Why Do Athletes Need Yoga?
Even athletes who have the best control of their throw, kick, or swing still have trouble maintaining balance within their bodies. Why is this? The muscle, bone, fluid, and skin that make up the body—also known as connective tissue—is incredibly adaptive, and it responds and forms bonds based on one’s habitual tendencies. So if you’re throwing a ball all day, running, or swimming, connective tissue will respond to those activities by making sure your muscles can do a lot of that activity.
If you’re not finding an opposite extension of the muscles in use, the connective tissue can become dehydrated and tight, hard to move, all of which can lead to serious injury.
5 Benefits of Yoga for Athletes:
Balance
Athletes practicing balance poses cultivate vital understanding of their center of gravity and how to purposefully engage their core. Teaching a ground up approach, athletes practicing yoga will experience increased agility and stability in sport performance.
Mental Stability
Athletes are educated in Dynamic Meditation; the practice of physically moving the body through mental stillness. The awareness techniques from yoga are not only essential on the mat or field but in every day life, and have been proven to combat anxiety, depression, and even improve memory and concentration.
Flexibility
With mindful exercise, the body’s connective tissues turn supple and open for restructuring. Yoga for athletes utilizes these opportunities by teaching mindful stretching, a form of push-pull alignment techniques based in physical therapy.
Strength
Athletes will be taught how to recalibrate their efforts to struggle less while still harnessing extra-qualified power in their activities.
Stamina
Sacred pranayam breathing techniques are woven into the yoga practice to calm the central nervous system while moving through challenging postures or asanas.
My services are catered to help athletes adapt their practices to suit their individual needs. Athletes become responsive to their anatomy, while they are simultaneously guided through a range of stretching and strengthening poses to bring their bodies back into self-aware equilibrium. Whether you’re a runner dealing with tight hamstrings, a cyclist with tight quads, a swimmer with tired and aching shoulders, or a golfer or tennis player with lopsided shoulder girdle rotation, yoga can and does help.
