Yoga for Athletes

An article by Elizabeth Quinn. She is an exercise physiologist and fitness consultant who has been writing about sports medicine, injuries and training techniques and working with athletes for over a decade.


Looking for a new way to get in your resistance work? You might be surprised to find that yoga makes a perfect companion for athletes of all sports as well as the ‘jack-of-all-trade’ fitness enthusiasts. Yoga can help you develop better a breathing technique while it improves your balance, flexibility, core strength, and endurance.

It's All in the Hips

An article by Alisa Bauman. She is a freelance writer based in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
 

Stan Urban, 48, a competitive cyclist, turned to yoga three years ago when he began to experience lower back pain, a very common ailment among cyclists, who spend the majority of their time hunched forward over the bike. Though Urban thought his problem centered in his lower back, his coach and yoga instructor, Dario Fredrick, had a different theory. Shortened hamstring muscles along the backs of Urban's legs coupled with tight hip flexors along the front of his thighs, as well as tight groin muscles and hip rotators, were preventing him from riding his bike in the proper form. 

Yoga for Swimmers

 An article by Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola. Baron Baptiste is a yoga teacher and athletic trainer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for his work with the Philadelphia Eagles and as the host of ESPN's "Cyberfit." Kathleen Finn Mendola is a health and wellness writer based in Portland, Oregon.

Gentle on the joints, forgiving of injuries and other physical limitations, and deeply relaxing, swimming and yoga, when practiced together, unite their strengths, making for a more balanced athlete. 

The minimal gravity effect of swimming is appealing to those who suffer from injury that precludes them from high-impact movement, as well as pregnant women, people with chronic joint pain, and the elderly. Logging laps in the pool undoubtedly provides physical and psychological benefits. But too much time spent in the water without counteracting or opposing activities can be detrimental, resulting in body misalignment and lack of bone strength.

Yoga for Runners

An article by Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola. Baron Baptiste is a yoga teacher and athletic trainer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for his work with the Philadelphia Eagles and as the host of ESPN's "Cyberfit." Kathleen Finn Mendola is a health and wellness writer based in Portland, Oregon.

During the course of an average mile run, your foot will strike the ground 1,000 times. The force of impact on each foot is about three to four times your weight. It's not surprising, then, to hear runners complain of bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings, and sore feet. 

The pain most runners feel is not from the running in and of itself, but from imbalances that running causes and exacerbates. If you bring your body into balance through the practice of yoga, you can run long and hard for years to come. Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, running and yoga make a good marriage of strength and flexibility.