Tuesday, October 29, 2013

How Yoga Can Help Athletes Improve Performance

Many athletes are now using yoga to supplement their regular exercises and improve their performance. Yoga can help with many things from helping your back, improving your balance, increasing your flexibility, and strengthening your core. Whether you play golf, basketball, or tennis, you can get a lot more from your plays by starting yoga.

Most athletes probably think that their regular training is enough. After all, many athletes put a lot into their training and workouts. It's hard to believe that something like yoga can make a difference. However, the reality is that yoga has many benefits no matter what kind of physical activity you engage in.

Many famous athletes attribute yoga for staying healthy. Professionals in basketball, tennis, football, baseball, and hockey use yoga to stay fit and prevent injuries. If you do a simple search for athletes that use yoga, you'd be surprised how strongly they recommend yoga for sports.

The main focus of yoga is breathing. Yoga can teach you how to breathe deep and more effectively. This can give you that extra edge while playing a game. While others are worn out during a game, you can keep going as a result of effective breathing. Breathing technique is often ignored in the majority of sports but can make a big difference in stamina and endurance.

Yoga for athletes also makes sense because yoga focuses on your core. It helps build your mid-section which is important in physical activity. Your core is what gives you strength and balance to the rest of your body. It has a direct effect on your back, upper body, as well as legs. As a result, your whole body will be strengthened and you'll even get more out of your regular training.

Most people will probably think that yoga is not a great solution for athletes because it doesn't help build muscle. But yoga actually does help your muscles - it helps you build functional muscles. Most weight training focuses on your biceps, legs, chest, back, and shoulders. What yoga does is it helps build strength throughout your whole body. It targets multiple muscle groups at once and also targets many parts of your body that isn't worked out with conventional exercises.

Rather than the physical appearance, you will build body strength in your arms, legs, and your core. Your muscles are also used in combination rather than in isolation. That means that you will be used to using all your muscles in a functional manner. All sports require that you use your muscles in unison. That is why yoga is a great training tool to get your body used to this type of workout.

Yoga also helps you feel balanced and helps your focus as well. As you know, stress and distraction can affect how well you perform when it has to count. What yoga does is it helps get rid of your stress and allows you to clear your mind. You start to relax and get rid of anxiety so you can focus on what's important at the moment. The mental game is just as important as the physical aspect of sports. That's why yoga can help in this regard.

One of the biggest challenges for athletes is injuries. Injuries happen when athletes strain themselves while they are moving. Yoga is perfect for this problem because it helps increase your flexibility and gives you a better sense of balance. That means that when you are playing any kind of sport, you will be able to move better and cut the risk of injuries significantly.

Another challenge that athletes face is tight muscles and stiff joints. If you play any kind of sports, then you know how it feels after a tough day. It's hard to move your muscles and it starts to ache all over your body. Sometimes injuries can last for a long time and affect your performance. Yoga can help loosen up the muscles and relieve the pain in your joints.

What many people like about yoga is the fact that you don't have to travel to the gym or buy any expensive equipment. You can simply go to the beach and do the exercises at your pace. The only thing you'd probably need is a mat to start doing the yoga exercises. Best of all, you can reap the benefits of yoga even if you're short on time. Even 10-20 minutes can do wonders for your body.

Exercises like the sphinx pose where you lie on your belly and lift your chest from the ground can help your back become more limber. The downward-facing dog is where you lie face down and lift your knees above the floor using your tail bone. This is a great exercise that can improve the mobility of your hips. The warrior pose can help you learn how to balance your body and also loosen up your knees. Of course, there are many other exercises that really help you as an athlete.

As you can see, yoga for athletes has so many benefits. You have to remember that it is not the center focus of training. It should be used as a supplement to the main training the athlete is undergoing. You can say that yoga is almost like the recovery part of training as it relieves stress, gets rid of tensions in your body and prepares your body for extreme physical activity. In conclusion, you should start using yoga if you want to get the most out of your performance.








Click yoga-ok.com Prasara Yoga to go to Jen's Yoga website.

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