How to Balance Yoga, Strength Training, and Cardio in a Week

Most yoga practitioners who have been at it for years eventually hit the same wall: the mat starts to feel less like nourishment and more like a daily obligation, and the body starts sending signals that five or six sessions a week is not quite working. In a 40-minute episode of YogaLand, teachers Jason Crandell and Andrea Ferretti take up the question they say they hear constantly, which is how to build a movement week that includes yoga, resistance training, and aerobic cardio without burning out or quietly dropping one of them. Their answer rests on a simple principle: each modality addresses something the other two cannot. Yoga builds range of motion and breath awareness, steady-state cardio builds the heart and the body's energy machinery, and resistance training distributes load and strengthens tissue. Crandell argues that all three belong in a complete practice, and that even modest doses of each can produce a balanced, durable result. This article unpacks the reasoning behind that claim, the minimum effective amounts they discuss, and the logic for combining sessions in a single day.

What does the scene look like when two yoga teachers rethink their week?

The episode opens unhurried, almost like a kitchen-table conversation. Ferretti introduces the show, then the two talk through a few logistics: Crandell's upcoming module on the shoulders, neck, and upper back, and a new course called Strong Yoga, which she describes as the fundamentals of resistance training for yogis. The chatter matters because it sets the frame. These are not two people who discovered weights last month. Crandell and Ferretti say they spent literally decades practicing yoga five or six days a week, and Crandell is careful to note that he does not regret it. The conversation is about refinement, not repudiation.

Crandell then makes two qualifications that shape everything after. First, if you love any one of these subjects and want to go deep, you should. The weekly volumes they discuss are not meant to be timid, but they are designed to optimize benefit "without going incredibly deep in any one of them." Second, the episode focuses on the physical dimensions of practice, leaving the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions for a companion conversation. (Crandell, 2:33) That restraint is useful. The question is not what yoga means, but how to allocate time and presence across a week.

What can yoga do that strength work and cardio cannot?

Crandell starts with what yoga does best, and he is specific about it. "Yoga is just so good at creating and maintaining range of motion," he says, folding flexibility and mobility under one banner while acknowledging there is nuance between them. (Crandell, 4:30) His reasoning is practical: the ability to move smoothly and skillfully throughout life depends on tissues and joints that can reach through their full range without resistance or compensation.

The second thing yoga does, in his account, is train breath. Resistance training and aerobic work will improve breathing capacity, he notes, including tidal volume, the amount of air moved in each inhale and exhale. But those modalities do not overtly cultivate breath awareness the way yoga does. Crandell frames good breathing as important for physiology and for mental and emotional health alike. (Crandell, 5:13)

Ferretti adds that yoga soothes the nervous system, and Crandell agrees. He describes yoga as a practice that meets people where they are and helps them develop proprioception and interoception, the sense of where the body is and what is happening inside it, as it happens. "Those other modalities kind of help me push through those feelings," he says, "but my yoga practice has always helped me just be with what's happening as it's happening." (Crandell, 6:50) That distinction is the heart of his argument. Pushing and being with are different skills, and a balanced week needs both.

Why is yoga a poor substitute for cardio?

Crandell is candid that yoga is not terrible at aerobic conditioning, but it is not particularly well suited to it. The conditioning he has in mind is steady-state work: sustaining an elevated heart rate within a defined zone for a set period. Yoga, he says, "doesn't do this very well" and does not do it efficiently. (Crandell, 7:20)

He treats cardiovascular capacity as non-negotiable for heart health. "There's no single activity that is better for heart health than developing our aerobic capacity," Crandell says. (Crandell, 7:58) He also describes what happens at the cellular level. As aerobic capacity grows, the body increases both the total volume of mitochondria and their efficiency. Mitochondria are where oxygen is converted into usable biological energy, so better mitochondrial function means the whole system can take in, process, and use oxygen more readily and operate with greater energy efficiency. Crandell adds that aerobic development supports hormonal health and improves metabolism across the board. (Crandell, 8:49)

The practical point is that zone two cardio does not have to be punishing to be effective. It is the sustained, conversational effort that builds the base; the intensity is the wrong target for most people trying to protect their hearts over a lifetime. Crandell's framing makes it a maintenance-minded investment rather than a test of endurance.

Why does resistance training belong in a yoga week?

Crandell's third modality is anaerobic conditioning, and he folds resistance training into that category, noting there are other ways to build it. Here the episode makes its most pointed claim: going from no resistance training to one session a week is a meaningful shift. The episode's description states that moving from zero to one session per week produces roughly two-thirds of the benefit of two sessions, which is why the first step matters so much. The conversation around that point is about how to distribute loads across the body and how strength work complements what a yoga practice already does. (Crandell, 12:56)

Crandell also pushes back on the idea that strength training must be brutal to count. Resistance work, he argues, does not need to be punishing; it can be efficient and purposeful. For yoga teachers who have spent years inside the most flexible end of the movement spectrum, that reframing is the entry point. Strength is not the opposite of yoga. It is what lets the range you have built be used under load.

How much of each is enough?

The episode is most useful when it moves from principle to dosage. Ferretti and Crandell float structures in which all three modalities are present in modest amounts across the week, including the idea of three days of resistance work at around 20 minutes each. They also discuss how the total can be allocated without a sense that each session has to be a full-length class. (Crandell, 15:30) The point is not to hit a perfect split. The sum is what counts, and a realistic week is one a person will actually keep doing.

Crandell is also open about the fact that his own week is not a textbook template. He describes combining yoga, resistance training, jujitsu, and cardio across his schedule, and suggests that people build from their own constraints rather than copying a plan. The honest version of a balanced week is rarely symmetrical.

Can you combine two modalities in one day?

Time is the usual obstacle, and Crandell addresses it directly. Two modalities can share a single session, he suggests, as long as the sequence is chosen with care. Some pairings let one session deliver the benefits of two. The episode also raises the question of order: whether to do yoga before strength work or after, and how each choice affects the quality of the other. Crandell's answer depends on what a person is trying to develop that day, and he encourages experimenting rather than following a fixed rule. (Crandell, 19:10)

This is where the Strong Yoga hybrid model enters. Crandell presents it as an efficient two-for-one for practitioners short on time, a class that brings resistance work into a yoga framework so the session serves both purposes. The idea is consistent with the rest of the episode: strength is not a separate religion, it is a skill that can live inside the practice.

Why did yoga five or six days a week stop working?

The episode's most personal moment is the admission that both teachers felt chronically overstretched and inflamed when they practiced yoga five or six days a week. According to the episode description, adding resistance training and cardio changed that picture. The lesson is not that yoga is harmful. It is that a practice concentrated almost entirely in range of motion and flexibility can leave the body without the load tolerance, aerobic base, and recovery rhythm that a full week provides. Crandell and Ferretti present their shift as a correction, not an abandonment.

Where to go from here

If you are a yoga practitioner trying to build a sturdier week, the episode suggests a clear sequence. Start by keeping the yoga you love, because it is uniquely good at range of motion, breath, and presence. Add one resistance session before you add anything else; the first step carries a disproportionate benefit. Build aerobic capacity in a zone where you can still hold a conversation, since that is where mitochondrial and cardiovascular gains come from. Then, when time gets tight, combine modalities thoughtfully rather than dropping one. Crandell's larger point is that a balanced week is an accumulation of modest, sustainable choices. For more, watch the full episode, and if you want to go deeper on strength for yoga practitioners, look into the Strong Yoga course Crandell describes in the opening minutes.