Yoga for Endurance Athletes

Swim, bike, run … YOGA? You betcha!!!

Yoga is rapidly becoming the top training tool for endurance athletes. It guides endurance athletes through a new pace of thinking; from new insights into your body, to helping with breathing techniques, and lastly strengthening the mind. Endurance athletes are finding endless benefits when adding yoga into their exercise regimen.

THE BODY
Besides making endurance athletes more flexible, yoga also gives athletes information on their bodies, showing them where they might be misaligned, what muscles are tight, what side of the body is tighter and what muscles need more strengthening.

Yoga can also lend to injury prevention, a crucial element that all athletes need. In terms of a workout, yoga focus’ on strength and flexibility. It is important to have both in order to achieve peak performance for an upcoming race.

Adding yoga to any training regiment can not only make overused muscles more limber, but it will also strengthen underused muscles, sculpting a more balanced body equipped for peak performance.

BREATHING
Yoga also helps athletes be more aware of their breathing. In yoga, a long exhale is matched with a long inhale in every posture. This type of focused breathing often ends in a sudden small surge of energy, as well as a calmer mind, two elements that can make the difference between beating a personal record and blowing it out of the water. Focusing on full yogic breathing and maintaining proper form helps athletes complete the pose in the most beneficial way – increasing overall body awareness.

THE MIND
When holding a challenging pose, yoga teaches endurance athletes to narrow their focus on the present moment, by way of form and breath. Sounds a lot like race strategy, huh? It is! By practicing this technique in the yoga studio, this skill is refined.

Yoga goers spill that it is an experience everyone must try; an hour of yoga is equated with the stress relief of a vacation or a wonderful massage at a spa. Your mental clarity hits a high note! And many are able to feel this beautiful, inner peace after a session in the studio or even at home. Yes, yoga has the tools to assist you in achieving that peace that goes beyond the body, beyond the mind and the intellect.

So yoga has the optimum benefits of muscle recovery, flexibility, breathing and mental preparedness. That does it for me—I’m all in.

NOW YOU TRY IT!