An athlete’s yoga practice should change according to their season, just like their training regimen does. During the pre-season, athletes are in preparation mode. Their practice times start to increase and training starts to intensify. The important thing for them to stay focused on is building a solid foundation of strength and stability during this period.
Strength and Stability
With yoga, their focus should be on maintaining a dynamic flexibility practice and building strength around the joints for injury prevention and stabilization. Standing postures, warrior sequences, and sun salutations may be included to keep the body moving, build heat, and increase strength.
Yes, yoga is mostly about flexibility, but it also is very effective at helping build strength safely.
Now that the season is about to get started, athletes need to incorporate a consistent, dynamic yoga practice into their training schedule. If they start now, it will become a routine practice throughout the entire season.
Dynamic Stretching
Dynamic stretching is the use of a muscle’s own force production and the body’s momentum to take a joint through the full available range of motion. Prisoner squats are an example of controlled dynamic stretching. The goal of any flexibility routine is to create multiplanar soft-tissue extensibility that is controlled by the Central Nervous System (CNS).
A dynamic yoga practice, also called vinyasa, is a type of flexibility training that includes dynamic stretching.
Dynamic Yoga
Vinyasa, or dynamic yoga, should not be “power flow” for elite, competitive athletes. It should be a mindful flow that teaches athletes how to maintain control of their breath, build determination, and intensify their yoga practice.
Vinyasa is smooth linking of unhurried breath with movement, intensified by mindfully holding postures for several breaths, awakening the body and clearing the mind. Athletes can explore the details of each posture at a comfortable pace to allow their bodies to deepen into a stretch or pause in a strength-building pose.
It only takes incorporating 20-30 minutes of dynamic yoga each week to start seeing the benefits. Athletes will feel better, move better, and recover faster, so they can go back to practice the next day stronger and more refreshed!
On-Demand Yoga for Athletes
Yoga Athlex on-demand platform, YAX Online, features 200+ videos of recovery methods such as yoga, breathwork, mediation, SMR, and more –…
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