Athlete’s Edge Series: Benefits Of Yoga For Athletes

While it’s widely known that yoga is great for reducing stress and anxiety as well as promoting a healthy mind/body balance, yoga is also a perfect exercise program for athletes who want to master their breathing techniques and improve core strength, endurance, and flexibility.

Improved Strength and Flexibility

Through the use of flexibility exercises designed to strengthen, steady, and balance the body, yoga provides a full body experience that not only builds stronger, healthier muscles, but also helps the body lengthen and stretch muscles. Performing yoga on a regular basis can help you prevent injury and strengthen your core. Yoga’s asanas, or poses, offer a new form of resistance training that focuses on building strong core muscles through slow contractions.

Deep, Controlled Breathing

Learning how to breathe correctly can have a significant and lasting impact on any athlete’s performance. With better breathing techniques, athletes can improve their concentration and reduce performance anxiety. Athletes can also benefit from the mind-body balance promoted during yoga sessions.

Better Balance

One of the core features of yoga is an emphasis on creating balance in the body. Yoga is the perfect routine to incorporate if you want to improve your balance, and although athletes tend to overlook exercises that promote optimal balance, they can have a significant impact on performance. Proper balance can help correct body mechanic problems as well as muscle imbalances. With certain exercise routines that involve using repeated motions, some muscle groups may become well developed while others do not develop at the same pace. Yoga can help to correct these imbalances and restore good posture in athletes.

Mental Benefits

While the physical benefits of yoga are immense for athletes, there is also a portion of the program that encourages participants to meditate for a few minutes. This can be a time for reflection and to center your focus. Your mental state can have a profound impact on your performance, which is why it is important to also nurture the mind as you train the body.

Yoga comes in many different forms so there are different routines and techniques to suit anyone that may be interested. From cardio yoga to anusara, athletes can find a variety of techniques, poses, and exercise routines to keep them engaged and challenged while improving balance, flexibility and strength.

Shasta Orthopaedics is now offering weekly yoga classes. Call our office to sign up today or visit our yoga class page.