Yoga for Athletes, aka the Over Trained and Under Stretched Body!
Yeah? Did that headline speak to you? Is your body over-trained, overworked, stiff, and losing mobility?
If you said yes, then I totally respect your mindset to accomplish so much, to be so strong, such an amazing athlete, and diligent to get your workout/training in and DONE!
✅💪🏻🏃🏻♂️🏃🏽♀️
In the midst of all of that though, how much time do you spend stretching? 5, 10, 15 minutes per 1-2 hour workout? Are you sore? Losing ROM (range of motion)? Losing your agility? Speed? Or worse, experiencing stress fractures and torn ligaments?
You start to realize you need more stretching in your life, so you go to a group yoga class… only to feel awkward, inflexible, over-whelmed, and out of your element! Some (even most) yoga classes are for strengthening, along with flexibility, but you realize this isn’t helping much because you just need/want the stretch and quickly you figure out that you don’t want to go back.
The power yoga class is just making you feel like you have no coordination and if you are going to work THAT hard on something and even sweat that much, you might as well do your normal workout!!!
So you stop going, you feel who has time for “being uncomfortable”?
BUT… your body is still telling you something… you can’t continue to “keep on keeping on”, you know something needs to change.
Here are some tips:
✅ Seek out a Yin Yoga or Restorative Yoga class. These 2 names are sometimes even intermixed or thought of as the same. But what you need to know is that these 2 styles of yoga are what you are looking for! For an athlete who needs to stretch or restore their body then EITHER class will be a good class to take. So look for these on your local yoga studio schedule.
✅ Schedule a private yoga session, 1 on 1 with a yoga instructor. Find an instructor who knows the body well, while I was once a new instructor and new instructors need a chance to help others, doing some research to make sure a yoga teacher is a good fit for YOU is key. Get a referral or ask the instructor for a bio. While I believe not every yoga instructor is the same and some newer teachers actually naturally get it or have other talents in their bio that might resonate with you, so explore all options. I personally offer a free 30-minute consultation, phone or online before we meet, to make sure we (the athlete and me) are a good fit, we become a team so it is important. So see if they offer that, it never hurts to ask.
✅ YouTube has several yoga instructors, like myself, who have online classes, the PRO is this can be handy for making sure you do some kind of yoga, which is better than none. CON a video doesn’t have the ability to help make sure you are doing the poses correctly or that you are doing the poses that your body needs based on your ROM (range of motion).
✅ All in all, maybe you can incorporate all the above!!!
Find time to do ANY kind of yoga is better than NO Yoga at all!
To schedule a private with me contact me to set up an online consultation to see if we are a fit, a team to work together, email me to schedule, then we will go from there… reneestahl108@gmail.com
There is a lot more info on my blog, so keep browsing, or check out my YouTube channel and I have some ebooks for sale on Etsy if you like having a copy you can print it and have it handy.
peace • love • abundance
-Renee
