Roll out the gingham it’s time for a Q&A quickie.
So I get asked this a lot. How can sports yoga help sports performance?
In fact, it was THE NUMBER ONE question asked by my yogi’s in training who get my Yoga Local newsletter. So cop a yoga squat (or not) while I answer it.
Rather than reel off the big shout-outs to flexibility, strength, balance, which I’ve talked about before, I’ll answer this question from a different angle.
Think of the common traits that equal sporting success. I did, and came up with a SUPER SIX PICNIC to feast on.
- Mental toughness – often it’s an athlete’s mind-set that gets the win.
- Self-belief – ego combined with wisdom can take you beyond other’s perceived limits.
- Controlled emotions – single minded focus gets results.
- Resilience – being cool and calm in stressful situations means setbacks won’t throw you off goal.
- Discipline – athletes have a drive to succeed, ring fence time and set boundaries.
- Meticulousness – athletes look for small margins; anything that can make the difference between success or failure.
Want a serving of some of this? Great. Grab a paper plate…
Yoga is a practice that cultivates these traits, along with all the physical benefits that help us stay less prone to injury and ready to train hard each day. If you are active, do sports, are athletic in any way, my guess is you are always in pursuit of being better, accomplishing something new, achieving something more. You want to find the next step to move you from good to great. Am I right?
No matter where you put yourself on the scale from recreational jogger to elite Olympian, you want to progress, evolve and keep moving closer to whatever goals you set. Yes?
Yoga can take you on that journey with awareness, clarity and purpose. It’s your tool to help you experience every aspect of who you are, what you can do and witness the choices you make that get you where you want to go…or maybe more importantly, the choices that hold you back.
Does this speak to you? Does this make sense? If it does and you want to learn more about sports yoga and master these traits, then a sports specific yoga class could be your next great choice. Witness that. 🙂
Yoga for Athletes and Yoga for Sports are both 5 class programmes that I’ve designed especially to give you the edge in performance, whatever goals you set.
You can find them in Move with Us Yoga Programmes or do grab me (gently) at josie@yogalocal.co.uk if you have any questions.
With yogi love
Josie X
