Benefits of Yoga For Athletes

More and more athletes are turning to yoga as a supplementary exercise routine to fix the imbalance in their body and to improve their performance in their chosen field of sport. Whether you are a golfer, basketball, tennis, or football player, the mind body connection in yoga is an important element in producing peak performance.

Although proper breathing technique is the foundation of many sports, it is often ignored by many athletes. Yoga will help fix this lack of breathing skill and develop the correct breathing technique that is very much required in any game of sport. The integration of mind and body through correct breathing patterns helps to build stamina and endurance in an athlete. Proper breathing techniques also bring more focus and attention to the mind and sharpens one's intuition. This gives the athlete an advantage over his rivals.

The various poses in yoga helps to build a strong mid-section and the different types of contractions of these poses and movements act as a form of resistance training to the typical gym-based workouts. But unlike in a gym, you can practice yoga outdoors without having to bring heavy equipment. Imagine doing yoga exercises by a windy beach with the sound of waves in the background, on a hill top with a great view and fresh air, or in a zen garden.

Frequent yoga practice increases flexibility and range of motion and the slow movements is perfect for athletes. Many athletes are already using yoga movements as a warm up and warm down routines in their sport. Athletes in sports field such as tennis and golf will notice improvements in their swing as a result of this flexibility of the muscles and joints. In any given sport, the addition of yoga as a supplementary routine training has been known to improve the performance of the athletes.

Most athletes are involved in some form of weight training and other resistance training that uses repetitive motions that only develop certain muscle groups, while ignoring others. That creates imbalance in the body. Yoga is able to fix this imbalance and help to develop the muscles that have been ignored through the contraction of these muscles in the various poses.

Yoga is also a good workout to relieve boredom in athletes who perform the same types of exercises year in year out by adding variety. It is also an important element in recovering the body from hard aerobic and strength workouts. The numerous poses in yoga can be done in a low or high intensity workout according to the athlete's needs. Overall, yoga is not only important in bringing in more strength, balance and flexibility to an athlete, but also brings more alertness, attention and focus that is so much needed by athletes in their very competitive world.

About the Author:

Azmi Adnan is a writer and a yoga practitioner. Subscribe to his newsletter for interesting articles on yoga at his website http://www.power-to-live.com/yoga.htm

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Q & A

Q: What is to be gain by doing a slow set concentrating on muscles and then following with the same exercise but doing a fast set?

Answer:
Whenever you do a perform a repetition quickly, you create momentum. This happens because as you increase the speed of a heavy object (in this case a weight), it does not stop when you decide to stop - it keeps on going. This momentum takes pressure off of the working muscles and actually helps you complete the repetition. If you are performing a set of an exercise with the goal of fatiguing a muscle so it will eventually get stronger, then using momentum to help you along each repetition is going to retard your rate of progress towards your goal. For that reason, I would never recommend doing a "fast set." Not only is there nothing to gain by it, but you actually slow down the rate by which you will get stronger. I hope this answers your question, Jeff

Q: Since I spend incredibly amount of my time sitting studying my butt off... my butt has suffered the consequences. I am pretty thin, but the lack of exercise has taken a toll on the back of my thighs. What can I do to strengthen them?? one word.... cellulite!

Answer:
There is no definitive answer as to what actually causes cellulite. Some scientists theorize that it is the result of fat cells which have somehow mutated and that the mutation is related to estrogen (which would explain why it is more prevalent in women than men). Others theorize that the connective tissue that holds a woman's fat cells in place is different than a man's and results in cellulite. Really, no one knows for sure - not yet, anyway...
Burning more calories than you eat is the only way you are ever going to tap into the stored fat in the back of your thighs and thus decrease the size of the fat cells back there. - Jeff

Q: How fast to lift? I read somewhere to lift slowly, like a 4 count up & 4 down. But last night at the gym, I spotted a group of guys that were just pushing out reps at full-blast speed,... it took counting to 1 for them to lift and lower total. Are you supposed to go THAT fast, or more slowly, or mix it up?

Answer:
Whenever you do a resistance exercise quickly, you create momentum. Momentum actually eases the strain on a working muscle, thus assisting in the completion of a repetition and allowing you to move a greater amount of weight... I would advise incorporating as little momentum as possible in your routine.
However, they too can be more effective in tearing fibers if performed at a slower rate per repetition. Naturally, this would require the amount of resistance to be adjusted. - Jeff

Ingredients to Watch Out For

Most of us are now making an effort to eat healthier. We try to exercise restraint in restaurants, we think twice before attacking the vending machines, and we take a little more time in the supermarket in an attempt to choose products best suited to move us towards out fitness goals. Product manufacturers are well aware of these facts and have developed marketing strategies to reel you in to their products. Increasingly, you see words like "whole grain" and "low carb" on products targeting those who are trying to lose fat. However, just because a product "appears" healthy does not necessarily make it so.

TOO MANY INGREDIENTS?

Each product should list the ingredients on the label. They are listed from largest to smallest amount (by weight). This means a food contains the largest amount of the first ingredient and the smallest amount of the last ingredient. You want to pay attention to the first four ingredients as they make up the majority of a product. Sometimes, one of the first four ingredients is further broken down into sub-ingredients. In the example on the right, the first ingredient (filling) is further broken down into its sub-ingredients. The same rule applies to sub-ingredients: the first four sub-ingredients make up the majority of an ingredient. Still using the example, the first four ingredients of this product are: filling, whole grain rolled oats, enriched flour, and whole wheat flour.

INGREDIENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR

Sugar - Consuming sugar results in a high glycemic reaction. That means that your body turns it into blood sugar (or glucose) too quickly. When that happens, your pancreas releases insulin to get the excess sugar out of your blood before you die. Insulin does not make excess blood sugar disappear - it moves it to another area of the body where it can be stored for later use. The first stop is the liver, however it can only uptake glucose at a slow and steady pace. Because you are trying to store a large amount of glucose quickly, your body is forced to skip to the next stop: the muscles. Your muscles also uptake glucose at a slow and steady pace, so your body has no choice but to skip to the third and final stop: FAT! Fat is able to absorb glucose at a very fast pace, consequently when you consume a product high in sugar, you are going to store a majority of it as fat.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup - This is a sweetener often used by product manufacturers because it is a less-expensive and sweeter alternative to sugar. The problem is that HFCS is converted to glucose by your body EVEN FASTER than sugar, obviously resulting in fat storage.

Enriched - Enriched means that vitamins or minerals have been added to the food. The vitamins and minerals are added to replace the original vitamins and minerals that were lost during the refining process. For example, if the food originally had iron, but the iron was lost during the refining process, the food will be 'enriched' to add the iron back into the food. The problem is not necessarily with the enrichment part, it is with the refinement part. When a product is refined, it is converted to glucose quickly in your body and results in fat storage as mentioned above. Typical examples of refined foods are what I like to call the "white carbs": white rice, white bread, and white flour. However, enriched ingredients are listed in many so-called healthy foods.

Lard or Animal Fats - Lard is fat from a hog. Animal fats are used as a preservative in many products. Animal fats clog your arteries and raise you LDL (low-density lipoprotein) better known as "bad cholesterol."

Hydrogenated - Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction -- widely used in the processing of cooking oils and fats -- that turns unsaturated fatty acids into saturated ones. This is accomplished by attaching hydrogen atoms to vegetable oils. Why do product manufacturers hydrogenate foods? It increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. There are a multitude of problems associated with these "transformed fats" or trans fats. Here are a few:

• increased risk of heart attack
• increased risk of diabetes
• raises LDL (i.e., bad cholesterol)
• lowers HDL (i.e., good cholesterol
• hinders liver detoxification
• adversely affects vision in children

THE BOTTOM LINE

Reading product labels is a tedious, yet vitally important process as you work towards your fitness goals. What looks healthy on the front of the package may not be so healthy once you read the ingredients. In the label I provided as an example, you find the first ingredient (filling) is made made up of mostly high fructose corn syrup. The third ingredient is enriched flour. These are two of the five ingredients we need to look out for. What you may be surprised to learn is that this is the label of a Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bar. On the package is printed (in large print) "More whole grains your body needs." It's easy to walk down the aisle of your supermarket and pick this up as a healthy snack choice for someone trying to lose fat. Unbeknown to them, they are selecting a snack that is likely to be stored as fat.

Exercise while on the go

Why and when to Stretch

Stretching is perhaps the most neglected aspect of exercise. When implementing the all-familiar "New Year's Resolution," many focus on cardio and strength training - paying little to no attention to one's level of flexibility. Not only does improved flexibility actually increase your rate of improvement as related to strength and aerobic capacity, but it also decreases your risk of injury both in and out of the gym.

when you articulate a joint, you engage tendons and ligaments associated with that joint. Think of tendons and ligaments as rubber bands. Ligaments a re rubber bands that connect a bone to another bone, while tendons are rubber bands that connect a muscle to a bone. The more flexible a tendon or ligament is, the greater range of motion you will have at that particular joint. Increased range of motion is beneficial in several ways: (1) it allows you to get fatigue a muscle more with each repetition while strength training, thus giving you more "bang" for each repetition, (2) it facilitates a longer and smoother stride when performing cardiovascular exercise, and (3) it allows more movement before a tendon or ligament is strained, thereby reducing the risk of injury.

The absolute BEST time to stretch is after exercise. I like to use the rubber band analogy, because tendons and ligaments behave in a similar fashion. Imagine taking a rubber band and immersing it in hot water for a couple of minutes. Once you remove the rubber band from the hot water and pull on it a couple of times, you will notice that when the rubber band cools off it is longer then before you immersed it in the water. The same principle applies to your tendons and ligaments. You "heat up" your tendons and ligaments when you exercise. Stretching after your workout gives you the opportunity to increase your level of flexibility when performed on a regular basis.

I recognize that most of us are always in a hurry, but please do not overlook the importance of stretching. It is an integral part of getting in shape and a valuable component of a wellness lifestyle. Good luck!