/ Yoga makes you a better athlete ?
Yoga isn’t just about the body, it’s also about the mind, and it’s technique that has really helped me” -Lebron James.
Even if it’s just 10 minutes, hold yourself accountable. If 10 minutes is your practice then, it’s just that—everything else is bonus time! Practice regularly: once a week is beneficial, three times is great, every day is awesome too. For many who haven’t really explored a yoga practice yet might think of it as primarily meditation or stretching. It can be those things — but it actually has even more to offer, including many tangible health benefits that athletes at every level can bring to their game and their overall fitness. Adding a yoga practice can benefit athletes both physically and mentally. Yoga is more than just relaxation. It helps to build strength through poses that use your body as the weight or resistance. It focuses on engaging targeted muscles, so even simple poses can provide great results. When most people think of the benefits of yoga, the first thing they think is flexibility. Firstly, it isn’t a prerequisite for yoga. Anyone can do yoga! Increased flexibility will come with regular practice. But, flexibility is beneficial to everyone but especially to athletes. When yoga is incorporated as cross-training for a sport, your muscles will be challenged in new ways, like increasing your muscular endurance. You learn how to stretch and target specific muscle groups, safe alignment for your joints, and how different muscles work together to achieve certain poses. What I find is most crucial is how yoga teaches you to listen to your body and know when to stop, so that you don’t hurt yourself. It’s important to know how to meet yourself where you are, on and off the mat. Athletes tend to push their bodies to the limit and by understanding and respecting the limits of your body , you allow yourself to heal and recover faster. In addition, the meditative/mindfulness aspects of yoga provide psychological benefits that include improved awareness, stress and emotion regulation, and enhanced concentration. Self-regulation and performance enhancement are critical to athletic performance, it is not surprising that an increasing number of professional sports teams are implementing yoga as standard training practice. Whether it’s on the field, on the court, or during training, athletes put their bodies through a grueling amount of strain. Yoga could be just the something different they need.
I hope reading this made you more curious about how yoga can benefit you as a student athlete or the student athletes in your life. If you want to learn more ; Let’s connect.