As an athlete have you ever:

• Had problems with injuries...maybe muscle pulls, ligament strains or lower back pain?
• Felt that despite a comprehensive training regimen, you are experiencing an increase in stiffness and tightness?
• Wondered about the longevity of your career?

What if you could prevent these injuries from happening, recover from existing injuries and enhance your performance, with one kind of exercise?

Don't let an injury short-circuit your career!

Come find out how to address these issues in a special series of yoga classes designed specifically for you and your team.

These aspects are CRITICAL to an athlete because they support and sustain his or her energy during the extreme physical and mental demands of training!

In Yoga for Athletics using the system of Pralaya Yoga we want to help an athlete develop MAXIMUM strength without impairment:

• Creating uniform muscle balance around each joint
• Using eccentric contractions to fatigue muscles to a greater length, enabling a greater practical flexiblity
• Energetically linking the areas crossing the joint to increase strength and flexibility
• Lengthening the spine under all conditions to support energetic flow in the body
• Actively using the hands and feet
• Focusing on key areas that include specific muscles in the hips, back, legs abdomen, arms and shoulders
• Using specific challenging yoga exercises, requiring intensity, to develop strength. From this intensity arises the fire to be stronger inside than the outside circumstances.
• Practicing balancing poses to stabilize the joints
• Directed use of the breath and guided body-based relaxation to support the areas under highest stress

What is a typical Pralaya Yoga class like?

Forward folding leg flexibility is the key to release of the spine, so we work regularly with forward bends, standing poses, and seated poses. An aligned release of the spine is required to express the greatest flexibility and strength in the legs.

We start with very specific, challenging variations of sun salutations, in a precise sequence to warm and lengthen connective tissue from restrictive states. We work to open the hips and strengthen the outer thighs to prevent problems with the hamstrings. Eventually, a tight spine will limit expression of strength in the legs. Strength developed in the legs and outer thighs avoids tightening of the spine and inner thighs. This practice is necessary on a frequent basis since, stress, rigorous athletic exercise and other practices will increase stiffness daily.

We also include balancing poses to strengthen and stabilize the joints. While practicing balance, the ability to cope with stress improves and the nervous system develops the ability for subtle expression.

Abdominal muscles are typically developed in a shortened position, which stresses the spine and interferes with energetic flow. For the abdomen, we use specific exercises to develop the oblique and transverse muscles near the pelvic floor. These muscles can aid in lengthening and supporting the spine. Abdominal muscles that are strong in a lengthened position will have greater practical flexibility and help support the lower back.

To open and strengthen the back, we target key areas using standing, seated and reclined twists. We work in a predetermined sequence, sometimes using props. We work first with the upper back, then the lower ribcage, and finally the lower back and pelvic regions. Hip and neck development are essential parts of this process.

We address the arms and shoulders with special exercises and basic movements taken from arm balancing poses to balance strength and flexibility in these areas. Special attention is given to rotator cuff and serratus anterior, to achieve a relaxed neck for maximum expression of strength in the arms.

Breathing is an integral part of each yoga pose, and that aspect in itself starts to build respiratory capacity. The breath is so important that we also include time to learn specific breathing exercises to build strength in the respiratory muscles for increasing lung capacity and oxygen uptake. With increased oxygen uptake, athletes can breathe more easily even after undergoing intense physical exercise. Recovery time is quicker and the onset of breathlessness during exertion is lessened. Improving oxygenation throughout the whole body reduces recovery time from injury and illness and stimulates the immune system. By practicing these breathing techniques on a regular basis, breathing becomes easier even under the most demanding circumstances.

The final portion of each class is devoted to learning HOW to relax. Developing a relaxed state - practiced on a firm surface for ten minutes or more, every day - is as important as eating and sleeping, because this practice feeds the nervous system. Whether training with a team or for an individual event, athlete's experience intense repetitive training, as well as collisions and falls that expose them to more injury. Practicing conscious relaxation has a profound revitalizing effect on the nervous system and quickly opens up neural pathways to heal these injuries.

Relaxation of a given type is necessary for adequate production of amino acids needed to heal or repair the nervous system. Several different methods of relaxation are used in a body based system including: open focus relaxation - to relax, feel, or sense one area of the body or as many areas as possible with equal attention; heart relaxation; relaxation by focus on the bones; and 61-point relaxation. These methods are introduced and practiced regularly at each session.

With each team, group or player that I work with we begin from their present physical state, and build to the next level. Yoga for Athletics is a journey undertaken with compassion, a sense of humor, and an open heart. Yoga progresses in a gradual way, and with practice less effort is involved. What seemed difficult in the beginning comes easily as you progress. All of the poses are modified to suit the skill level of those present, with advanced variations and techniques offered as needed.