Is Yoga Beneficial for Athletes?
Yoga can help improve your flexibility, balance and coordination, all of which positively affect performance. There is plenty of research to support the benefits of yoga for athletes. One study in 2016 looked at yoga’s effect on performance in 26 male college athletes. The 14 athletes who did yoga twice a week saw significant improvements in their balance and flexibility compared with the 12 who did not do yoga. This study suggests that yoga can enhance your performance in sports that require balance and flexibility.
A 2020 study on 31 male soccer players, those who enrolled in a 10-week yoga program had positive results on fatigue, muscle soreness, and injury prevention.
Practicing yoga has also been shown to help you develop mindfulness through awareness of your body, your breath, and the present moment. This can allow for greater concentration during athletic activity. A 2017 study found that practicing mindfulness consistently improved performance for specific sports. It had a positive effect on shooting and dart throwing athletes, this suggests that the practice is useful for improving skill in precision sports.
Researchers in a 2018 study examined the effects of hot yoga as an alternative to heat stress technique for 10 elite female field hockey players. The researchers found that hot yoga can enhance cardiovascular performance and plasma volume percentage, which has a positive effect on how your body regulates temperature during exercise.
There have been a number of professional athletes and sports teams who have introduced Yoga into their training programs and have found yoga beneficial for their overall performance. For example, The Colorado State men’s basketball team, have taken part in yoga classes. The coach, support staff and players have found it really beneficial. “All of it has been beneficial, the mobility, flexibility and mindfulness. All of it is really important,” said Medved (the coach), who took part in the yoga classes himself. Medved then goes on to say “We’re not alone in this, a lot of people are doing this. I think some of it is just a new, interesting challenge for some of these players, and they’ve enjoyed it”. One of the players on the team Chandler Jacobs said, “The mental side of Yoga has been most beneficial for me as I can get anxious, kind of frantic, and it just slows down the breathing”.
Studies show for athletes its best to do yoga for a short time each day rather than only one or two long sessions each week. If you play strenuous sports, it’s best to balance this activity with slow-paced, gentle types of yoga. The yoga routine should include plenty of poses that allow you to relax and lengthen your muscles and tissues. This helps to improve flexibility, mobility, and range of motion. This may include Yin, Restorative Hatha yoga. Yin yoga helps to relieve tension and improve your range of motion. It’s ideal for people who have pain and tightness. Yin yoga also helps to relieve stress, which is common among athletes.
By Amy Daniel
References
Health Line 2021, Is Yoga Beneficial For Athletes, Health Line, viewed on January 12th 2021 – <https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/yoga-for-athletes#takeaway>
Colorado State University 2021, Stretching the Team in New Directions, viewed on 12th of July, 2021 – <https://csurams.com/news/2021/7/12/ramwire-stretching-the-team-in-new-directions.aspx>
US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 2016, Impact of 10 weeks of Yoga Practice on Flexibility and Balance of College Athletes, viewed on 9th June, 2016 – <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728955/>
PubMed, 2017, Effect of Mindfulness Practice on Performance – Relevant Parameters and Performance Outcomes in Sports: A Meta – Analytic Review, Nov, 2017 – <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28664327/>
National Library of Medicine, 2018, Efficacy of Hot Yoga as a Heat Stress Technique for Enhancing Plasma Volume and Cardiovascular Performance in Elite Female Field Hockey Players, Oct, 2018 <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29979281/>
US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 2020, Mitigating the Antecedents of Sports-Related Injury Through Yoga, Aug 2020 <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336950/>