Yoga's Benefits for Athletes
Prevent Injury and Improve Overall Health for a Competitive Edge
Mar 25, 2009
While most athletes look to improve strength and speed to gain their competitive edge, honing other skills such as flexibility and balance, learning proper breathing, and practicing relaxation techniques can greatly improve performance.
Traditional training programs sometimes overlook these areas. Adding a regular yoga practice to your routine can also reduce your risk of injury.
Attend yoga classes at your gym or a local yoga studio. If you are part of an athletic team, consider inviting a yoga teacher to practice and include a regular session of yoga in your routine.
Consider these benefits of yoga that will directly affect athletic performance:
Increasing Stamina
Breathing practices, called pranayama, are a central part of any yoga practice. Many of us breathe shallowly or incorrectly, which deprives our cells of oxygen and leads to fatigue. Through practice, deep breathing becomes second nature resulting in more efficient and rich oxygen delivery.
Preventing Injury
Sports injuries often occur when the body is suddenly put in a position it cannot handle resulting from such things as impact or overexertion. A regular yoga practice challenges the body to find ease and comfort in its fullest range of motion by developing flexibility, balance, and alignment:
- Improving flexibility reduces the occurrence of muscle tears and strain.
- Improving balance helps an athlete protect himself from injury in contact/high-impact sports by learning to reorient one's center of gravity quickly and also by learning to relax the body on impact.
- Developing a sense of proper alignment can lessen the occurrence of chronic pain from repetitive motions.
- Learning to visualize the inner body and send the energy of the breath to areas of need can increase the body's healing power.
Improving Focus
Relaxation and meditation quiets the mind and reenergizes the body. A calm and relaxed mind is better able to focus and block out distraction. Using a relaxation technique before competition can calm nerves and improve performance in the high-energy moments of a game.
Including a meditation or relaxation session in your team's training schedule can revitalize energy and calm the nerves of athletes who are often under a lot of pressure to perform well at game time.
Meditation also teaches you to be in the present moment, eliminating distraction and making all of one's energy available for the challenge at hand.
Above all, yoga teaches awareness of the body and empowers the practitioner to address its pain and its limitations with gentle techniques rather than brute strength. The most successful athlete is a healthy and relaxed athlete.
