym who felt least at home in yoga.
My circumstances didn’t help: I was a single mom, a full-time trainer, and a blogger, plus night classes for my degree. There simply wasn’t time for long yoga sessions, but I could make time for the minimal effective dose.
We know from strength training that you don’t need hours in the gym to get stronger; consistency with a minimal approach can yield big results. A 20-minute workout beats no workout, and giving myself permission to do shorter sessions made it easier to keep moving.
I realized that, just as I could benefit from a 20-minute training session, I could gain a lot from just 5–10 minutes of yoga. A 60-minute class would work, but it wasn’t feasible. I couldn’t afford to skip yoga, either. I was all hustle and no flow, all in the gym with heavy weights and no balance. Once I allowed myself to do the bare minimum with yoga, everything changed.
I started with five minutes per day on my mat, and that gradually grew to ten, then fifteen, then twenty. Today I fluctuate between five-minute morning flows and twenty-to-thirty-minute Sunday sessions. I still consider myself a yogi, but I rarely make it to a studio. And I’ve experienced the wide range of benefits that come with a steady practice.
If you’re like me and you love lifting—deadlifts, squats, maybe bench, and definitely pull-ups—you’ll find that a few minutes of yoga each day can boost all of those lifts. My lifting routine has benefited enormously from a short yoga practice, in ways I’d never imagined. Here’s how:
More Active Recovery
Yoga is a low-impact way to move on non-lifting days without breaking your recovery. Instead of taking a full day off, you can keep your momentum by doing a few minutes of yoga. If you’re sore after a tough session, a short flow can help redistribute blood flow and speed up recovery. Wouldn’t you rather recover well so you’re primed for the next workout?
Kinesthetic (Body) Awareness
Flowing through poses barefoot and without a mirror requires control. Yoga asks you to listen to your body, engaging your trunk, feet, legs, and hands to enter and sustain postures without visual cues. This builds kinesthetic awareness and can translate into smoother, more intuitive movement during lifts.
Balance
I don’t just mean balance in the sense of steadiness, though you’ll gain that too. Yoga provides a different kind of balance to the often aggressive, weighted work of lifting. It creates harmony between powerful efforts and more subtle, flow-based movement, which in turn enhances daily life. If you’re like me—more hustle than flow—yoga can help you bring more balance to your routine.
Mobility and Flexibility
Many of us would rather lift than stretch, but improving mobility and flexibility pays off in movement efficiency and lift performance. Yoga offers a fun, time-efficient way to become more bendy without adding long gym sessions. Even five to eight minutes of daily practice can build a mobility foundation that supports better warm-ups and lifts.
Breath Control
Breathing deeply and consciously is a core part of yoga and can help you manage pain and improve overhead movements by promoting better diaphragmatic breathing. Learning to breathe well keeps you connected to your body during training.
The Goldilocks Principle
Knowing when to back off and when to push through is a delicate balance. You’ll learn to listen to your body, avoid forcing poses, and work with the body you have in the moment. This sense of ease within challenging positions can transfer to your lifting, helping you push just enough without overdoing it.
Bodyweight Strength
Returning yoga to my routine revealed gaps in my strength-to-bodyweight ability. Being strong for your own bodyweight is empowering, and yoga places you in positions you might not encounter in the gym, building well-rounded strength and control.
Noncompetitive Environment
Lifters often have a competitive streak. Even friendly competition can be distracting. Yoga, by its nature, offers a noncompetitive space that helps you stay centered and focused on your progress rather than chasing PRs. There isn’t a “PR” in yoga—just showing up and moving.
Bigger Lifts
Yoga can enhance lifting by waking up often-underused muscles and encouraging multi-joint coordination. It’s amazing how it can translate into stronger lifts. I can deadlift more than double my bodyweight and do multiple sets of pull-ups, yet there are yoga poses that humble me in unexpected ways.
With all these benefits, you can’t afford to skip yoga. Give yourself a few minutes on the mat each day, and you’ll likely see your training—and your quality of life—improve substantially.
Wildfire Yoga
Can you get all of these benefits in just five minutes a day? Absolutely. If you’re not already doing yoga, you might think it takes too long, you’re not good at it, studios aren’t your thing, you don’t want to spend money, or you’d rather just lift. The truth is you can still reap the rewards with the minimal effective dose. Wildfire is a 21-day program designed for people who would rather lift, and it aims to deliver the benefits in a compact, practical format. It’s a program built for lifters who want to explore a lean yoga practice that fits into a busy schedule.
