Yoga for Athletes Los Angeles CA

Sportsman can benefit a lot from Yoga

In response to my last blog where I described that Yoga is not only for adults but for kids too, I received some Emails where the parents of the children expressed their opinion that getting their kids to play a sport is a much better and viable option than making them do Yoga. Well, they are partially right!

Partially right in the sense that it is indeed true that children develop their mental and physical capabilities and endurance by involving themselves in some kind of sports or outdoor activities. But even for being a sportsman, they need stamina. How do they get this? Of course, through yoga!

Yoga should be a part of the everyday life of a sportsman. Yoga can improve their performance  in any sport. Yoga helps the body, mind and spirit to become strong and flexible which is essential for any sportsman.

Yoga increases the flexibility of the muscles and also increases balance and poise. The different yoga postures strengthens the body . The deep breathing exercises which form the fundamental part of yoga helps to send oxygen to the body cells. Yoga thus improves and complements the ability of the athlete in any sport that he chooses.

For any sportsman, yoga could be taken up as a warm up and warm down exersie. The benefits which yoga can give to a sportsman cannot be overlooked and hence, children taking up any sport should also take up yoga at the same time for better enhanced performance.

Yoga can enhance an athlete's performance and prevent injuries

Yoga has got multiple benefits to offer us all. The most significant benefit is that it increases the flexibility of our body besides other benefits which enhances our ability in sports too.

Ahletes can benefit by increasing mobility in the joints, thus increasing range of motion for overall enhanced performance. An athelete will thus be able to reach farther, fall harder while preventing and minimizing injuries because their muscles have a memory (like a rubber band) from the deep stretching obtained in practicing yoga on a regular basis.

Many athletes are having more injuries that require surgery because of the increased focus on strength training with weight resistance.  This method for increasing strength and muscle mass is highly effective and efficient , yet it dramatically decreases flexibility. However, if yoga or other types of prolonged stretching are practiced in combination with strength training and practical application exercises (using the body in a way that mimics the movements of their particular sport, while performing a balancing or core movement), injury can be minimized during engagement in other competitive sports that call for the athlete to be more spontaneous with their bodies, calling for overextended reaches, lunges, falls, etc., all of which increase the odds of injury, opposed to the safety of controlled mechanical motion used in weight room workouts.

To sum it up, yoga ...