How Yoga Can Enhance Sports and Recreation

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Yoga is best used in conjunction with other things you like to do, such as soccer, hockey,  running or swimming.  Yoga is ideally suited to enhance and supplement other activities in a number of ways, and that is why, if you are an avid sportsman or just starting out, yoga is worth adding to your day.

What do all sports and activities like it have it common?  They require you to be flexible, strong and have good endurance in order to enjoy them.  No matter what physical activity you choose to enjoy, you will need to be flexible, sturdy and relatively strong in order to succeed.  Yoga can help you get there faster.  Furthermore, yoga helps in the after-effects of these sports, from teaching you how to stretch to cool down your muscles, to helping you recover from injuries faster.

Yoga to Start

If you want to take part in any sort of recreational activity, yoga can help condition you.  The most basic forms of yoga can help to improve flexibility and endurance so that you can get out on the field, in the rink or in the pool and play harder, longer, stronger.  Yoga sessions aren’t terribly long, so you won’t have to worry too much about your schedule.

People often underestimate just how important it is to be flexible when playing sports until they have to contort themselves to catch a ball, hit a puck, or dance.  Yoga can make these movements much easier. T he eight ‘limbs’ of yoga are great tools for athletes as well, teaching things like breathing, posture, and improving core strength.

Yoga Throughout

Don’t stop doing yoga when you score your first winning goal!  Yoga continues to deliver fantastic benefits to even the most seasoned athlete.  Indeed, more and more trainers are recommending a regime of supplemental yoga.  Yoga trains you to listen to your body and pay attention when you are feeling overstrained.  By listening, you can prevent injuries.  Yoga also teaches you how to focus and concentrate on your goals so that you can learn to shut out distractions in the game and keep your mind on the ball. And of course, yoga continues to improve endurance, flexibility and strength.

Yoga After Sports

Yoga continues to be helpful even if you can not longer hit the field due to injury.  The main advantage of yoga here is the ability to help people recover from injuries a little faster.  It is particularly helpful for knee and back pains because it improves blood flow and oxygen levels.  If you have retired from the field, yoga is still useful to you; even seniors can get huge benefits from yoga.

But what if you just want to start running?  Or swimming?  Or horseback riding?  Yoga can still do a great deal of good.  Although most people concentrate on how yoga can help athletes, the same things which help athletes will also help those who don’t want to compete but would just like more time out of doors.  Swimming, riding, running… all these things also require strength and flexibility and a great deal of endurance.

Don’t think of yoga as a stand alone activity.  It is actually one of the best things you can do to supplement other activities in your life to get the most enjoyment with fewer injuries.

Whether you’re a hardened athlete, a weekend runner, or you are making it your New Years Resolution to finally make it through a marathon, we want to see you in Yoga classes held at Root Whole Body.  Yoga will help you get stronger, more flexible and tougher so that you can get the most out of all of your physical activities.

Photo By: Vramak