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Below is a list of many research articles on Yoga for Athletes and the many benefits. Please click on the title to be taken to the full article.
Olympic Athletes & Yoga (Soccer Players, Cyclists, Swimmers, Gymnasts, Skiers) * Five Awesome Olympic Athletes Who Do Yoga (Click title to be taken to the full article)
Football & Yoga * Denver Broncos Do Yoga to Stay Flexible and Injury-Free (Click title to be taken to the full article) * Kansas City Chiefs Wide Receiver, Dwayne Bowe, Gets His Touchdowns With Yoga * Detroit Lions Show Courage in Yoga Practice, Realize It Isn’t ‘Girly’ * Seattle Seahawks Changing Future of Football with Yoga & Meditation Five Awesome Olympic Athletes Who Do Yoga We're not sure if the movement to make yoga an Olympic sport will ever actually go anywhere, but it turns out yoga already has a place at the London Games. Plenty of competitors tap its many benefits to improve their athletic performance, stay injury-free, and de-stress. Here are five female athletes on the US Olympic team that just may have brought their yoga mat with them to London (and will probably need a really long Savasana in a couple of weeks). 1. Hope Solo The star goalkeeper of the US women's soccer team, whose sister is a yoga teacher, told Nike Women that yoga helps her with speed and agility on the field. "A lot of times simple stretching takes away from your speed, so for me dynamic yoga gives me the ability and empowers me to keep my speed and elongate my muscles," she said. The entire team has also taken group yoga classes together as part of their training. 2. Evelyn (Evie) Stevens This Olympic cyclist (and New Yorker!) is also on Team Specialized-Lululemon. Stevens starred in a Youtube video called "Cycle faster.Do yoga" for the yoga clothing juggernaut, where she said that she often brings her practice on the road with her. "Fortunately, my teammates are very kind, and they're okay with me doing my yoga in the corner of the hotel room," she said. "I love it—it helps mentally, physically, and I think it's helped my strength." 3. Rebeca Soni According to About.com, Soni, a swimmer who just won a silver in the 100-meter breaststroke (plus one gold and two silver medals at the 2008 games in Beijing), started doing yoga to improve the flexibility in her shoulders and back. Pretty crucial, since she's a breaststroke specialist. She also uses yoga to recover from intense training sessions, and is sponsored by YogaWorks. 4. Ariana Kukors This 23-year-old swimmer started doing Bikram while she was still in high school. She told About.com that yoga helps her stay more in tune with her body while in the pool. She's also done Pilates as part of her training. 5. Rebecca Bross We wouldn't want to be next to this gymnast while trying desperately to get into a handstand during yoga class. That's just unfair. Bross complements her training with hatha yoga classes, which she sometimes tweets about. From pre-race jitters to finish-line focus, yoga is a training tool of choice for athletes competing in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. By Diane Anderson, Charity Ferreira, and Andrea Ferretti To prep for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which began February 12, a number of elite athletes are practicing asana, pranayama, and meditation as a means to prepare body, breath, and mind for medal-worthy performances. From vigorous Ashtanga to gentle restorative and Yin Yoga practices, many athletes say that doing asanas gives them not only looser hamstrings but increased body awareness and mental focus. Some have found that pranayama practice has taught them to be better breathers during race time and has been an effective tool for calming pre-race jitters. Meditation is touted by many as an antidote to the fear and nervousness inherent in doing fast-paced and dangerous winter sports. To learn more, we talked to cross-country skier Chandra Crawford, alpine skier Emily Brydon, and freestyle skier Shannon Deanne Bahrke about yoga's role in their performance. Chandra Crawford "I am absolutely so grateful to my yoga practice for bringing me that awareness of breath. When the nerves are running high, the things I've learned in yoga help to ground me and bring me clarity in the moment."--Chandra Crawford, Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team Chandra Crawford won a gold medal in the 2006 Olympics in the individual sprint freestyle event, and two World Cup gold medals in 2008. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, she'll compete in the individual sprint classic and the team sprint freestyle. When did you fall in love with cross-country skiing? My parents put me on skis at one—as soon as I could walk. Tell us about your yoga practice. I started doing Ashtanga when I was 16,but for the past five years I have gravitated more toward Yin and a flow practice. As an athlete I'm pushing, striving, and going beyond my limits on a daily basis, but in yoga I'm able to let go. Yoga has taught me balance and acceptance. It helps me recuperate. And every mindful moment of yoga class is enjoyable, including that feeling of total peace at the end. How has yoga affected you in your races? The biggest thing I've been able to translate into racing is the focus. Cross-country skiing takes a lot of concentration, and when I was younger it was so tough. When I started yoga, it was initially so hard for me to keep my single point of focus throughout a whole class. So learning that has really been awesome. Do you meditate or do any breathwork? My mom has been a transcendental meditator, so that's how I got the name Chandra—I was born on a full moon. She taught me pranayama at a very young age. Now I mostly do the breathwork in class, and I find any kind of focus on breathing amazingly beneficial. How did it feel to win the gold? Crazy. When I saw that red line in the snow and I realized I was going to cross it first, I remember smiling and thinking, 'I'd better put my hands up.' I was overwhelmed. But that presence of mind to get to that point came from my yoga-like focus on every moment, every stride, making it my best. I was totally immersed in the process. It really speaks to taking your practice into every aspect of life. Emily Brydon "Yoga gives you the tools to calm your mind and body. I just see more of a conscious awareness of what my mind or breath is doing. And it helps me bring it back." --Emily Brydon, Canadian Alpine Ski Team Emily Brydon is a two-time Olympic contender who has seven World Cup medals to her credit. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, she'll compete in downhill, Super-G, and combined skiing events. How did you become an Olympic skier? I started racing when I was six years old and never looked back. The thing I love the most about what I do is when I'm on top of the mountain, alone, looking around at the beautiful scenery and getting ready to charge out of the gate. Why did you start doing yoga? In 2001 I was in Alberta doing rehab for a knee injury, and I started practicing. It's a great addition to training. When you are coming back from an injury, you can really heal. I did basic Ashtanga. I've also done restorative yoga during big, heavy, physical blocks of training. What's your practice like today? Sometimes I work out two or three times a day. I run out of steam. So that's when I do restorative. It's hard to do Ashtanga or Bikram when you are training so hard. I'll do those on the weekend, when I'm not spending hours in the gym. But the breathing is always there. How does yoga prepare you for races? With skiing, there's a lot of fear and nerves involved. I do a lot of breathing practices before I go to the starting gate. It's a big part of my pre-race plan. It's my meditative ritual. I try to clear my mind before competing. And I use my breath to get to that point. I do a breathing meditation before, and then bring it back to my normal breath before I go. But in that process I try to clear my mind and calm my nerves, and the breath really helps—it helps me get over any fear. Day to day, I do mini meditations. I have a goal of three times a day: when I wake up, during the day, and when I go to bed. Does your practice affect your daily life? I'm a really busy person. I like being busy. Yoga helps me slow down. It has taught me a lot of mind control. I was born in the wilderness, in a log house built by my parents. It wasn't the exercise of yoga, but rather the mentality of yoga. When I come to a busy city, yoga gives me a little getaway to calmness that should be more prevalent in my life. It gives me a chance to slow down. Shannon Deanne Bahrke "In a judged sport, you're always comparing yourself to others. Yoga has really taught me to be OK with what I have and to work within myself."--Shannon Deanne Bahrke, U.S. Freestyle Ski Team Shannon Deanne Bahrke won a silver medal in the 2002 Olympics in the moguls event. Other trophies include a 2003 World Championship bronze medal and a 2007 World Championship silver medal. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, she'll compete in the freestyle moguls event. How did you become an Olympic skier? I was just a kid that went skiing with my family and friends on the weekends. When I was 12 years old, the head coach of the Squaw Valley freestyle ski team, Ray deVre, saw how crazy I was and that I was in need of a little direction, so he asked me to join the team. Mogul skiing looked absolutely awful, but when I went out that first day with the team, I was instantly hooked. I loved the people, the atmosphere, the competitiveness. But most important, I was drawn to the fun. Who got you into yoga? About five or six years ago, my friend, who is also an athlete and was into Bikram Yoga, said, "You've just got to do it. I hate stretching, and this is something that's kind of replaced that for me." And I was like, "Well, I hate stretching, too!" I really don't think of yoga as stretching when I'm doing it; it's more about moving in your own body and being centered, and also about feeling strong trying to hold the pose. That was something that really captured me, because I wasn't just sitting there holding a stretch—I was moving my body, trying to hold a pose. What's your practice like? I've been doing a lot of at-home videos. It's what I have time to do. I warm up with a little bit of breathing, and then do a stretching Power Yoga video. It's perfect: it's short; it's sweet; it's everything that I need to stretch—and then it ends with a little bit of Savasana. What has yoga taught you about being an athlete? To hold some of the poses that we do in yoga takes so much strength, but it's not just strength gained from lifting weights in the gym. Yoga has opened my eyes to this whole other world of being strong and calm and a different kind of athlete that I never really knew was out there. What's surprised you most about yoga? I love it in class when there's a supergood vibe, and everybody's energy is working as one. Maybe you came in with a bad attitude or had a tough day, but now everyone's energy lifts you up. That doesn't happen very much on the mogul course, where you're fighting amongst yourselves, trying to give yourself your own energy. But when you're in class, all those people can lift you. That's just incredible. by Yoga Dork The Denver Broncos Head Coach may have nixed the yoga program a few years ago, but that hasn’t stopped some of the players from getting their weekly practice in on the mat. It’s an interesting story, really. It was 2009 when Josh McDaniels was hired as the Broncos Head Coach and poo-pooed the regular yoga program that had teammates stretching, working on balance and practicing meditation. ”I don’t even know what that is,” McDaniels said in an interview, laughing off Downward Dog. But new Head Coach John Fox (hired in 2011) and the rest of the team get the last laugh because it’s game on again for yoga. Broncos Defensive Tackle Mitch Unrein and Offensive Lineman Jeff Byers go to yoga classes at least once a week and have seen the benefits. “I don’t think anything that involved stretching and balancing and things like that could hurt on the football field because that’s what football is right? The more flexible you are, if you can be more balanced [you're] probably going to play better,” Byers told Colorado’s 9News. Unrein adds that practicing yoga helps prevent injuries: “The main thing is it helps get the soreness out of you and also prevents injuries. It also helps you stretch and get more flexibility, so when you get in those weird situations on the field with your legs and your arms, you have that flexibility so you are less likely to get an injury.” Perhaps star linebacker Von Miller should have continued his practice. Earlier in 2013 he had this to say about ditching yoga: “I’m cutting out the yoga,” Miller said. “I think it worked well for me, but I’m just trying to be a beast. I’m trying to get away from the Gumby stuff. I don’t want to rely on that. I just want that to be like second nature. I want to play football…I want to work out, not do the yoga stuff—I want to get my conditioning up so I can play offense, too (laughing). I just want to get it done.” Unfortunately, Miller tore his ACL in December and has had to sit out ever since then. Not for nothing…we’re just saying. Of course, preventing injuries in football is like trying to keep hot wings away from Super Bowl fans: nearly impossible. But we’ll root for any team who takes a little time out on the mat to improve their condition inside and out. Source: http://yogadork.com/2014/01/20/denver-broncos-do-yoga-to-stay-flexible-and-injury-free/
Kansas City Chiefs Wide Receiver Gets His Touchdowns With Yoga
Kick. Throw. Catch. Tackle. Run! Clearly all very yoga-like things to do, yeah? OK, maybe not (unless you’re in a class like this). But, bend, stretch, breathe, relax seem to be very football-like things to do lately and it’s really helping, according to some players who’ve made the practice part of their conditioning ritual. For Dwayne Bowe, a wide receiver with the Kansas City Chiefs, doing yoga every week is what helped him make a recent touchdown in the snow. “The snow definitely gives me an advantage. After the game I talked to some of the linebackers and they said nobody wants to hit or be tackled in that kind of weather. If you’re a big physical guy, they’re going to take bad angles or try to hit you up high. Just having great balance, doing yoga every week, helped me get into the end zone,” Bowe said in an interview after his touchdown against the Washington Redskins last week. And Bowe seems pretty serious about his yoga. When he missed the first day of training camp this past summer due to a virus he still hung on the sidelines and did his practice. Every little bit counts, man. Detroit Lions Show Courage in Yoga Practice, Realize It Isn’t ‘Girly’
And then there are days we cheer for football players practicing yoga! Sure it’s not new news anymore, per se (heck, it seems there are more football players doing yoga now than not — which is also not true…yet), but it is good news! While the whole “yoga is for girls” line is played out like bro-tastic beer commercials during a Sunday game, it’s still a pleasure to read about some of the toughest personas in the spotlight of dude-ness sharing their thoughts on a practice that has been (erroneously) categorized as something only ladies and wussies do. Sigh. This week’s admissions come from the Detroit Lions, whose perception of yoga was quickly reversed when they tried it and realized how tough it really is. “I knew there was a good chance that I wasn’t going to be able to do everything in there, but I had no idea how tough it was,” wide receiver Nate Burleson told CBS Detroit. “Other athletes would say, hey, it’s tough. But it was a lot tougher than I expected.” Wide receiver Calvin Johnson aka Megatron has made yoga a regular part of his pregame routine, but mixes it up based on what his body needs that day. When asked about his preferences he answered: ”Whatever I’m feelin’. If I need to work on my hamstrings, if I need a full body deal or work on the hips, whatever needs work.” And he’s seen the benefits: “I’ve seen definitely a positive impact from just being loose in my hips, hamstrings,” Johnson said. “I know it’s something that worked for me. I’ve just been doing it ever since.” As for the rest of the Lions, they were skeptical at first, but once they saw other guys reaping the benefits, they couldn’t resist. For center Dominic Raiola, yoga helped him become more flexible and nimble. For cornerbacks Rashean Mathis, an 11-year veteran, and Darius Slay yoga helped make their stride longer on the field. The standard fitness regimen of hitting the gym for heavy lifting to build bulky muscles eventually takes its toll, Burleson explains, especially in the tight body department. Sure the muscles look nice, but if you can’t move them… “Lifting just makes you tight,” Burleson said. “You basically tear and re-tear your muscles. That’s how we build muscles, so if we’re continually doing that, all your muscles are going to do is get tighter and tighter as it heals up. With doing yoga and pilates and whatever else you need to do, it helps out.” Loosening up muscles also helps prevent injuries, which, when you’re talking about football, can get pretty brutal and many times career ending. “What most guys are doing now, they’re using it as a preventative measure, so it’s almost like ‘prehab’ in a sense, and you’re able to get your body more flexible, and your ligaments and tendons, all that stuff can give a little bit more when you have it already stretched out and worked out,” Burleson said. And you can still be a man! Now isn’t that the amazingness of yoga right there. Source: http://yogadork.com/2013/11/10/detroit-lions-show-courage-in-yoga-practice-realize-it-isnt-girly/
Seattle Seahawks Changing Future of Football with Yoga & Meditation Football and yoga, they go together just like beer and pretzels, right? Ask the Seattle Seahawks and they’ll tell you how their meditation and yoga practice will change the future of football. (Yep. You may need to go back and read that sentence over again.) It may sound odd at first, but for the Seahawks it’s become just as normal in the sport as congratulatory butt slapping and end zone dances. If this ESPN Magazine article is right, Super Bowl yoga was just the beginning! Because more and more people are getting over the ridiculous stigma of yoga being “girly” and these people happen to be stereotypically macho dudes who are known to shout manly, motivational words and obscenities like it’s their job, ie. NFL coaches and players.Seahawks’ head coach, Pete Carroll, is one of these people and he’s on a mission to bring a gentler and more conscious approach to the game of unnecessary roughness. “I wanted to find out if we went to the NFL and really took care of guys, really cared about each and every individual, what would happen?” he told ESPN. So Carroll brought in high-performance sports psychologist Mike Gervais who leads regular meditation sessions with the players, starting with 6 minutes for the newbs and leading longer and individualized sessions for the more seasoned meditators, like quarterback Russell Wilson who visits Gervais on a weekly basis. “We do imagery work and talk about having that innovative mindset of being special,” Wilson says. “We talk about being in the moment and increasing chaos throughout practice, so when I go into the game, everything is relaxed.” Offensive tackle Russell Okung waxes poetic on the importance of meditation and damn it if it isn’t the cutest thing: “Meditation is as important as lifting weights and being out here on the field for practice,” Okung says. “It’s about quieting your mind and getting into certain states where everything outside of you doesn’t matter in that moment. There are so many things telling you that you can’t do something, but you take those thoughts captive, take power over them and change them.” Oh and get this, the team was so into the experimental and optional yoga program last year that they decided to make it a mandated part of the workouts from now on. The entire roster practices yoga. On top of all this meditation and yoga, the positivity, compassion and consciousness extend into player relationships and camaraderie. Intense offensive line drills end with combatants pulling each other up: “Stay positive,” players say to each other. “Put yourself into a mindset of greatness.” And instead of lambasting players for screwing up, head coach Carroll and assistant head coach Tom Cable, previously known for his hotheadednss, check in with the players, and themselves. “I always coached how my coaches coached me,” he [Cable] says. Working alongside Carroll, 48-year-old Cable says he finally feels as though he’s working with players the right way. “If I go ballistic on a guy because he dropped his outside hand or missed an underneath stunt, who is wrong? I am,” Cable says. “I’m attacking his self-confidence and he’s learning that if he screws up, he’s going to get yelled at. If you make a mistake here, it’s going to get fixed.” Being mindful extends even further, from what they eat (the Seahawks’ chef cooks with fruits and vegetables from local organic farms) to how they help rookie players get into the groove and encourage all players to make use of the support staff as if they were a human resources department. The Seahawks see this as just the beginning to an ultimate revamp of the entire football franchise to be more sensitive to the physical and mental well-being of everyone. Say what now? Novel and wonderful idea. Consider placing everyone in one of these bubble suits while you’re at it. The image of yoga is often lamented for becoming commercialized and homogenized, only for the young, female and fit. But, when we hear things like this, a team essentially changing the face of football, we can only imagine it is will change the face of yoga in process. Maybe more importantly, our touchdown yoga dance dreams may soon come true! Now if only all the folks who watched football would join in. Then our dreams would really come true. Sources:
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