Athletes can Improve their Performance by Adding Yoga

For years, athletes have relied on weight training and extensive cardio routines to help them stay in peak condition to meet the demands of their sport. The gentle stretching of yoga (as no doubt observed on television) seemed to lack the work they assumed their body required to get them prepared for the demands of their sport.

But that false impression has transformed as sports groups and individual athletes have begun to research more thoroughly into yoga and discover the self-control, of both body and mind, necessary to achieve some of the more complicated yoga stances.

Sports stars such as NBA legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Robert Parrish and Maurice Lucas, tennis legends Yannick Noah, Guillermo Vilas and John McEnroe; former NFL standout Dan Marino and even golfing star Gary Player led the way in the 1970s and 1980s in introducing the positive aspects of yoga to the athletic fields. And that movement continues today as stars such as tennis' Serena and Venus Williams, pro basketball's Shaquille O'Neal, pro football's Shannon Sharp and Jon Kitna, boxer Evander Holyfield and entire franchises such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Cubs have tapped into the knowledge of yoga trainers to add a different and much-desired facet to their regimen.

So why add yoga to your athletic training?

Most likely of most interest to athletes is the evidence that yoga can improve overall strength. Many athletes feel that improving their power is the way to advance their execution in their sport, no matter if that field is football, baseball, track and field or swimming. But weight training, which many athletes put their faith in, only trains one or two muscle groups at a time, demanding long hours in the training room to achieve the results they think they need. Most of them aren't aware that yog and its concentration and poses utilized all of the muscles in the body, many at one time, and teaches the muscles to work in unison to achieve strength and agility. The result? An athletes who is stronger and whose body moves as a well-coordinated unit.

Secondly, yoga works to build a stronger core, from most of the power the body needs in sports originates. In games such as tennis and baseball, the core is where the hitting and throwing power originates. In a sport such as football, the core of the body is responsible for the rapid turns in direction that are necessary to succeed in the sport. Getting this section of the body in condition is one of the main advantages to adding yoga to your athletic routine. The movements and stances of yoga served to improve the posture, help align the body and assists in the overall operation of the body, which can make athletes faster, more powerful and toned.

By adding muscle and balance, yoga also helps increase responsiveness in athletes, another major point. By combining enhanced strength, mobility and balance, yoga can increase agility that can be useful in virtually all sports. And as an added benefit, athletes who improve their mobility through yoga can reduce the possibility of injury by conditioning the body to the repetitive motions that can have harmful effects (think carpal tunnel syndrome).

Finally, practicing yoga can improve the coordination between the body and the mind. For many sports performers, there are "head games" involved in athletics: psyching out an opponent, visualizing success, predicting an opponent's moves before he or she makes them. These decisions, sometimes made in mere seconds, depend upon a clear mind, a state that can be achieved through the meditative exercises of yoga. With breathing exercises, meditation sessions and the centered poses of yoga, sports performers can discover what is required to get their mind and body to work as one cohesive unit, even during the most stressful periods of a game, when muscles can tighten up, become inflexible and lower performance.

Yoga has become a accepted part of the training regimen of athletes of all levels because of these benefits and more. By doing a bit of research into the many forms and styles of yoga, along with examining their unique features, athletes can discover the yoga practice and workout that can provide benefits to their particular sport.

Linda Adams loves all things health and fitness related.

One of the leading health websites Linda has found is Kamloops Yoga Teachers, which is a extraordinary mix of yoga and exercise.

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