Have you ever done yoga?

[Neil Martin]

In the Chinese Diving chapter of Secrets of Asian Sport Psychology, one example relaxation technique was to undertake yoga. Have you ever undertaken a program of yoga. What was it like?

[majdeddin mostaan]

Thanks to this program, we usually use the Zen in the Martial Arts Kung Fu, especially for mental relaxation Drôme attention from outside the body, including internal organs such as the heart and breathing or a little voice whispers

[Anonymous]

For mental relaxation I use soft music with visionary images, breathing technics and relaxation/ activation technics. It depends on the Athlete.

[George Morrison]

I did yoga for a short period last year to improve posture and stretching. I was suffering from a sore back and though I hated actually doing the yoga I felt it improved my breathing and posture in a very short period of time. I would be interested to know of coaches and individuals who have measured improvement as a result of incorporating yoga into training regimes

[Lisa Rubin]

I find yoga to be very challenging. I prefer to takes Pilates and Barre courses. I find them to be challenging but enjoyable, but less painful than yoga. I think downward dog is so hard but everyone else in my classes finds the pose to be comfortable and/or relaxing.

[George Morrison]

I agree with you Lisa. I found yoga very challenging and it was a bit intimidating because everyone seemed much younger then me and so much better at it. Pilates was easier and actually more rewarding. However I have recently explored mindfulness and meditation and this is a wonderful training for the mind. In fact a friend who is a school teacher told me that meditation has recently been added to the curriculum in some schools in Queensland. It struck me that the mind training regimes used by elite sports would serve as a wonderful example for kinds in schools to be inspired and try it.

[Leonard K]

I have never done Yoga. I found it useful using soft music to relax muscles as well as I found it challenging as I am hyperactive and was unable to focus on relaxation but after some time trying I found it great.

[muhammad syauqi putra]

i’ve joined yoga class program for a years on 2014, and still doing it on weekend or when i need to be relax after daily routine in the office. i feel relaxed after doing the exercise, i enjoyed the back sound provided in the routine and some of the poses are my favorite because it help me to be loose from negative thought.

[Ana Delchevska]

I practice yoga for 5 years. Currently I am enrolled in a teacher training process and help as a demonstrator.
I am looking forward to an opportunity to include yoga into athletes schedule.
The main advantage of yoga is its ‘adjustability’. Yoga postures can be beneficial for everyone depending on their needs. Yoga breathing techniques (pranayama) raise awareness of the breath and the spin off is deep relaxation. Yogic concentration (darana) can be very helpful for athletes to stay focused and devoted. I could go on, but another time maybe. 🙂

From my personal experience, I can state that yoga has the power to transform. It gives you methods or rather ‘instruments’ to explore and understand yourself. Although it starts with the body, it reaches the personality and the base of our self.

Referring to the sport setting, I’d quote Yogananda:
‘The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.’

[Jason von Stietz]

I have done yoga for old sport injuries and I have been surprised by how much it helped. I didn’t have any formal training. I just followed along to Youtube videos.

I have also been very interested in learning more about yoga and applying it to my work with athletes. I have used mindfulness with athletes and they have found that to be very helpful. I would recommend the book The Psychology of Enhancing Human Performance: The Mindfulness Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) Approach by Gardner and Moore. I would also recommend using the free guided meditations from the UCLA MARC website. I have encouraged athletes to access the guided meditations on their smart phones and do 3 minute meditations when they have time throughout their day.

Ana Del, thank you for your recommendations of yoga breathing techniques. I will have to look those up on Youtube when I get a chance!

[Ong Chuan Leong]

While I have never done yoga personally, I have practised the relaxation exercises taught in the Allow Abundance course. These exercises teach you how to release negative energy from and allow positive energy to enter your body. One of the techniques taught is described below.

First, you would find a comfortable place to lie down. Next, you close your eyes and imagine how negative energy, visualised in a physical form such as a black aura, is released from your body sequentially from head to toe. As you are doing this, you feel the pain and agony leaving your body. All the negative energy would then congregate into a ‘balloon’ and float further and further away from you, into the atmosphere.

Thereafter, positive energy, once again in visualised form (e.g. white aura), is ‘allowed’ to enter your body sequentially from head to toe. When doing this, imagine feeling a loving, warm energy permeate your entire body, soothing whatever remaining pain that you have. Allow yourself to bask in this positive energy. Finally, you open your eyes and comes back into reality.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Ong Chuan Leong.

[Ana Delchevska]

I am glad I can help.
As an addition, you can search for the pranayama technique called ‘kapalbhati’. I think it can be very beneficial to athletes for the practice of control.
I would also recommend the ‘bedhana’ technique. ‘Chandra bedhana’ when aiming to calm the body & mind; ‘Surya bedhana’ if the goal is to awaken the body & mind and prepare for upcoming activity.

Salute!

[fiza0805]

I’ve been to yoga classes conducted by a colleague. He was a certified hatha yoga instructor.
Initially it was very hard for me to follow, because I had to slow down my breathing and move slowly. There were some yoga poses that were intimidating for me to do. The instructor was a male, and that made it more embarrassing.
As I went to more classes, I became more familiar with yoga and understand the principle behind the poses. I found yoga was quite enjoyable. However I still prefer other methods for relaxation.

[George Morrison]

thanks for some great information folks. I will start by checking out the book recommended by Jason. So much to learn………..

[Marc_Pedersen]

I have done yoga before and feel very relaxed afterwards! It’s mostly hatha yoga I do.
I think it uses similar techniques, if done right, as described in PMR and the five breath technique. Controlling your breathing in yoga is very important.

[Author]

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