Yoga Pose
Yoga Pose
Yoga Pose
Yoga Pose
Yoga Pose

Yoga 4 Sports

What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient system of personal mastery and self discovery. The essential purpose of yoga is to bring together the body, mind and soul through asanas (physical postures and movements), pranayama (breathing techniques) and dhyana (meditation) to help improve specific health problems.

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Yoga as therapy

Today, modern Yoga Therapy blends the ancient wisdom of Yoga with the latest knowledge of science and research to bring us closer to balance

Yoga is beneficial for the health in ways that modern science is just beginning to understand.  Even though it has been applied with therapeutic intention for thousand of years, Yoga as therapy is only just now emerging as a discipline in itself.   More health care practitioners are starting to include yogic techniques in their approach to healing -- and more yoga teachers give a therapeutic intention to their teaching.  People who have never tried yoga before are starting to consider including Yoga in their treatment plan.
As science begins to document the importance of understanding the interrelation of all existing things, it looks to Yoga with an intrigued eye, for Yoga speaks unity in every word. As yoga techniques are researched and new data is gathered,  it becomes easier for science and the medical establishment to understand and accept the benefits of Yoga Therapy.

Yoga for sports performance

Yoga for sport enables an athlete to integrate specific yoga techniques with traditional modern training, sports science and periodization.

Famous Athletes who practice yoga:

  • Ryan Giggs
  • Andy Murray
  • Carl Lewis
  • Venus AND Serena  Williams
  • Andy Roddick
  • New Zealand All Blacks

More and more athletes are turning to yoga as a supplementary exercise routine to fix the imbalance in their body and to improve their performance in their chosen field of sport. Whether you are a golfer, basketball, tennis, or football player, the mind body connection in yoga is an important element in producing peak performance.

Although proper breathing technique is the foundation of many sports, it is often ignored by many athletes. Yoga will help fix this lack of breathing skill and develop the correct breathing technique that is very much required in any game of sport. The integration of mind and body through correct breathing patterns helps to build stamina and endurance in an athlete. Proper breathing techniques also bring more focus and attention to the mind and sharpens one's intuition. This gives the athlete an advantage over his rivals.

The various poses in yoga helps to build a strong mid-section and the different types of contractions of these poses and movements act as a form of resistance training to the typical gym-based workouts. But unlike in a gym, you can practice yoga outdoors without having to bring heavy equipment.

Frequent yoga practice increases flexibility and range of motion and the slow movements is perfect for athletes. Many athletes are already using yoga movements as a warm up and warm down routines in their sport. Athletes in sports field such as tennis and golf will notice improvements in their swing as a result of this flexibility of the muscles and joints. In any given sport, the addition of yoga as a supplementary routine training has been known to improve the performance of the athletes.

Most athletes are involved in some form of weight training and other resistance training that uses repetitive motions that only develop certain muscle groups, while ignoring others. That creates imbalance in the body. Yoga is able to fix this imbalance and help to develop the muscles that have been ignored through the contraction of these muscles in the various poses.

Yoga is also a good workout to relieve boredom in athletes who perform the same types of exercises year in year out by adding variety. It is also an important element in recovering the body from hard aerobic and strength workouts. The numerous poses in yoga can be done in a low or high intensity workout according to the athlete's needs. Overall, yoga is not only important in bringing in more strength, balance and flexibility to an athlete, but also brings more alertness, attention and focus that is so much needed by athletes in their very competitive world

Benefits of yoga for sport include:

  • Improved strength- physically and mentally.
  • Improved balance, coordination, agility and speed.
  • Improved body awareness and biomechanical efficiency.
  • Injury prevention, by increasing strength and flexibility and correcting muscle imbalances in the body which are perpetuated through sports.
  • Reduced recovery times by restorative posture work and by benefiting the cardiovascular, neuromuscular and lymphatic systems.
  • Improved lung function, breath awareness, efficiency (VO2 max) and relaxation.
  • Longevity of the sport through all factors mentioned above.

Nancy is available to work with athletes, performers, coaches, individuals, teams and NGB’s,  be it on a one to one basis, workshops, team or group sessions and weekly / monthly / seasonal classes along with Biomechanical Assessments.

Specific areas can be focused on and tailored to individual, team or sport / discipline requirements. Any space or situation can be adapted to work in, be it indoors or outdoors, track side, pitch side etc., as each programme is specifically designed with the sport and team / individual / coach in mind.

Sessions maybe booked for as short or as long as is required. Workshops usually run for 1 - 2 hours and classes for the same length of time. Interventions with individuals or teams may even be as short as 10 - 30  minutes once a programme has been established.

Important
In order to ensure that our courses are carried out in the safest and most beneficial environment to you, we would appreciate you taking the time to complete our health questionnaire. Please download the pdf, print it out and bring the completed form with you to your next session.
Click here to download