Why Every Athlete Should Practice Yoga

Yoga is one of those supplemental training techniques that we all know we should be doing but so frequently gets forgotten about.
Either a lack of motivation or another commitment in life seems to get in the way.
But with thousands of video routines available online, yoga has never been so accessible.
So here, Built for Athletes has produced some of the top reasons to unroll your yoga mat.

Enhances Performance
A core theme in yoga is to teach proper alignment of the body which in turn leads to greater power output in exercise. By making sure your spine, muscles and joints don’t go into awkward angles and do return to their natural alignment after hard training, the body can produce better performances which will optimize training gains.

Muscle Pain
One of the key battles athletes face is with suppressing muscle pain that inevitably results from pushing the body. The discomfort can affect your mood, make you feel sluggish and tired and restrict general mobility in day-to-day life. But by stretching effected muscles, joints and connective tissues, yoga helps to relieve this pain
and restore mobility.

Recovery
Yoga promotes recovery by increasing blood flow to areas of the body that have been trained, oxygenising the muscles and healing scar tissue. This means the body can get back to peak performance output for your next training session.

Injury Prevention
One of the most widely known benefits of yoga is injury prevention. This is achieved by improving the mechanics of the body which limits risk when undertaking training. By staying clear of niggles and injuries, you can train more consistently and make sure your athletic development doesn’t stagnate.

Headspace
The meditative side of yoga is often not considered but its benefits are well worth mentioning. Taking reflective time or concentrating on your breathing while holding a pose can lift your mood and help your stay present in and amongst the busy lifestyle that so many athletes lead. From a performance point of view this can help you to stay motivated for training.